No. 1488 – Picture Motifs for Trimming (Yellow or Blue). Price 25¢ There are 13 different motifs in this pattern, about 3 inches high. These are smart on children’s wearables and ladies’ lingerie, rerquiring 2 threads of strand cotton in outline stitch, the short lines in single stitches.
McCall’s 1540 — Animal Motifs for Outlining, 1929
These traditional rose patterns appeared in the Aug/Sept, 1987 issue of Lady’s Circle Patchwork Quilts magazine. The original pages were only one-quarter of each 16″ block, but I have photoshopped them so you can see the whole design. Clicking on the images below will open a pdf version of the original one-quarter pattern, which you can download, print, and…
Thank you to everyone who helped me come up with ideas for these squares. There are quite a few designs in this batch that were suggested by readers, and there is just one more group left to stitch. My husband is relieved that the design part is over, because I might have been driving him a little crazy….
I’m always trying to figure out a way to duplicate these patterns from the very small images on the catalog pages. These Mexican motifs seemed like they would copy easier if they were in grayscale, so I changed them. Click on the images to enlarge.
This cute story about a little boy who makes a simple star quilt appeared as part of a series titled “Daddy’s Bedtime Stories” which was published in the Salina Evening Journal (Salina, Kansas) from 1913 to 1916. Below the story are pieced diagrams for 3 star quilts — two very simple (like the boy in the story…
I hope those of you who were fans of the original quilt top will not be disappointed that I ended up changing it a bit. In the process of pressing the top to prep for quilting, I realized it was never going to be flat enough to stitch. I also discovered, upon closer inspection, that the top did…
I’ve added individual images of the appliquéd animals in #1101, just in case you’d like to try printing and tracing the patterns.
Click on this cover image to open the pdf file which includes directions for all 12 quilts.
The last top I quilted was a wonky antique log cabin variation. This Courthouse Steps version is much crazier in every way — design, fabric selection, and construction (the only consistent element is the red center square in every block). It’s not completely flat, the foundation stitching is too big, and the edges are not straight (the…
Peasant embroidery made a comeback in the 1970s, when I made several shirts with embroidered peasant designs. I even tried one very similar to the smocked Mexican style below. Argh! Why did I give all those clothes away! I wish I had the actual McCall’s transfers for these patterns, but, as a substitute, I do have some peasant…
I attended St. John’s Catholic School in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, through the eighth grade, and one of my favorite activities was collecting holy cards. The nuns (Ursulines, who all wore habits) would give out holy cards as rewards for all kinds of things, so, even though I was an average student, I had quite a collection. The…
Yay! The denim squares are back. 121 are finished, 13 are prepped (mostly the rest of the alphabet), and there are 30 more to design. I’m having a mental block coming up with new ideas, but am hoping for a breakthrough very soon. It’ll be exciting to move on to the next phase of this project —…
To me, this apron seems excessive, even if it is supposed to be for “company.” An apron doesn’t need to provide all that coverage, and if you’re going to put that much work into it, you might as well just make an actual dress. The wrap dress below reminds me so much of my mother, who…