I bought these cute vintage applique blocks on ebay. Because the blocks were small, I used some old scraps to make a crazy border around each block to enlarge them — also I thought this would look better since two of the animal blocks would be in the corners. The alternate blocks are also vintage…
Author: Martha
Vintage Sailor Dogs Quilt
This darling applique quilt was made for my husband, Gordon, by his maternal grandmother, Anna Mae Kollie. She embroidered a G (for Gordon) on the sail and a small 53 (the year he was born) on the lower left anchor. Gordon’s mother gave me the quilt 26 years ago when my son, Elliott, was born….
Embroidered Pillowcases
These pillowcases were made as a Christmas gift. I adapted the designs from the J. F. Ingalls embroidery catalog published in 1886. Scans of the catalog are available on the Exceedingly Curious blog of John Governale. Because the designs are very detailed, I used only one strand of floss. The vintage crocheted pillowcases were purchased on…
Mother Goose Quilt Blocks 3 & 4
The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe and Hey Didddle Diddle — two more blocks for this quilt, copied from “The Very Young Mother Goose.” These are a lot of fun and go quickly using Crayola crayons and 2 strands of black DMC. On ebay I found a big piece of vintage 36″ wide…
Lantern Quilt
I have chosen this quilt (posted In January, 2009) as my entry in the Park City Girl’s Fall Quilt Festival. This pattern is from a 1976 quilt booklet, “Stitch ‘n Patch Quilts.” I love these old pattern books — instructions are minimal and usually take up one page or less. I always use templates to…
Vintage Juvenile Hankies
I have been collecting these little hankies for a couple of years with the thought that I would make a crib quilt. Originally, I wanted them all to have an ABC or alphabet theme, but these proved difficult to find. I have broadened my search to include basically any other designs that I like, are…
Santa’s Follow the Colors
I had never seen a “follow the color” type coloring book before, but I thought the designs were very cute, especially for embroidery. I love any coloring books by the Krehbiels. Here are just a few of the cute drawings. Santa’s Follow the Colors Drawings by Becky & Evans Krehbiel Copyright 1964 Whitman Publishing Company
Old Clothespin Ornaments
Here are some of the clothespin ornaments I made in 1975, and they have certainly seen better days. Frank (the farmer) and Alice (the school girl) were two of my cats at the time and I see they have lost all of their whiskers — the poor White Rabbit just has one whisker left. The…
Mother Goose Quilt Block 2
Tom Tom the Piper’s Son is my second quilt block in this series from The Very Young Mother Goose. Jack and Jill are on block #1. Now I feel pretty good about these blocks and they are going well, except I just noticed my wheel is more oval than round. I was thinking that some…
Embroidered Christmas Ornaments
We just got the tree up over the weekend and I was reminded of all the old Christmas ornaments I made when I was young. When Gordon and I were first married, we used to buy these cheap, flimsy natural Douglas Fir trees from Chubby and Tubby that were sort of sweet. We didn’t have…
Scottie Quilt Blocks
Several years ago I saw a darling scottie quilt for sale on ebay. It was a bit worn and stained, but I loved the pattern. I saved the photos from the listing and was determined to make one of my own. After drawing the pattern, I began to collect vintage fabric to make the scotties. …
Dresden Plate Doll Quilt
This quilt was made with tiny scraps of vintage 1930’s fabric left over from larger quilt projects. I never throw away any little scraps because they can be used for doll quilts (and vintage fabric is precious). This little quilt was pieced and quilted entirely by hand — even the binding. The back is a…
Mother Goose Quilt Block
Here is my second attempt at a Mother Goose quilt block from the book I posted on the 9th. I’m pleased with the way this turned out. The black embroidery outline is nice, I think, but you can’t travel much on the back because the floss shows through the lighter areas. It requires lots of…
The Very Young Mother Goose
I rewrote this post after actually attempting to make one of these blocks. Vintage Mother Goose and ABC books are my favorites and I just found this used book on Amazon. I saw some photos of another one on ebay a while back and thought these illustrations would be perfect for crayon colored quilt blocks with a…
Simple Objects Quilt Top
After viewing some pages of this fabulous old coloring book on doe-c-doe‘s blog entry for June 25, I sent her an e-mail and asked if I could possibly talk her into scanning the other pages in the book and sending them to me. I had looked all over for a copy of the Simple Objects…