Economy Block and Large-Scale Fabrics

Recenlty I decided to take out and use the stash of Asian-themed fabrics I'd set aside.  Many of them are large scale, so I wanted to feature them in a large-scale block.

I'm really happy with how the blocks have turned out.  I've used up almost all of my fabrics, and this will be a throw for Michael.

I'm doing hand work these days, so I haven't sewn the blocks together yet, but they're ready for me to get the itch to sew by machine.

I paper pieced this block, which may seem silly to some, but I like the precision of paper piecing, and I enjoy the process.  I used these Lori Holt foundation papers, which come in various sizes--I've previously used smaller scale paper foundations of the same Economy Block.  I recommend them, they're easy to use and the 12" foundations offer the option to make more or fewer rounds.  And you can't beat a 12" block for a quick-to-finish block for large scale fabrics.
 

More Thrift Store Finds

I consider thrift store shopping to be a recreational activity.  There are a handful of places I stop at regularly, and sometimes I leave empty handed, but sometimes I strike gold.  I like the adventure of thrift store shopping, but I also consider keeping things out of the landfill and reusing existing items vs. always buying new to be a good ecological practice.

I recently found this charming little vase.  It's unusual, I don't think I've seen anything like it.  It seems to be of mid-century vintage, my favorite, and I love that the vase features a book, and that the woman is reading.  I keep this vase in my sewing room/ office, and I like the contemplative spirit it projects.

One of my local thrifts always has fabric--many don't carry it for some reason.  I've bought a few remnants of various fabrics there, often because they're vintage, but I recently got this major score.

I bought a jumble of fabrics in a bag for $3.49.  I recognized that they looked like fat quarters in trendy colors, but I didn't know if any had been cut into or not.

They turned out to be a pristine fat quarter bundle of Riley Blake fabrics from a few seasons ago.  I checked online, and these typically retail for about $65, so I got an amazing deal.

 This may be one of my best thrift store fabric deals of all time, and I look forward to using these bright colors in some of the baby quilts I make for donation.

Ribbon Skirt

A young friend recently asked me to sew her a ribbon skirt.  Ribbon skirts are culturally significant garments for Native American women, as this article explains.  I was very happy to sew for her.  She chose a beautiful green batik fabric as well as the ribbons, and she specified their order and placement.  She wanted a simple skirt, though other examples, like the one Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland wore for her swearing in, can be quite elaborate.

 My friend chose this pattern for the skirt, which she wanted to be on the narrow side.  She also wanted a longer skirt, and I was able to lengthen the pattern.  

It was such a simple thing for me to sew up this skirt, and I was glad to help my young friend realize the vision she had for her ribbon skirt.

Crewel Embroidery

I've always loved crewel embroidery.  It's sort of the textile version of paint-by-numbers, a little mindless, but also satisfying.  Embroidering with wool makes for a quick project, although I started this one early in the pandemic, put it down, and just now finished it.

I think I bought this kit on EBay, it's from 2007.  The heyday of crewel is probably the 1970s, but you can find plenty of vintage and new kits online.

After I finished my embroidery, I auditioned home dec fabrics for the back and for the front edges so I could size it up to fit a thrifted feather pillow I had.

I love how cheerful and bright it turned out, for now the pillow is on a chair in the living room.

A Row Quilt, and a Non-Row Quilt

I whipped up this row quilt from some coordinating leftovers.  It was so quick and easy, I tried to group another batch of leftover strips to do a second one.

But these strips made for a more lackluster grouping, so I decided to make blocks instead.

Star blocks are so cheerful, especially for a baby quilt.  I press my squares in half on the diagonal en lieu of marking them with a pencil, and add them to squares for the star points.

I mixed up the yellow background fabrics, and even went further into stash to find enough for the blocks for this small quilt.

 

 

Another top is done!  I love the yellow and aqua combo.  This one will get quilted and go into my donation pile.

 

Vera Neumann

 

I love all things Vera, mid-century designs by Vera Neumann, the iconic American designer.  Some people collect her scarves, but I have a weakness for her napkins. If you love her too, check out this website with many images of her fresh and modern designs.

I was so happy to run across this bundle of Vera napkins recently at the Goodwill.  I love the big orange flowers.

 

 

I put them on my design wall with a set of brown Vera napkins I already had.  Wouldn't this be a nice quilted table cover or small quilt?  On second thought, I decided to just use the napkins as they were intended.  It doesn't look like any of the orange ones have ever been used, and I think they'll look nice with my blue and white dishes.

 

This pair of napkins in my collection, on the other hand, are fraying, and I only have two.  I think they'll be a nice table runner interspersed with some small pieced blocks.  These will go into my future projects list.

Crumb Quilt

Crumb quilts are one of my favorite kinds of scrap quilts, and I keep a drawer of small pieces and wait for the inspiration to strike.

For this one I especially liked using up triangle bits to add some interest to the squares and rectangles.

I pieced this quilt in 12" blocks, which I think kept me on-task.

 

The finished top is 36 x48.  I may decide to add a  border later.  I had a lot of pink scraps, which I think makes this quilt especially cheerful.

 The bits drawer is almost empty.  For now.

A Knitted Shawl

 

I'm always knitting.  These days I try not to work on more than 2 projects at a time, lest they drag on forever, but I'm always knitting on something.  

