My plan was to post one of these blocks every other day, but I’m finding that to be a pretty tight schedule. Anyway, here’s my new block — N is for Nurse. I think she’s sweet and I really like her hairdo. Some blocks are less complex, so I think I’ll start trading off and…
This clown was made with a skein of vintage American Thread floss. I really like the colors, but when I started stitching, I realized that the sections of color are much longer than the DMC or Anchor variegated and multi-colored floss. To me this gives the clown a very different look compared to the puppet…
I intended to post this bear last night, but just as I was finishing up the last of the fur, I caught my cat, Jack, urinating on a pile of clothes in the laundry room. Because this is a bad habit he has acquired lately, I grabbed him to toss him outside and he decided…
I love this lion pattern and the variegated thread looks so great on his mane. See…..I’m not always all negative about stuff I make. This ABC project is so much fun to stitch. If you are interested in making any of these blocks, I have placed a link to the pdf (52 pages) just below…
I love this doll, but I must say I could use some more practice on my back stitch — it’s hard to make all of the stitches the same size. I wonder if it would be easier if I were using more than one strand of floss. I am going to make all of the…
This puppet design is so cute, but my thread choice ended up being a little pale. I used an Anchor multi-colored floss (rainbow) that I thought would be perfect. I do like the effect, though, and plan to use multi-colored floss on the clown and the jack-in-the-box as well. The doll is in the hoop…
This owl took almost the whole skein of floss — and most of it was done with just one strand. It’s hard to see in this photo, but I used another variegated floss — sort of a brown/rust/red combination. It’s subtle, but I like it. I promised myself I would only do two of these,…
I’m pretty excited about this ABC quilt made from the coloring book I posted earlier. I should be working on the wool quilt, but I just had to see how these were going to look. Instead of the two smaller drawings, I decided to make letters instead and fill them with a pattern copied from…
This is an Alice Brooks mail order pattern from the 1940’s, and this poor quilt has so many problems, I hardly know where to begin. First of all, I had a terrible time with the piecing — I couldn’t manage to match up all eight seams in the block corners. Out of desperation, I decided…
For some time now I have wanted to make an alphabet quilt. Although I own several vintage commercial ABC applique and embroidery patterns, they just haven’t inspired me. So, I bought a few vintage ABC coloring books on ebay — some of the drawings are very cute, but this one I love. It’s unusual because…
Mother Goose Merrill Publishing, undated Vivian Robbins, Illustrator
Emily and I went shopping for dresses the other day, but she didn’t find much that she liked. I thought I would try sewing some dresses for her, which I haven’t done in a long time (except for Halloween costumes). It’s a long process because I only see her about once a week so I…
When I was a teenager in the early 60’s, I talked my mother into buying this sampler kit. I’m pretty sure it was offered in one of the tons of magazines we used to get. Because daddy worked in the advertising department at Phillips Petroleum, we received just about every magazine you could think of…
The Hazel Atlas Glass Company made several tea sets in the 40’s and 50’s. The earliest set was the Little Hostess, followed by the Sierra, and finally the New Century set, which is the one I found. Click here to find out more about Hazel Atlas tea sets for children. Unfortunately the New Century set…
The Animal Paint Book characters are in the mood for spring — and so am I. Friday is my day off and it’s supposed to reach 70 degrees today. The garden beds need lots of work, but I’ll probably just end up stitching instead.