I love the cover of this book so much that I spent most of a day cleaning up the scanned image. My copy has some tears and stains, but the worst was the brown foxing that covered the entire page. It can be tedious work, but it’s also sort of mesmerizing. While I was working on…
As I was looking through my new book, Childhood Treasures: Doll Quilts By and For Children (2008) by Merikay Waldvogel, I came across this quilt. and I was so happy because look what I have. The blocks are older (1932) than I thought, and I was so lucky to find them without any stitching, because…
Here’s what I imagine the maker of this UFO was thinking: “This Around the World pattern is so cute — I’m going to try it.” “First I’m going to cut and stitch 192 3-piece arc units.” “Now to construct a block. Hmmm . . . I like this, but I’m not sure about the purple.” “Oh,…
I just finished cleaning up the rest of these cute fold-up houses illustrated by E. R. Higgins, which were published as a series in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. There are three additional houses and more information in an earlier post. Click on the houses to enlarge for printing (I used legal sized card stock).
As I’ve mentioned before, I loved making things from paper when I was young, and the cut-out and paste crafts, which usually came in activity/coloring books in the 1950s, were some of my favorites. These particular houses were published as a series in the Sunday edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1934, and were illustrated by E….
Flowers to Color Fritzi Brod, Illustrator Platt and Munk, 1951
There are some lovely applique patterns in this old booklet, which includes all the templates and quilting designs for each project. The covers on my book are torn and stained, so I have attempted to digitally restore them. The pages were kept at their original dimensions, so enlarging each to its full size should allow…
This is a great old Art Deco catalog, advertising needlework patterns and transfers for sale in 1927. Because the illustrations are so small, I have scanned portions of the pages at a higher resolution than usual. Clicking twice on any of the images will allow you to view them full size (and read the text…
Best & Co. was a New York company founded in 1879 by Albert Best, and was initially named the “Liliputian Bazaar.” This 1953 catalog still references the original name with a funny illustration of a hand holding some very tiny children. I had never heard of Best & Co., probably because all of the stores…
Here is my most recent purchase on ebay — a big quilt top made up of single flower garden blocks sewn together without a path. When I purchased it, I was planning on taking the blocks apart and resetting them, but now that I’ve seen it in person, I’m having doubts. The top is a…
Ladies Home Journal October, 1920 John G. Scott, Illustrator
I love these old Herrschner Art Needlework catalogs from the 1920s; the aprons and children’s wear items are my favorites. The style of these aprons is appealing to me because they are simple to make, have good coverage (I am a messy cook), and the embroidered details are so sweet. For my two aprons, I…
In my closet are some very old salesman sample books with pretty velvet and silk fabric pieces which I thought someday I would use to make a Victorian crazy quilt. After seeing photos of this amazing quilt on ebay (which sold for $5,000), I’m conflicted — not sure if I’m inspired or discouraged to attempt…