I made 66 of these reusable grocery bags which I gave as Christmas presents in 2007. The heavier fabric of an old tablecloth is perfect for these bags. If it has a small hole, you can cut around it, patch it, or just ignore it — it won’t matter. The pattern is one I found…
First of all, I want to thank everyone who made such nice comments about Marjorie’s Quilt and the Anniversary Sampler. It makes me very happy when other quilters and crafters like my work. In 2007 I purchased a lot of 50 cutter tablecloths for $50. A few of them were practically minty and I kept…
I finally finished the quilt for Marjorie Claire, daughter of my niece, Jennifer, and her husband, Cyrus. I think Marjorie was about 10 days old in the photo below, taken in December. We are all excited to have a sweet baby girl in our family, and I am pleased that she has my mother’s name….
This little sampler was a gift to my parents, Marjorie Louise Dellasega and Lawrence Anthony Dellasega, in honor of their 40th wedding anniversary. I’m so glad I made it, because daddy died just a few years later. The sampler was done on 22-count Hardanger fabric using one strand of floss. My mother and father are…
The fan pattern is one of my favorites. I’ve completed two fan quilts and have two others in progress. I like all fans — smooth, pointy or scalloped. I purchased the fan blades for this quilt on ebay, and they were so clean, all I had to do was trim them a bit to fit…
This quilt was started in 2002 when I acquired an old Christmas card box filled with vintage hexagons. As usual, some of the pieces were dingy and most were not cut accurately. After soaking, pressing, drawing with a fresh template and re-cutting, they were good as new. I sorted them into color groups and decided…
This doily was made by me for my mother in 1980 from a pattern in Magic Crochet magazine (Issue #4). I taught myself to crochet when I was in my twenties by checking out an instruction book from the library. My first projects were potholders — lots of potholders — each with a different pattern…
These books were part of a big lot of coloring books I purchased thinking they might have some cute drawings for embroidery. Some of the them did, but unfortunately the pages in these three were not that cute. As is the case with many of these vintage coloring books, the illustrator of the cover and…
I made this book in 1985 for my daughter, Emily, when she was a baby. The pattern was complex, with about a million little pieces and lots of transfers. Each page has at least one (and sometimes four) colored fabric frames surrounding a letter and picture. It involves lots of machine applique — something I…
This pattern was called “Rock Garden” because the instructions called for gray yarn between the granny-type flower motifs. I think the gray looks good in the magazine, and I’m not sure why I decided to use an off-white instead. Mine doesn’t really look much like a rock garden. I made this in 1977 and I…
This quilt was made for Oliver Lawrence Krohn, second son of my niece, Jennifer, and grandson of my sister, Sally. Oliver just turned 3 in December. He and his family (Jennifer & Cyrus and kids — Max, Oliver & Marjorie) live in Virginia now. My nephew, Chris, took photos of the Oliver and Max quilts…
This crib quilt was made for Maxwell Raymond Krohn. Max is the oldest son of my niece, Jennifer, and the first grandson of my sister, Sally. Max is 6 years old now and he’s in kindergarten. My nephew, Chris, took some photos of Max’s quilt when he traveled to Virginia over the holidays. You may…
As I began taking down the Christmas tree yesterday, I decided to post these funky old ornaments. Most of my homemade ornaments are stitched or painted, but I was trying to create something shiny to make the tree more sparkly. Can you even buy these weird satin spun styrofoam balls anymore and the special little…
I fell in love with this quilt when I first saw it in McCall’s Vintage Quilts (Fall, 2002). It was made with feedsacks and I loved them. Also, since I grew up in Oklahoma and Kansas, the name appealed to me. My older sister gave me a few feedsack scraps, but I wanted more….lots more….
This is one of the best purchases I’ve made on ebay — an old shoebox packed with over 5,000 vintage 1930’s triangles — and it was so cheap. They were obviously samples because I can’t find a duplicate in the thousands of little pieces. Also, a few had some glue residue or a bit of…