August 2017

 After months of cold rainy days this winter and spring, we had no rain for nearly two months until today.  A fine misty rain fell for several hours. There were a few happy dances done in Oregon as the wildfire season has created it's usual summer havoc.

In addition, the wildfire smoke from the British Columbia fires drifted down and we had to breathe smokey air for the last two weeks.

I actually managed a garden this year by planting late. My dahlias are really coming on and this one just started to unfurl this week. Seems to be a spinner in the middle.

 My tomatoes are slow due to the late plant date but in a couple of weeks we will wish to never see another tomato.

 We don't have a dog anymore so my friends, Peter the Rabbit and Cottontail moved in, eating everything in sight.

Except the Basil. Apparently, they dislike basil. They love young cosmo seedlings though. I don't think they like nasturtium either but I'm not sure as they seem to be struggling to get going. The rabbits have provided decent entertainment.

Another reason to blog was given when a new reader searching for an airplane quilt stumbled across my post featuring an estate sale find of a vintage, (and in bad condition),  Lucky Lindy Quilt.

She is re-creating this quilt for her son who just became a pilot. She is hand-stitching her airplane blocks. To celebrate and help, I sent her some small scraps of some of my reproduction feedsack fabrics featuring my favorite subject. Airplanes.

I also shared with her the 8-inch quilt blocks and how they were pieced.

Textiles: Novelty Item: Snap Bag

 My county fair is going on all  next week. The lovely volunteer who tagged my items said there were even fewer entries this year. Which means most of my awesome sewing will win blue ribbons. Not because they are amazing but because no one else took the time.

I would hate to see the demise of the county fair in my lifetime.
My blue ribbons are worth four bucks!

Textiles: Potholder; my chicken potholder

 My son hiked in Yosemite this weekend and climbed Half-Dome after winning a hiking lottery earlier this spring.
They just got back so I look forward to amazing photos this week while sucking down overtime.

And my sis from Minnesota is visiting my daughter in Alaska with her family. This is at the top of Alyeska Resort looking down on Turnagain Arm outside Anchorage.

I love that both of my kids love photography. Such a cool hobby to share.

Friendship Quilt Pincushions

I thought I had already blogged about this estate sale find. All of $1 - that's right - one dollar!
The quilt was in pretty poor condition but it was a friendship quilt.
Back in the 1930's, 40's and even into the 50's, these quilts were very popular.

Each lady hand-embroidered their block with their signature done in their signature embroidery stitches. Embellished or not.

This particular quilt was done mostly by ladies from Oregon (swoon) in the 1930's using feedsack fabrics and tiny little hand stitches throughout. No machine piecing done.

If I hadn't of bought it, it would have gone to a landfill.

I sat on it for about a year before thinking of a way to upcycle it into something 'new'. 

All of the blocks were the same, hand-stitched six-sided stars with hexagons created  in-between. There is a fancy name for this block . . .maybe one of my readers knows it?

Seaside, Oregon. Complete with fishing boat and fish jumping. A crab! and a seashell.
Some ladies embroidered their town in addition to the date.
 This block was age-spotted but I couldn't leave it out of my pincushion collection.

 Cutting out 6 inch circles, preparatory to making the pincushions.

I gave the remaining holey quilt to a friend. There is still some usable parts of feedsack but I was done with it.

I made 20 pincushions.
Stuffed with lavender and polyester stuffing.
Finished off with floss and buttons from my grandmother's stash.
For sale in the etsy shop.

 More information on Friendship Quilts.

Pin Cushion

Simple Pin Cushion.
I'm putting together a sewing kit for my niece and a brand new pin cushion was in order.

I thrifted a cutter quilt earlier this year - I think it was an anniversary celebratory quilt. It was a grandmother's flower garden with the white centers embroidered with friends and family names.  Probably from the 50's. Although some of the fabrics are obviously feedsack quality.

I cleaned it as best as I could with Retro Clean but it was only a dollar for a reason.

This pin cushion is just a fussy cut 6" circle backed with a 6" piece of felt. The felt was chosen for it's non-sliding properties but more likely because the box of felt is still out from Christmas sewing.

You sew the circles RS together leaving 2" to turn. Stuff with fiber fill and lavender. I tend towards lavender because you want your pins and needles to smell good. Or is because lavender exudes a calming influence over your sewing frenzies???

Then you take some six strand variegated embroidery floss and knot it at one end of a very long piece. Decide how many sections you want. Come up thru the middle, around to the backside and back up to do the opposite side, pulling tightly as you go to get good definition of the petals. My pieced scrap lent itself to six sections.

Knot off.  Look in your button drawer and pick the first one with a shank and sew on with remainder of floss.

Done.


 

I need to make more of these for the Etsy shop. Having a huge clean out sale right now.
RunningWithNeedles
Just use the code CLEANOUT2014 to get 40% off everything.

Airplane Quilt

My bestest estate sale find EVER.

I'm pretty sure this pattern is called Lucky Lindy.
Charles Lindbergh had soloed across the Atlantic and everyone was crazy about airplanes.
Many patterns came out, some distinctly airplane, some imitating the movement of flying.

This measures 82"+ x 64" wide.

All hand-sewn. All feedsack fabrics.
This firecracker airplane might be my favorite.

It may have been paper-pieced but whoever stitched it - did it by hand!

The blocks in-between the airplanes are hand-quilted in this flower medallion.
Diagonal stitching on the airplane blocks.

It's 1930's.
Old.
Vintage.
The wadding has dissolved and lurks in the seams.

This is the worst damage. This whole block in the middle is thread-bare.

There are only a couple other areas where a seam has come un-done. I'll have to look at my stash to see if this block can be repaired.

Beautifully square. Unbelievable small stitches.
Gorgeous.

I soaked this for three days in Retro Clean and it whitened up the quilt quite a bit and took most of the age-yellowing   - away.

---without bleaching or fading the colors.