Vintage Sewing Treasures

A favorite past time when my husband and I are together, is browsing through antique shops.

I found this little wooden basket once, and now I fill it with vintage sewing treasures.

I love this needle holder, the women look as excited about fabric as I am!  Ha ha!

Inside is a treasury of nickel plated needles, but some of them are a little rusted :(

I have a thing for old buttons too, although the yellow one is from one of my favorite stores, Anthropologie.

Isn't the quote cute?

Here's my humble collection of vintage trims, they're all waiting for a special project.

A little assortment of needles.

I like to imagine what the previous owners were like...

Someone who wanted to sew but never did?

An older lady who was an avid sewer but passed away and her family sold her belongings at an estate sale?
I want my sewing treasures to be given to my daughters and daughters in law!

My mother was a seamstress and so was my grandmother, and these little bobbles remind me of my grandmother.

I just like to look at them :)

Fabric Happiness

I love fabric, I always have, even as a little girl :)

I love the color, the patterns and the feel of it.

I even have a board on Pinterest called Fabric Happiness!

Recently, I bought these little fat quarters at Westwood Acres.

I have a thing for text prints, and these are fabulous!

Only one of them has a selvage, it's the second one from the top.

It's "Architecture" by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman.

Look at these little lovelies, they remind me of little girl things from the 1950's.

The pinks remind me of cotton candy!

I have four pinks, but they look a little peachy in this photo.

The fabrics are by Lecien and are called Honey Baby.

Little Red Riding Hood is dear to my heart and one of my favorite color combos is red and aqua!!!

I've learned to buy black....even though it's not always my favorite color, it does look great in a quilt for contrast.

Last but not least, an adorable mint green and sweet peach :)

Quilty Humor

The Bees Knees a quilting bee

I was invited to join "The Bees Knees" a quilting bee, and am so honored to be amongst such creative, talented ladies!

I think I'm the only one who isn't published, but that is one of my goals :)

September is Melissa Corry's month, from Happy Quilting.
You can see what she told us about her quilt idea here.

She sent all the bee members a selection of fabric and told us to make any camping or outdoor themed block measuring 12" X 12" or 18" X 21" or whatever!

These are the fabrics she sent me and I've got my idea and am running with it.

I'll be working on it at my mother's house in Montreal and can hardly wait to show it to you at the end of the month!

AYOS and A Little Bit More

I'm joining another online quilting group, I just couldn't resist!

I love Greg's blog @ grey dogwood studio, he always makes the most beautiful quilts and he's extremely talented.

The first time I heard about "Another Year of Schnibbles", was on his blog.

You can read about the rules at Sherri's blog, A Quilting Life.

Our mini quilt for the month of September is a "Little Bites" pattern called "Whit".

A "Little Bites" pattern is made from a mini charm pack, which usually includes 40 - 2 l/2" squares from a complete fabric line.

I cut 128 2 l/2" squares of background fabric, and a few other pieces as well.

My background fabric is Kona Stone.

Here they are, all 128 squares in a stack.

I used a charm pack of Moda 1974 by Urban Chicks for my flying geese, a change from my usual color scheme of bright fabrics.

Here is my pattern, surrounded by some flying geese under construction.

I'm going to make the top pattern, mainly because I'm pressed for time and it has 64 geese, the fewest of the three :)

The mini quilt will finish at 22" X 22".

I'm trimming geese while I visit my mom in Montreal.

I guess they will be authentic Canadian geese!!!

Quilt Humor

I love these images, they always make me laugh!

Modern Instabee - September

I really love this book, it's well layed out and easy to follow.

The quilt patterns are divided into beginner, confident beginner and intermediate.

The blocks are easy and pretty quick which is great for a quilting bee.

This month, our hive member Kate, chose a block named "Bluebell's Cabin", and requested 2 blocks.

See the fabric strip with the bee and the honeycomb?

Kate sent everyone 2 strips of the honeycomb fabric.

To some she sent the blue and green combo and to others she sent a pink and purple combo.

We were to choose the rest of our fabrics to match those colors.

She also sent us all the center blocks, so I chose the background strips to match.

Here's my second block, each one is 12 l/2" unfinished. 

I also made a little signature block.

It's my turn next month, I can hardly wait!

Kate is using these blocks to make a quilt for her young daughter.

Mini Medallion - September

This Mini Medallion Quilt Along has been so much fun!

I look forward to it every month.

This is the fourth month, the third border, with 2 months left.

Chrissy Lux from Sew Lux Fabric has designed this mini medallion as a guest on the blog Clover and Violet.

Here are my 4 orange fabrics for the snowballs.

It took me a while to cut out all the pieces I needed.

96 - l l/2" squares from my text background fabric!

First step, add a gray border, easy!

Drew a diagonal line on all 96 squares, watched the movie "Sabrina", so it took me a little longer than it should have to draw all my lines :)

Sewed all the squares onto all 24 squares, by chain stitching.

Quite a thick stack, a lot of sewing :)

A great big pile of scraps, unfortunately they're too little to use.

Success!

My mini medallion, after the fourth month.

I wonder what Chrissy will design the next two months!

I have always wanted to make a quilt with text for the background.

I may have overdone it a little, but I still like the look :)

Quilty Update

Recently, I posted about some gifts that I made for special people :)

I made a "sweet and simple" table runner which was a part of Lori Holt's "Scrappy Summer Sew Along".

I made the table runner for my daughter in law, Mabulane.

She had recently bought a hall table and thought it needed color to perk it up, hence the table runner :)

She sent me a photo of her table runner in its new home.
I love the way she decorates!

One of my cute little 3 l/2 year old grand daughters has a cute little white dresser in her room.

It also looked kind of lonely and needed some color, specifically pink!!!

Here is the post of the table runner I made for Neo.

Here's the table runner's new home.

Then I made the Layer Cake Lemonade Quilt from Lori Holt's line of fabric, "Millie's Closet", for my mother in law who is undergoing chemotherapy treatments for lymphoma.

Glenda is so brave, and she is a survivor!!!

She survived breast cancer when she was in her early thirties, and was recently cancer free from lymphoma for over 5 years.  

 The lymphoma came back, but we are sure she can beat it because she has lots of faith and lots of determination!

My father in law sent me this photo on Monday, of Glenda at her third chemotherapy treatment, snuggling in the quilt I made her :)

It's the best feeling to know that my quilts have all gone to homes that appreciate them :) 

What more could a quilter ask for?

More fabric? Ha ha!!!