Vintage Quilts

My friend, the veteran yard saler, recently sold me a stack of beautiful vintage quilts. As I am a sucker for any kind of vintage fabric, I snapped them right up! Now, on occasion, I drag them out of their box and gaze lovingly on them. And that's about all I do with them. I am sort of stuck as to how to put them to use. Of course, I don't want to use them on our beds, as they seem a bit fragile. I certainly am not going to cut them up and make them into other projects for a couple of reasons. First, it would seem sacrilegious to cut them up, and also, I really don't know what I would do with pieces of vintage quilts. I'm not too into the quilted clothing thing (believe me, I need as little bulk as possible in my clothing!). I could make pillows or something, but, again, I would be afraid they would get ruined. And, I am not really into hanging quilts on walls. Not my style, but I can appreciate it in someone else's house. Who knows... maybe I should sell them? Meanwhile, here are some pictures. I apologize for the shots. They aren't great. It was a nice bright day, so no flash, but I think they look a little out of focus.

Quilt 1:

A couple of up-close shots:

This is the back.  Beautiful, huh?

The interesting part is that there is a whole other quilt underneath.  I have no idea how old this quilt is.  Anybody want to hazard a guess?  Here are two shots of the quilt underneath:

Here is another large quilt:

And some up-close shots.  I think that a lot of the pieces are the coveted feed sack fabric.  So, maybe these quilts are from the 30's?  I have no idea.

The colors are just so great!

This is a vintage crazy quilt.  

I suspect the same person that made the previous quilt also made this one.  There are a lot of the same fabrics, specifically the red, white and blue striped pattern.  But, she got all crazy with the second one!

Some great pieces with gorgeous colors....

This one is really stunning.

This is a little pillow cover.

And the back of the pillow cover:

And the last one....

Some close-ups:

I love the orange and green in this one.

So, if anybody out there has any information on these fabrics and an idea of the age of the quilts, I would love to know!

Needle Books

My friend, Deb, who gave me the funny cards to sell, also has given me these needle books to put up on my etsy site.  I really love them, and I think it is a shame that businesses don't make useful things like these anymore.  Just like with those beautiful vintage flour sacks, needle books have long ago gone by the wayside.  But aren't they neat?  Little advertisements on your ever useful set of sewing needles.  I like this one for Society Snuff.  It's so fancy!  

This is another snuff company:

And here is the interior.  The packets that hold the needles and the threader are little works of art:

Tops also made these cute button cards.

Underneath the button card on the left, there

is a little calendar!  This one was dated from

1953.

Moore's Lumber company had a very simple needle card with just its logo on the front. I think this is a great graphic.  

Isn't it funny how these masculine products are advertised on ladies' needle books?

I love this one for Acme Markets.





And, of course, the piece de resistance is this one with the space ship and the women sewing on the cover. These women are featured in a number of different styles of needle books. One is called Sewing Susan, which I happen to have one of (someone gave it to me for obvious reasons!).




I am planning on listing these on my etsy site, so if you want to buy them, you can do so there.

Telephone + Closeness

In a previous post, I mentioned that my sewing club (who still needs a name... an idea is The Threadheads, but there has not been any agreement on that.  If someone has a good idea, let me know!) decided to do a sort of monthly art challenge.  Two words are selected out of a hat and we have to make something that utilizes fabric to express those words.  Last month, the words we chose were "telephone" and "closeness".  On Monday, we had our meeting and unveiled our creations.

First, Susan L. showed us her cell phone case that she made.  I took a photo of her using a telephone, and she Photoshopped it.  Then she printed the image onto a special fabric that you can run through your printer.  She sewed a cover for her cell phone, and then embroidered and beaded it.  Pretty cool, huh?

Rose took a pair of black vintage elbow length gloves and gave them a telephone motif. She made covered buttons that she embroidered numbers on, and turned a spaghetti strap into a coiled telephone cord.


These are beautiful!

Susan Skalak (yes, almost half the group is named Susan) is an engineer.  So, her take on the theme was to express sound waves and put it into a quilt.   Pretty impressive, I think.  Believe me, this is the last thing in the world I would have come up with!

Kate took the word "closeness" and used the sound to interpret into "clothes".  This darling pinafore is what she made.  And it even has telephone buttons on the front!  I love it.  And she made the box just for transporting it, but we decided that it sets off the pinafore beautifully.

Connie was not present at the meeting where we picked these words.  Thus, she thought we could use just one of the words in the project.  She chose "closeness" and expressed it in the form of this amazing turtle quilt (unfinished).  She and her youngest son are very fond of turtles, and she is making this quilt for him as a surprise.  It is really, really beautiful.  I love the barnacles on the turtle's back.

Lastly, my project did not have quite the level of sewing that the other women's did.  I had a couple of ideas for the project, including an 80's New Wave style t-shirt involving images of Blondie and the song Call Me.  It was turning into a disaster.  So, the morning before our meeting, I came up with this:

It is a very old telephone covered in plaid fabric and the note attached to it says:  "Sorry - no longer in business.  I've gone fishing in the nearest loch.  Alistair Brody."  Get it?  Closed = close.  Nearest loch = close Ness?  Get it?  Isn't that just hilarious????  Okay, so it was a bit of a stretch, but I was desperate.  Forgive me.

The two words selected for next month's project are "rain" and "winged".  Should be interesting.

Juggling

I have been hired to make juggling balls. Yep, that's right! A fellow in my county is an accomplished juggler. He gives lessons and sells juggling balls to his students. His wife used to make them for him, but now she has a new job keeping her busy. Since she doesn't have time to make them anymore, he has sought me out, accomplished seamstress that I am (actually, he bumped into me by accident). I agreed to try making the balls to see if it would be cost effective for both of us.

Basically, there are two strips of fabric that you line up like a T, with one strip perpendicular to the other, centered in the middle. Then you sew around the outside, turning the strips up at each edge till it makes a box. Luckily, he is going to turn them inside out and stuff them, so I don't have to worry about that.

So, here goes...





Nice!

And another.... Not bad!

A few more, and now I have a nice little pile of juggling bags.  Now things are looking pretty good!

And again.... HUH?!!  What the?!  

Well, apparently, if the edges are not lined up exactly equal in the middle, this is the result. And it is a sorry sight.  Sigh.... this happened several times before I figured it out. Apparently, sewing juggling bags are not as easy as I thought.

Say What?!

On Etsy.com, you can post vintage items to sell as well as handmade items. A friend of mine, who is an expert yard saler, has supplied me with a few neat things to post to fill up my section of Vintage Items in my Etsy Shop. Among them were these greeting cards. I figure they are from the early 60's, and they are too hilarious. You really don't see them like this anymore!

Aaah, yes, Political Incorrectness at its finest:

Remember when they put "dunce caps" on kids? Well, I don't remember myself, because that was a little before my time, but I think they did it!

Feeling down in the dumps?

How about some pep pills?

Can you believe how mean this police officer is? She(?-- it's hard to tell with police dogs) won't let this other dog vandalize this fence!!!

Somebody snapped them up immediately when I posted them (now I wish I had priced them higher!!).