Category: Vintage Finds

More cute projects from the 1943 book, You Can Make It — Things to Do With Scissors and Paste.  Easter crafts are available in two earlier posts:  Easter Favors & Flowers and Easter Cards & Eggs.

In Nancy’s comment on my Seven Sisters blocks, she noticed that the Seven Sisters pattern is very similar to the Tumbling Blocks pattern — basically just 60° diamonds with a different coloration. TB is a pattern I have always loved, and planned to make one day using 19th century scraps so I could take advantage…

Until last year, my sewing machine buying history had been pretty conservative, at least when I compared it to most other quilters I knew.  The first machine I owned was a used Singer I purchased in 1966 at a thrift store.  In the mid-70s I gave it to my friend, Elaine, who is still using…

Today, instead of vintage fabric, here are some sweet Art Deco advertisements for vintage fabric.  Kalburnie gingham was one of many cotton textiles manufactured at Lancaster Mills in Clinton, Massachusetts.  I have noticed both in these ads and in my vintage catalogs, that these old ginghams were not limited to the two-color checked versions so…

This old quilt top is kind of a mess.  The stitching in the blocks is not bad, but the yellow border is crudely sewn with many odd-sized pieces.  It will not lie flat.  I thought the blocks might have been sewn earlier by a different person, but upon closer examination, it’s clear that both the…

My friend, Patty at Petalier, pointed out that the first group of neon type antique prints I posted last week is from the 1890s.  It’s always a bit risky purchasing these very old blocks and tops because the fabric can be in poor condition without showing any obvious signs of damage.  To test the fabric,…

As I was looking through my 1924 Ladies Home Journal Pattern Catalog, I immediately recognized the quilt at the bottom of this page, probably because a copy of the original quilt appeared on the cover of the book, “American Folk Art Quilts” by Maggi Gordon (possibly made from the LHJ pattern). I’m sorry I don’t…

The original antique quilt top was made with a large assortment of different fabrics you would expect in a top of this age — indigos, homespuns, shirtings, madders, double pinks and mourning prints.  The individual 4″ squares were wonderful, but the mix of all the colors and patterns didn’t really appeal to me, and it…

Instead of vintage fabric, today I’m going to show you some vintage thread I purchased on ebay a while back.  I found an article in the NY Times dated January, 1886, titled The Manufacture of Linen Thread, How Flax is Grown — Barbour Bros. & Co., a Century of Tread Making.  According to the article,…

Today is the birthday of my wonderful Mother-in-Law, Gail Gray. Here she is at age 16 looking very pretty and patriotic.  I’ve always loved this picture, and that great military looking band uniform. Gail Ann Kollie Gray – July, 1945 Now here are the Wednesday vintage fabric photographs, completing the Independence Day themed posts for this…

These elongated triangles were part of a lot I purchased on ebay several years ago.  There were some vintage quilt blocks and cardboard templates, but the real prize was an old shoebox packed with about a zillion different triangle swatches in three sizes.  Today, in keeping with the theme, I have picked out a few…

For some strange reason, among the main 1930s fabric colors, yellow prints are hard to find.  I’m always so happy to see any yellows in a group of purchased scraps or pieces.

More Depression era salesman sample swatches, this time in shades of lavender.

These fabric swatches are part of a large lot of salesman samples from the 1930s.  The photos represent a 2″ x 3″ rectangle of each print.