To make these aprons, I cut this cute vintage border print into two pieces, just like I did with the Violet Chintz Aprons. One apron is made with the bottom of the border print, while the other is made from the less interesting top portion of the print. The bottom border apron was easy, with…
One Patch Triangle Doll Quilt Top
This is another sample for a doll quilt kit. It’s a 17″ square and, in keeping with many pieced quilts of this period, I don’t think I will add a border, although you certainly could if you wanted. I’ve used this same set before on a table topper (with a border), but for the topper…
Scrappy Snowball Doll Quilt Top
This will be my sample quilt for a new kit — a simple Snowball pattern in authentic 1930s fabrics. Well — the 2″ plain square blocks are certainly simple, but maybe not the 164 tiny hand cut triangles. Anyway, I do like this pattern, and it adapts easily to other types of fabrics. Right now…
A Lovely Apron That Girls Can Make
Barbara (Oodles) recently introduced me to her neighbor, Patty, who has just started a blog (Petalier). Patty and I have a lot of the same interests, including quilting, sewing, and vintage fabrics. Today on her blog, she shared a simple apron pattern as a fun project to teach a young girl how to sew. I…
Vintage Tablecloth Aprons
Here are two more items for the future Etsy shop. It’s pretty fun to come up with different aprons made with the same vintage fabric piece, in this case a small linen tablecloth that had a few holes in the border. My favorite part of the process is designing the apron, and this can take…
Recovered Dining Room Chairs
Today we had a big snowstorm, and I finished recovering my six dining room chairs. There are several upholstery projects on my list, and this was by far the easiest. The fabric I used was a mint condition vintage barkcloth slipcover for a couch with three cushions, purchased on Etsy for $50. The 3 cushions…
Umbrella Bouquets Applique/Embroidered Quilt Pattern
This was a series quilt from Stitch ‘n Sew magazine in 1978. Unfortunately, I only have the Mar/Apr and May/June issues, which means I only have full-sized patterns for the first 5 of 16 blocks. Fortunately, I was able to scan, clean and enlarge a small drawing of all of the patterns (although the detail…
Vintage Violet Chintz Aprons
I’m pretty excited about this post, because these are the first two items for my new Etsy shop (opening as soon as I manage to create at least one page of inventory). These aprons are constructed with vintage 36″ wide fabric from the 40s and 50s. I am pretty proud of myself for figuring out…
Vintage Doll Quilt Kit — Rob Peter to Pay Paul
Last year I mentioned in a post that I was thinking of selling kits to make doll quilts with vintage fabric, and talked about what the kits would include. Several readers commented that my plans seemed overly elaborate (with pre-cut blocks and a sample block). Let me just say right now that everyone who said…
Charley Harper Water Drop Quilt
It’s done, and I’m so happy to finally have all my Christmas presents finished. The inside of the drop is pretty tightly packed, so I decided to quilt little amoebas between the organisms. For outside the drop, I was going to quilt wavy horizontal lines, but after stitching a few, I changed my mind and…
New Year’s Eve
Even though I’ll probably never host a New Year’s Eve party (several times I’ve actually gone to bed before midnight), I would love to be able to send out this adorable invitation. I hope everyone has a happy and healthy 2012.
Make It Yourself — Vintage Style Scented Valentine
For this project I cleaned up and tweaked a vintage valentine image I found on Etsy. I’ve never seen a valentine quite like this, so I thought it would be fun to try and reproduce it. The idea of putting a little perfume under the skirt really appealed to me, although Gordon thought it was…
Countdown to Christmas – Merry Christmas!
Magic Paint Book Paint With Water Whitman Publishing Co., 1949
Countdown to Christmas – 1 Day
Magic Paint Book Paint With Water Whitman Publishing Co., 1949
Countdown to Christmas – 2 Days
Magic Paint Book Paint With Water Whitman Publishing Co., 1949