Valerean

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.

This gray floral purse in the retired pretty posies pattern from 2019 retailed new for $70.00. It has some slight overall fading, probably from laundering, but only one issue. The top edge of the big back pocket is showing wear, and will likely start to shred unless it's protected. I tried a couple of lace and ribbon ideas before I hit on one that worked and added some interest to the purse. A lace doily. :) For the front pocket I stitched on a quilted tag by 14carrot to add a bit of interest to the front. I think it came out neat.

This was the scene in my sewing room last month while I was making my second mini-quilt of March. I got out my boxes of vintage laces, bits and bobs to get some inspiration, which oddly took a while. I'd struggled a bit the week before with the one I made as a visual poem, so I wanted straightforward and uncomplicated. Which for me, of course, it never is. My inspiration for this mini-quilt came from some of the very vintage colors 14carrot used to make these three quilt tags. I love sepia and cream and gold. I wanted to put my own spin on it, however, so I went for the lace (I have lots and most of it is too old to use on anything but art pieces that won't be washed.) It's often difficult to work with antique lace, however, and I really wrestled to get it to stay down where I wanted it. Here's the mini-quilt as of the writing of this post. I'm not finished with it, but I'm mostly happy with my progress. As I've mentioned I've ha...

During our travels at the end of summer we visited a few brick and mortar thrift stores. Often I find things that I want but I'm unwilling to buy new at these, with the bonus of being able to examine them in person. Here's one little haul: a brand-new-looking mini muffin tin for $2.75 (this exact one is $10.00 at Wal-Mart); a low-carb cookbook from 2005 for $1.00 (new it runs about $8.00; the cheapest I could find it used online was $1.92), and a two-sided plastic container stuffed with interesting ribbons and trims for $6.99 (really a steal; the case is $9.99 new and there's about $50.00 worth of supplies in this.) While I show you the cool ribbons in the case, which opens on both sides, let's do the math. Paying retail for everything would cost over seventy dollars. I spent $10.74, which went to Goodwill and a hospice center thrift store. I still pay retail for other things. Example: I spent forty dollars on new books at Writer's Block in ...

Last month I did do one final Dresden fan patchwork practice piece, which I made from Fabscrap's lace scrap pack, a piece of dark green denim from their cotton multi pack, and some vintage ribbon. As you can see here I didn't complete it, as nothing worked out the way I wanted. Lace is more difficult to work with in quilting for a variety of reasons. The red and white laces I chose could not be easily pieced together (I was able to handsew the top edges to make the points on the fan blades.) Because of the holes and gaps basting them in place was a headache, too. The bumps and bulges of the lace made layering ribbon over the raw edges (my genius solution for not piecing them together) a pain, and it puckered and bulged. Alternating blades of solid fabric and lace might work -- I could sew the solid fabric edged over the raw lace edges ala crazy quilt patchwork -- but it wouldn't result in the look I want for the fans. I might tinker on this idea again in the futu...

In a few weeks I'll be starting my next large quilt project, but for now I'm sticking to little things I can do in a day or two. A lot of these are simply to test threads and stitch ideas like this one, where I'm feather stitching in perle cotton over chenille thread, and wove and chain stitched the base out of some scrap jute twine. I'm using cutter quilt scraps as the foundations for these experiments. Sometimes I try out different colors and weights of thread with the same stitch, as I did here with the French knots, to see which looks best -- and oy, I really need to practice French knots more often. Right now I'm playing with some old lace to see how best to stitch it down, as I plan to use a couple yards of it on the next linen quilt.

When you use vintage cutter quilt pieces for a project it's sometimes best to mend any threadbare spots before you sew them. This makes the piece stronger and also helps prevent more damage. Whenver possible I try to use lace to do this rather than cover it with new fabic. For this patch I used an airy lace that will allow some of the color of the original patchwork to show through, which is a pretty effect. It's basically sewing the lace down on top of the threadbare area. You can use flat lace cut to fit the entire area, or layer ribbon-width lace like I do here. Most of this piece is intact, so I only have to do this in a few spots.

I wrapped up the last of the embroidery and embellishments on my crazy quilt tote, which came out better than expected. After that I sewed the sides together and lined the inside with a pretty Asian print. Here's how it turned out: It took awhile, but it feels really good to finish this as my first project started in 2021.

I'm working on the one patch on my crazy quilt tote that worried me. The foundation is hand dyed habotai silk, which is so thin and fragile it's like a ghost fabric. It moves if you breathe on it, and it can tear with one wrong move of the needle. Despite all that I love this fabric; nothing else has such a lustrous hand to it. I kept the quilting simple, and taped down the fabric as I did the starburst stitching in lavender holographic Sulky. Now I'm adding a lace fan applique and some beading on top of it. So far so good.

After much brooding, I've picked another stack of patchwork I bought from KnJ Studio to make Mom's birthday quilt: Tonight I'll lay out the blocks and start piecing the top. I've also made more progress on the little fox crazy quilt block: