One of my favorite color combinations is blue and yellow. I went to a quilt store recently to make a specific purchase for sashings and borders for a quilt that is not blue and not yellow and yet this pack of 10 inch blue and yellow squares managed to get purchased as well.
I don’t have a plan for them right now, but they followed me home like a stray puppy follows a little boy.
A favorite project that I did once with blue and yellow was this String quilt:
If you’ve never made a string quilt, consider trying one. They are quick and easy (some might even call them “mindless”) to create. They are great for using up long “strings” of fabrics and the sky is the limit. In my blue and yellow quilt pictured above, I just made sure that the center string was blue.
Pictured below is another string quilt I made using every color of scrap I had and just arranging them by Lights and Darks.
There are many websites with detailed instructions for going about making a string quilt. Here is one by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville. Here is another. And here is a third one.
String quilts make great group quilts because the blocks are trimmed to size after they are made. Many individuals can contribute blocks and they all fit together nicely into one quilt.
There is a wonderful group of quilters on the Internet who make Heartstring quilts and donate them to charities. They have a donation system designed so that quilters can donate blocks, tops or fabrics for backings. There is a photo gallery filled with inspiration, and a yahoo group for discussion and help.
Think “String”!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
The long and winding road to sewing
It was during my first few years of married life when the domestic side of me suddenly appeared and I decided to take a sewing class. Well, to be honest, a friend and I decided to take a photography class at Community Education but the class was full, so we signed up for the sewing class instead. (It was her suggestion). What a difference it made to be taking a sewing class because I wanted to, not because I had to!
Fast forward to today. Now that my parents have downsized to a smaller home, my Mom passed down her sewing machine to me. I told my husband "I now own the machine I learned to hate sewing on!" Of course, I don't feel that way anymore. In fact, I'm quite sentimental about it.
So shiny and pretty with it's mint green color. It's been waiting patiently for me to come around, I can just tell.
Look! It's welcoming me with open arms.
It's actually a pretty nice machine for it's time. It was made in 1969, which was way before computerized machines of course, and yet it could do several decorative stitches. It uses a mechancial cam system. For each different stitch, you place a cam into the top of the machine and it guides the needle to making the stitch.
There are enough cams to make 24 different stitches.
It also has this niftly needle threader gizmo that I never even took out of the box as a kid, but is sure to be one of the most useful items now. Ahem.
It will need a good cleaning and oiling since Mom hasn't used it in a while, but I'm looking forward to taking it for a test drive. I'm sure it will come in handy if my daily machine has to go in the shop. Besides, the closed sewing cabinet is a great place to stack fabric!
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Sewing Box facelift
In my last post I showed you this sewing box and the vintage buttons it contained:
After the buttons and notions were removed, I found that the satin lining of the box had ripped away from the bottom in a few places.
You can see that behind the satin lining is actual wood which is something you don’t see in a modern sewing box.
I didn’t think I could repair the existing satin, so I went to my local JoAnn’s and bought some co-ordinating ribbon and fabric:
With a lot of patience, a challenge to my dexterity and some ribbon and glue, I managed to connect the sides of the satin lining to the bottom. Then I created a new bottom by covering some cardboard with lightweight batting and the fabric. Voila!
My Great Aunt Florence's vintage sewing box lives on to carry the sewing notions of a new generation. Granted, I will be very careful not to overload it with buttons this time around.
After the buttons and notions were removed, I found that the satin lining of the box had ripped away from the bottom in a few places.
You can see that behind the satin lining is actual wood which is something you don’t see in a modern sewing box.
I didn’t think I could repair the existing satin, so I went to my local JoAnn’s and bought some co-ordinating ribbon and fabric:
With a lot of patience, a challenge to my dexterity and some ribbon and glue, I managed to connect the sides of the satin lining to the bottom. Then I created a new bottom by covering some cardboard with lightweight batting and the fabric. Voila!
My Great Aunt Florence's vintage sewing box lives on to carry the sewing notions of a new generation. Granted, I will be very careful not to overload it with buttons this time around.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The Sewing Box
I’m happy to say that my parent’s move is over and that they are now settling into their new home. The downsizing that we had to do was a fairly huge task, but we managed to have some fun along the way.
One of the things that turned up was this vintage sewing box:
It belonged to my great aunt Florence who passed away over 30 years ago. When I opened it up, I found lots of fun old buttons. There was a collection of metallics:
and an assortment of cloth covered ones:
There was an entire set of 6 large and 6 small silver buttons that were probably intended for a jacket. These babies were surprisingly heavy for buttons.
There were little fancies:
And lots of buttons that were obviously cut from previous garments. Great Aunt Florence was way ahead of the game with recycling. ;-)
Don’t these pink plastic buttons just scream 1960’s?
Of course, there were the usual bits and bobs that find themselves in the button collection:
There were also a few travel sewing kits. We’ve all seen the ones that hotels give out to guests, right? It’s good advertising.
But, I can’t imagine what the connection was between this advertiser and sewing:
If you’ve had a little Seagram’s VO, I suggest you step away from sharp objects.
The box also had a few complimentary tape measures from various sources:
Oddly enough, the red one with the tape wrapped around and held with an elastic because it no longer would retract had this slogan:
In case you can’t see it, it says “proven reliability”. Ummmmm, no.
Last but not least were some wooden spools of thread. Apparently it was very important for thread to be “boil fast” back in the day. That’s what it says on the top of each spool.
I had to admire my aunt’s frugality. The brown and purple spools had less than a yard of thread left on them. barely even enough to sew on a button.
I plan on keeping the spools in a glass container somewhere in my sewing room where I can see them, but the buttons are going to be joining up with all the other buttons I already have in my own collection. I imagine that one day my own descendents can look at them and decide what to do with them.
One of the things that turned up was this vintage sewing box:
It belonged to my great aunt Florence who passed away over 30 years ago. When I opened it up, I found lots of fun old buttons. There was a collection of metallics:
and an assortment of cloth covered ones:
There was an entire set of 6 large and 6 small silver buttons that were probably intended for a jacket. These babies were surprisingly heavy for buttons.
There were little fancies:
And lots of buttons that were obviously cut from previous garments. Great Aunt Florence was way ahead of the game with recycling. ;-)
Don’t these pink plastic buttons just scream 1960’s?
Of course, there were the usual bits and bobs that find themselves in the button collection:
There were also a few travel sewing kits. We’ve all seen the ones that hotels give out to guests, right? It’s good advertising.
But, I can’t imagine what the connection was between this advertiser and sewing:
If you’ve had a little Seagram’s VO, I suggest you step away from sharp objects.
The box also had a few complimentary tape measures from various sources:
Oddly enough, the red one with the tape wrapped around and held with an elastic because it no longer would retract had this slogan:
In case you can’t see it, it says “proven reliability”. Ummmmm, no.
Last but not least were some wooden spools of thread. Apparently it was very important for thread to be “boil fast” back in the day. That’s what it says on the top of each spool.
I had to admire my aunt’s frugality. The brown and purple spools had less than a yard of thread left on them. barely even enough to sew on a button.
I plan on keeping the spools in a glass container somewhere in my sewing room where I can see them, but the buttons are going to be joining up with all the other buttons I already have in my own collection. I imagine that one day my own descendents can look at them and decide what to do with them.
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