Thrifted Treasures

For several years I've been trying out new quilting designs on a large piece of layered white fabrics destined to become a mattress cover.
The matress pad/cover I had quilted 21 years ago is reaching the end of its life.  So now I've realized the cover I've been making will only fit a twin sized bed.  I have absolutely no idea why I made it so small.  That left me with the opportunity/challenge of finding vintage 100% cotton sheets to make one that is actually big enough for my bed.

I did find one sheet from the 1950s in the past several weeks, but thought I'd have to settle with lining it with a pale beige sheet.  The one from 21 years ago had white cotton on one side and unbleached muslin on the other.

Yesterday I decided to make a stop at a nearby Salvation Army resale shop.  I frequently visit that shop but seldom buy things because the manager insists on pricing things rather high, as if she'd purchased items wholesale instead of receiving them for free.  This week I got lucky.

 Two new, never opened twin flat sheets.

 100% cotton percale, so the thread count is higher than muslin.  My mom always preferred percale to muslin, and, I admit, I prefer that texture too.

Given the postal zone on the wrapper, these were manufactured before 1963.  I'm also familiar with the labels from the 1950s, and they were not this orange color.

I have a couple of quilts to finish first, so it will be a while.

I also found [an also over-priced] tatted doily; I'll take a photo of that too later.

Happy quiltmaking and knitting,.....

Quilt Think II--Inspired by the Ladies of My Childhood

While I love color, there are certain colors that appeal to me more than others.  For over two decades my favorite colors have been violet and teal.  I've made a lot of quilts in other colors, but when I come home, it's to the heavenly shades of violets and teals that comfort my soul--with some blue/yellow in the kitchen because I love those colors, and they're great for a kitchen.

A short while ago, Missouri Star Quilt Company featured Robyn Pandolph 10" inch squares that were so reminiscent of the homes of elderly ladies I admired when I was a child, that I knew I needed to design and make another quilt that honored those lovely women and brought some of those colors into my home--even if they don't blend all that well with the rest of my decorating.


Here's a glimpse of the fabrics in the set of ten inch precuts. I figured the colors were probably not true on my computer screen and guessed they would be a bit dustier in tone, which they are.  I also thought I wanted the plum or rose large florals for borders.  The only large floral in stock was the gold, so I settled for that one, but put the other two on my wishlist at Missouri Star.

A couple of weeks ago, I received an e-mail notice that those fabrics were now in stock.



So what I did was order a couple of yards of each.
No, I haven't had a chance to design or piece anything with them--but I'm fondling them.


Yes, they are delightful; however, one of my Georgia friends ordered the same pre-cut and was disappointed.  I think it's the inspiration of all those lovely ladies that makes these fabrics speak to me.

Happy quiltmaking,

Treasured Old Thing

Any knowledge of this treasure?

 This was gifted to me in a collection of someone's old sewing stuff.  I immediately recognized it.  A half-century and more in the past, women created these lovelies to fasten in the eyelets of their window shades to help raise and lower them.  The center is probably a bone ring, but it's so tightly packed with thread that I can't pull it apart to check.

I decided to untie it, rip back the chain, refasten it and use it as a spool pin doily on my treadle sewing machine.  I do love these treasures.

I don't like the next messes:

These were little gifties found in my Hobbs batting...Grease and dirt probably, but right in the middle!!!  I hope all you quilters escape any encounters with them!!


Happy quiltmaking...and knitting....

Quilting--At Last! An Update!

 Struggling morning glories--actually, struggling as of two weeks ago.  The ones in the pot now have yellow foliage, despite several rain showers and good drainage.

 The ones along the fence are fading too.  Hopefully, I'll be able to capture some seeds for next year.

 These quilt tops and pieces have neither changed nor moved in probably three or four weeks.  John Deere theme is for my nephew's son. I thought the blue and yellow would be for his daughter, but I'm changing my mind.

 This is the machine that has been doing the majority of my piecing and quilting for the last couple of months.  Since it's in my living room in front of the north-facing windows, it's in a good spot for sewing--except when the afternoon sun has made the room too warm; then I've reverted to the 1936 treadle in the real sewing room. Of course, I've been doing very little quiltmaking--that's what happens when the daily commute consists of three hours of rush hour traffic!