This recent finish, the Luz de Otoño Shawl by Keka Guillén, is a nice balance of lace and garter stitch, and is the perfect foil for some special yarn.  I bought two skeins of Sock by LL Yarn Co, a special purchase at this year's Stitches West in Sacramento.

 

This pink called out to me from across the room, and it was my souvenir of a special day with my daughter at Stitches, followed by lunch, and a visit to a great Sacramento book store, Capital Books.  I was hoping for days like that when we relocated, a chance to spend time with family doing fun things we love.

 

This is a great pattern with just the right amount of challenge in the lace sections to keep my interest.  This shade of pink always makes me happy when I see it.

Garment Sewing

 

At about the time I was thinking about sewing a few summer basics for my wardrobe, I ran across Sonya Philip's lovely book, The Act of Sewing.    This book a good introduction to garment making and includes patterns for four simple garments: pants, top, skirt, and blouse.  It also includes some great information on adjustments one can make to these garments to make them fit better, as well as to add stylistic complexity: different kinds of hems, necklines, etc.

I decided to start with the pants, which are loose-fitting and cropped. With an elastic waist and two pattern pieces, they made up quickly.  I didn't realize how much ease is built into the sizing, and next time, I'll make one size smaller.  

The cropped top was made from a silk wrap-around skirt I'd been saving for a long time. 

I centered the existing button band (more or less) on the front when I cut out the pieces.  The top is loose, though I made a smaller size than I made for the pants.  I think I'll add some darts so it's a bit more fitted, and like with the pants, I'll make a smaller one next time.

 

All in all, I scratched my itch to sew something to wear.  I don't need more garments right now, but I will turn to this book again when I decide to sew something up for myself.

Thrift Store Fabric

 

 

When I visit my parents and my sister, my sister and I usually make a thrift store run.  These days, this is both entertainment, as well as how I've expanded my wardrobe for the warmer climate where we now live. On a recent trip I picked up and put down this bag of scraps at least three times.  I reasoned that I don't need more scraps, but there's something so fun about getting NEW scraps, scraps that you don't already have a ton of.  This was a bag of VARIETY for 95 cents.  Actually, it was half price, so it was even cheaper.

 

There was a nice mix of fabrics in this bag, it was clearly from a quilter.

 In the end, I got a pile of strips for my strip blocks, a nice pile of cotton pieces, and a good sized pile of flannel pieces, that will make up at least one, maybe two baby quilt tops.  Not bad for 48 cents.  The entertainment of sorting and pressing alone was worth the price.

Mother and Child Quilt (66 x 90)

One thing I've been doing since I retired is to sew up projects I had bundled supplies for in my stash.  Most of the fabric in this twin-sized quilt top has been around for awhile.  The central Mother and Child panels came to me from Debra, (I'm pretty sure, though she doesn't remember).  I found the earth toned squares in a long-gone thrift store in the early 2000s.  They had been roughly cut, some looked to be from a garment, so I trimmed them to a uniform size at some point.  The half square triangles were mostly made up of a charm pack of Hoffman Challenge fabrics from 2007.  The fabric has history.

 

I'm very pleased with how this long-delayed project has turned out.  It will go to Debra for quilting and donation.  I feel like I got this one out of my system (and out of my fabric drawers) and that it will go out to do its good in the world.  

Note: that's blue painter's tape on the sewing machine desk.  I used it to quilt a small quilt, and now it's waiting for the next project.

More Mending

I've done a few more mending projects, the first being this darning job.  I found the perfect lightweight wool cardigan at the thrift store, but when I got it home I noticed that it had a hole in the shoulder.

I knew I had some darning wool somewhere.  I'm still getting oriented to where I put things away after our move.  If I hadn't found this mending yarn, I figured I could take a strand from some navy wool I had somewhere. 

 

 

Luckily I found what I was looking for, as well as a few other cards of mending wool I have in stash.  I don't even know where one would buy these things nowadays.  These are mostly vintage items.

I think my darning was a success.  It's not noticeable at all in real life.  If it were, I'd embroider or applique over it.

 

I'll have to be more observant at the thrift store.  I found this cute cotton blouse, but once I got it home I noticed someone had cut off it's original sleeves and roughly hemmed it by hand.  Not to worry, I repaired it with some bias tape in a similar color.  It would have also looked cute with a contrasting color.

I had a stash of bias binding that I got rid of when I moved, so I actually went out and bought this one retail.  Sure I've seen bundles of bias tape at the thrift store, but I'm avoiding the acquisition of things I won't use up in the near future, unless of course, it's buttons.

 

I've worn this top a few times already, it's very comfortable and light.

 Here's a random picture of my cats Boots and Smokey.  You can see Violet in the background of the first picture.  They love to hang out in the dog bed and make the dog sleep on the floor.  They're so bossy.

Vintage Buttons

I found a bag full of vintage buttons at the neighborhood thrift store recently.  I love finding buttons on the original cards, the graphics are so evocative.

This one seemed especially poignant to me with it's cheerful message and missing buttons.

Of course the buttons themselves are also appealing, with their distinctive designs and colors.

I'll use many of these for knitting projects.  For many sweaters I like to add not only visible buttons, but I use plain ones as anchors on the inside of the button band for stability.

These soft pink buttons are especially appealing.

I've never seen a card with a random collection of buttons before.  I wonder what would motivate someone to buy these?  

The prices, of course, tell their own historical story.  

 These might be my favorites in the bunch, and I can envision them on a cute little cardigan.  A sweater project might just evolve from buttons like these.