Valerean

The July tote for my calendar project is focused on vintage as a theme, and will incorporate the old fabrics that I love: feedsacks, cutter quilt pieces, embroidered linens and such. Working with antique textiles is such a pleasure. I'm starting with a genuine vintage feedsack as the background fabric, and a canvas tote for the foundation. I also invested in some vintage textiles from my favorite Etsy seller to serve as the fabric elements of my design. The problem with the canvas tote is that it has some staining on one handle, so I have to wash it first. After laundering I realized that the tote shrank quite a bit, and I won't be able to use the entire front panel of the feedsack as I wanted to. Easy fix: I will batt and back both sides of the feedsack and that will serve as the tote's background and the foundation. Stay tuned to the blog to see how I put this one together.

Last month I didn't post much about the tote for my calendar project, so here's what happened with it. It started as another fail, as if May's problems were still clinging to me. The thrifted fabric I chose was too short. My hands wouldn't cooperate with hand-stitching so I doubted I could do any quilting or embroidery. I felt defeated before I even began. My spiritual studies have taught me that it's important not to linger in the past or worry about what might happen in the future, so I set aside my negative emotions and started problem solving. I went out and thrifted fabric to solve the shortness issue and to line the tote. I picked out embroidery threads I love from my stash and did a little stitching at a time, as much as my stiff fingers would allow. I embroidered intermeshing circles, which I also love, over as much of the top portion and some of the print as possible. With this tote I wanted to express my happiness (and relief) over s...

Since I'm officially turning into an antique this month I want my calendar project tote to be very vintage, like me. :) That's why I invested in an old, banged up, stained feedsack from The Coop. This is the kind of textile I love to work with in art quilting. I also invested in a bundle of quilt scraps from my favorite Etsy seller, 14carrot. I don't have a design in mind yet, but will let the elements guide me. This bundle of antique lace and linens, also from 14 carrot, should work nicely as trims and embellishments, and I might use the panel with the two pups as the back of the tote. Anyway, stayed tuned to the blog to see what I make of it all.

I decided to try a little beading and embroidery on the May tote for my calendar project, but while I did get some beads sewn on, the embroidery did not work out at all, so I removed what little I did. The problem is the age of the crazy quilt fragments, which are actively shattering. Every time I manipulate these patches they split and shred. Each bead I sewed on made the fabric fray, too, as you can see here. I was trying to preserve the fragments by incorporating them into the tote, but that was a mistake (I now understand why so many collectors simply frame them.) I'll only destroy the fragments even more by removing them, so I think I'm done with this tote. Once I sew it back together and line it I'll call it a day. Not the results I was hoping for, but now I know not to try and sew, embroider or bead century-old quilt pieces. :(

With much careful and strategic sewing I've applied all the crazy quilted fragments on the black canvas foundation for May's tote. I had to go very slowly because the pieces are literally shredding, shedding and splitting apart from being hand sewn to the backings. Not unusual for 126 year old quilt bits, but a bit hair raising. I intended to add some beading and trims to the pieces, but now I'm rethinking that. These fragments won't take much more handling without self-destructing, and the whole point of using them on a tote was preservation. I might do a bit of beading on one piece and see how it goes. Anyway, stay tuned to the blog to see how it works out.

After brooding for a week about the May tote for my calendar project, I got started by disassembling the black canvas bag I'm using as the foundation. I then spread it out on my cutting mat and arranged the vintage embroidered crazy quilt fragments and the heron block on it until I got the look I wanted. This will be the front side. This will be the back (I may rearrange the fragments one more time.) To give you an idea of how I'm going to put this tote together, here's a box top I embellished with a damaged vintage crazy quilt piece. I created the top by sewing the piece to some backing and batting, covered the patchwork damage with some lace, added embroidery to the places where the original needlework had worn away, and then quilted it with beads and added an old dragonfly brooch.