 Non sequitur: Antique orphaned pillowcase picked up at Angela's Attic.  It's from around 1910, although who can say when it was appliqued and embroidered?  I always wonder if something unfortunate happened to the other one or if the needle worker just never managed to finish it.

 One of my sweet little students is struggling with seizures; we've had to call the ambulance three times in the last couple of weeks, most recently yesterday.  The drugs she's being prescribed just aren't controlling them, and she's had several hospital stays, so I picked up this prayer quilt this morning.

 I couldn't find any that I had made in the cabinet of blessed quilts at church, so I brought this one home and added some quilting so it would be a bit more interesting and because I needed some prayer time for her.

 

I used Glide thread in the edges of the center blocks, a multicolored Superior Threads Rainbows Thread in the white border, and a variegated gold Rainbows Thread in the next border.

It's hard to see anyone sick, but it's even harder when it's a sweet child.

I did quilt a lovely, cheerful log cabin prayer quilt--because my lovely friend who pieced it was intimidated by all the white.  I had a grand time quilting it--lots of variegated threads, lots of feather quilting--but I forgot to take a picture of it.

I hope my lovely friends are getting more quilting done than I am! I do love both quilting and blogging (along with dozens of other things) and really hope I can manage to post more regularly.  (Oh, the other thing that's taking so much of my time is creating learning materials for students for whom my school district provides none.  There are times I wish creating learning materials were my job!)

Happy quiltmaking......

Pillowcases--Bad ideas, good ideas

I lucked onto some orphan pillowcases this weekend.  I have no idea why these gems call my name so clearly unless it has something to do with the fact that I've loved textiles since I was a toddler--maybe even earlier and I just don't remember!
So, I'd like to share a couple with you.  The first made me sad.  The lace I absolutely love.  I think if I go dig out one of my grandma's bed sheets, it will have this same filigree lace pattern from the early 20th century.

 Of course, I have no way of knowing when someone decided to apply a couple of floss embroidered hearts--I'm kind of hoping it was an eight-year-old.

 Fortunately, the cotton floss was color-fast--maybe some of the J. P. Coats Boilfast floss from the 1940's-60's?  It was stitched with 3 ply of floss except for the thick part on the right side of the left heart, which was stitched with four-ply.

 And there's the back--great big knots.  The other negative is that instead of opening the hem, it was stitched through both layers of the hem.

 This is what it looks like now.  I'm hoping that after another laundering there will be no evidence of the embroidered misadventure--although I may go ahead and use it first. The saving grace is that the hearts were stitched with a small enough needle that the stitches will close up in the laundry.
In contrast, one of the "orphans" has some of the most exquisite embroidery I've seen.

 Here's a close up of one of the little hearts outlined in beautiful buttonhole stitch.

 The embroidery on this case was done with two-ply of floss except for the stem stitch and satin stitch, which were done with one.

 The only knots in this piece are the French knots and the bullion knots in the roses.

In the above photo you can see that the back is almost as neat as the front.

 The lovely little crocheted edging was applied in the edge of the hand-sewn hem stitching. Unadorned pillowcases could be purchased with gently scalloped edges.

This maker used delicate one-ply pearl cotton (I'm guessing size 8 or 12) to create the outline of the hearts in buttonhole stitch and then trimmed the fabric away next to the stitching at the bottom of the hearts.

I adopted a few other orphaned pillowcases too, but they're going to have to spend a good part of the week with "Aunt Oxy."

And here's the other much longed for treasure:

I don't even know how many cordless drills I've had over the last couple of decades.  The most outstanding trait of all of them was that when I needed them, the batteries were run down and most often I had trouble getting them to take a charge.  My dear friend who works at Lowe's assured me there's a clip at the bottom of the handle so that I can remove the batteries when not in use.  I bought mine as a Father's Day gift to myself a few years ago, and the only way the batteries are coming out of it is if you remove every screw--and then the batteries aren't replaceable.
Consequently, I've been longing for my Grandpa's hand drill--which is somewhere in one of my many boxes in an outbuilding.  Hmmmmm.  How much time do you think would be wisely spent searching through boxes in an out building in 95+degree heat?  I just couldn't face it.  I decided I'd be better off just buying a new drill and then decided what I really wanted was an old drill. After all, I use People-Powered-Machines for sewing, so why not for drilling? The local hardware store owner told me he could order me a hand drill.  I decided to look for an old one--partly because most of them were made with beautiful hardwood handles. I looked at every antique store I could think of and found this one at an antique store about two or three miles from home.  I suspect it was overpriced, but it was still about 20% of the cost of a decent new plastic wonder.

