Vintage Quilt Blocks

My parents visited Brimfield, Massachusetts, back in September for the massive antique fair that takes place there 3 times yearly. Luckily for me, their trip to Brimfield happened to be en route to my house! I say luckily for me, because my mom brought goodies!!

One of the treasures she arrived with was a stack of vintage quilt blocks - some finished, and some not quite. I can't wait to get down to finishing them, and creating whatever sized blanket they may cover. From what I have read about using vintage quilt blocks, you are better to wash them as a whole when they are already completed in a quilt. The strength of the backing material (which should not be vintage, as the vintage blocks need the support of new fabric), and finishing, will help to keep them together. I suppose though, that it may be worth knowing, before you venture to spend the time on quilting them, if they will completely fall apart!

Just look in the last photo at the hand stitching. This is a pretty big pile of pieced quilt blocks. That makes for an incredible amount of time spent stitching by hand. Just amazing...

XO

Special Delivery!!

No, not THAT special, meaning not a delivery from the friendly stork. I just received a delivery of another kind - a big old box of beautiful fabrics from Anna Maria Horner.

I had been hoarding some money I received at Christmas time and finally got up the nerve to spend it all... on Material. To some that may seem silly, but this is some pretty sweet stuff right here.

I bought a full half-yard collection of her Folksy Flannels, which are so unbelievably soft and awesome.





I also treated myself to a bag of her studio scraps, just for fun. What could be more fun than a surprise bag of fabrics??
I know! A BABY!!! Come on little dude, where are ya???

New Additions

It does seem like I do a whopping number of posts about fabric. I do love it though!

There has been a lot of it coming through this house lately.
A few vintage fat quarters from an antique market.



A few fat quarters from The Workroom - a great little sewing shop in Toronto that holds workshops.



And a big old stack from the thrift shop.



It has become quite difficult to pick up second-hand pure wool sweaters. I was hoping to pick up a few, felt them, and make a couple things, but I am finding them so rarely.

I'm waiting on three yards of Michael Miller fabric which I purchased through Etsy so that I can sew the "Quick Change Trousers"
from Anna Maria Horner's book Handmade Beginnings. They've been shipped, so it won't be long now.



It is fun to just rummage through the stash occasionally and imagine what different bits will be. I think I need a system where I label certain pieces with my imaginings.
Sometimes it's hard to find what you want or remember what you have, so I aspire to compile a little notebook with swatches of fabric from all my half yard and larger pieces. Then I wonder if I cut out a small swatch and then wanted the entire piece as a quilt backing or something that would mess up my plans, so then I think I should photograph the materials, but then you don't have the feel of them in the notebook hmmmmm.....
Now to figure out how to group them. By colour maybe makes a lot of sense, but then by type would be a good idea as well. Therein lay the problem with thrifted material - it can be very difficult to figure out what certain fabrics are made of. Someone should teach a workshop on that...

I've definitely got some thinking to do on this little plan of mine, or maybe I should forget organising and re-organising and
JUST SEW SOMETHING!!!