For the May edition of my calendar tote project I decided to use a vintage embroidered crazy quilt patch I've been saving for a while. I'd like to do a theme of vintage embroidery with a black tote. Ordinary I avoid black, as it tends to be depressing, but this time it feels right. I did test the patch against a cream colored cutter quilt piece and while it does bring out the bird a little better I prefer how it looks with the black. I also got out my basket of vintage crazy quilt pieces to hunt through and see if there are some smaller bits of embroidery work I can incorporate. All of these came to me as cutter pieces, which kind of breaks my heart, but crazy quilts are well known to disintegrate, especially because of the types of dyes and the thin silks used during this era, so I feel lucky to have them anyway. The granny square I crocheted in Gumdrop silk yarn last month doesn't quite work with my idea. Neither do these blocks. These defi...

After brooding for a week about the May tote for my calendar project, I got started by disassembling the black canvas bag I'm using as the foundation. I then spread it out on my cutting mat and arranged the vintage embroidered crazy quilt fragments and the heron block on it until I got the look I wanted. This will be the front side. This will be the back (I may rearrange the fragments one more time.) To give you an idea of how I'm going to put this tote together, here's a box top I embellished with a damaged vintage crazy quilt piece. I created the top by sewing the piece to some backing and batting, covered the patchwork damage with some lace, added embroidery to the places where the original needlework had worn away, and then quilted it with beads and added an old dragonfly brooch.

The final steps of making the April tote was to sew on the crochet handles and this gorgeous embroidered quilt tag made by my favorite Etsy seller 14carrot . Here is the finished tote, which I completed on Easter and dubbed the 14Carrots Tote. I worked on it for five days, which made it the fastest quilted tote I've made to date. Another reason I was able to finish it so quickly is that it is an art piece, not something I plan to use as an actual tote. It will be hanging in my home office to remind me of my friend and how much happiness she's brought to my creative life. I also got a much-needed reset for my enthusiasm for my calendar project by making this. I tend to get very, very complicated when I make totes and I need to be less ambitious and have more fun. April's tote definitely taught me that. :)

Unlike the three previous months of my calendar project, during which I slogged right to the very end of the month to finish and assemble each tote, I'm having a lot of fun with April's edition. Adding crochet to this one definitely boosted my spirits. I crocheted and added the yarn elements all in one night. Here are the finished panels. I also crocheted the handles for the tote. I then decided to assemble it before I applied the embroidered carrots tag, just to see how it would look. It looks fine. I think I will line it, as the cutter quilt pieces are pretty thin and worn, so I need to look for some lining fabric. I'll probably use white or a neutral. Onward!

Now that I have the fabric elements for the tote I'm making this month for my calendar project, I actually need some yarn. I thought I'd raid my little stash of artsy yarns to see what I could pair with my cutter quilt pieces. I first selected these hanks as possibilities. The pink on the far left is fingering weight, which is too thin for my needs. The orange and brown hank and the white/darkblue/green/yellow skein don't pair well with the cutter quilt pieces. That left two possibilities. I do love this Juniper Moon yarn, and it would work well with the quilt pieces, but I have only one hank, which probably won't be enough for the project. In the end I went with the orange worsted wool, of which I have four hanks, which should be plenty to finish the crochet portion of the tote. I'm all set. I just have to review the pattern, cake the yarn and then I can get started.

If I've learned anything from the first three months of my 2026 calendar project, it's that I can surprise myself. Last month's tote seemed like it would never be finished, and then a change in my attitude helped me do that four days ahead of schedule. This month I really would like to take things a bit easier, and use some cutter quilt pieces I've been saving. I've never seen an orange wedding ring quilt. I'm also going to add a beautiful piece of art from my favorite Etsy Seller, 14carrot, who inspired last year's calendar project. She really outdid herself with this mini quilt, which is just gorgeous. Obviously orange is going to be the theme! Ha. As I'm writing this post it's March 28th, so I have a few days to figure out how I want to do this one. The shape and size of the cutter quilt pieces make me want to add a section on top of their long flat side, and I'll also need something for the handles, but the vintage crazy q...