 

Okay, now I can install that sliding metal drawer in one of my cabinets so that my lovely DeMarle cookware won't fly out at me every time I need a piece!

Cowgirl Antiques, Western Apparel, Feed & Supply

Lucky me!  I got to stop here today.  How fun is this! Makes my heart sing!

They sell clothes, lovely clothes at affordable prices. Jeans are on sale this week—real ones and pretty ones.

 They have antiques.  That’s what drew me in.  Then I loved everything else too. 

They have tables and chairs so people can meet and chat and enjoy a beverage and a treat.  (I enjoyed a great mocha iced coffee.) The Stanley, NM homemakers were just finishing up a meeting when I was there.

Free wi-fi is available.  If I'd guessed this was a place I'd be excited to blog about, I could have taken my laptop and done it while there.

 Of course I gravitated toward the lace (wonderful prices, too)!

 They carry boots and other essentials for cowboys and cowgirls.

The building has some interesting history too.  Decades ago it was the warehouse where Torrance County potato farmers brought their potatoes.  I doubt that anyone in the county is farming potatoes these days.  As long as I’ve known the building, it’s been a feed and supply store, but earlier this year that business headed west to Edgewood, NM.  This building’s wooden floors are a treasure.  The potatoes were warehoused in the part of the building that’s below ground—farmers and buyers could drive their vehicles down a ramp and unload or load.

When Broome’s Feed and Supply left town, Moriarty was left with no place to pick up hay, straw, or other feed, so this business is going to carry some of those basics.  They’re also carrying Ness Farms pinto beans.

I hope people travelling I-40 will decide to take a little break at Moriarty, take the Howard Cavasos Blvd. exit south, and visit this fun new business with a little of something for everyone—just the kind of business that warms my heart.

Cowgirl Antiques is in Moriarty, NM on Hwy 41 south, only a few yards from Old Route 66, and only about ½ mile from I-40 at the 2^nd Moriarty exit (whether driving west or east on I-40). They are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily except Monday, with shorter hours on Saturdays (sorry, I don't remember what those shorter hours are).

Update: Unfortunately, this store has closed.  The owner can be found vending western style clothing at many rodeos throughout the region.  (No antiques, however.)

 Once I arrived home and washed my hands, I realized we had no electric power, precisely the reason I spent months looking for my first working treadle sewing machine.  Today I kind of panicked because I thought I didn’t have anything ready to piece.  Fortunately, I was able to begin setting together some blocks for a prayer quilt. I didn’t accomplish as much as I thought I would because our only corded phone is at the other end of the house, I'd think I heard it, and then dash toward it, and then chat with the callers. 

Ultimately we had about five minutes of rain and two or three hours with no electrical power.  My sweet neighbor called me to see if she was the only one without power.  That was one of those trips to the other end of the house to reach the corded phone.  Because I'd already spent my block of time on hold for Central New Mexico Electric Co-op, I was able to tell her that the outage covered several communities and parts of three counties.  Any time power is lost during a 90-degree or higher heat wave, I worry about people who have difficulty surviving without it.  Today I realized that all of us in the outage area should have spent the time praying for the states parched by this drought.  I'm hopeful we'll get at least a bit more rain tonight. We still have quite a few clouds and the temperature is 15 degrees earlier than a few hours ago.

Okay, I need to do some more sewing (I'll just continue using the 1919 Red Head to set these blocks together) and delight in memories of my visit to a wonderful new business venture.  I hope a few of my readers get a chance to visit it too! Feel free to share the word too--the drive across New Mexico is beautiful but long!