Upcoming Project: Quilt Completions

I love almost anything previously owned.  I frequent thrift and consignment shops, estate and yard sales, and antique shops.  In one of my favorite shops, tucked away in a corner box was the hard work of a quilter. At the top of the box were a stack of 30 perfect little log cabins.

Of course I purchased these (for a ridiculously low sum).  Since obtaining them, I went out and bought a jelly roll of sherbet colored batik strips to finish a quilt top.  Do you think it's cheating to start with those wonderful pre-made squares?

Under the little log cabins was another wonderful example of piecing excellence.

It's still in star shape, not even on the edges, so it too needs to be pieced with other fabric to complete the quilt.  What would you do with it?

But I Digress

Yes, I am working on my jacket.  However, I often have more than one project in the pipeline.  My first loves (garment sewing and altered couture) tend to get the lion's share of my attention, but every once in a while another project calls to me.  I started this wallhanging quilt this past summer.  It was another time intensive kind of thing because I designed the cat applique, the top was machine pieced and then the cat was hand appliqued into place.

Then, I hand quilted the top to the other layers and hand closed the binding.  I learned hand quilting on a hockey trip with my son to the outskirts of Amish Country in Pennsylvania.  I happened by a quilt shop when two Mennonite women were demonstrating the technique.  Up until that point, though I'd tried to follow instructions in books, it had just not really sunk in.  Seeing them do it made all the difference!

I think it's a really cheerful piece.  I love the bright colors in the batik squares, which were purchased as a set from Jo-Ann's.  It'll make a really nice hanging on someone's wall.  Ok, enough procrastinating... back to my jacket!

SCORE!

Yes, yesterday was Superbowl Sunday, but the SCORE I'm speaking of didn't have anything to do with the game (Yea, Giants!), as I'm really not a football enthusiast, though I do live in a house full of them.  No, my score occurred earlier in the day at our local Friends of the Library Book Sale.  Being frugal in the extreme, I usually attend the sale on Sunday because Sunday is bag day...all the books you can cram into a standard size plastic grocery bag for one low price.  If you love to read, that alone should be enough to get your heart pumping.  Of course I always peruse the non-fiction area, specifically in the DIY category.  Yesterday I found a copy of the Good Housekeeping New Complete Book of Needlecraft by Vera P. Guild.  This is the 1971 reprint of the 1959 original, with sections on sewing, embroidery, quilting, rugmaking, crochet, and much more.  As you can see, the dust jacket is not in the best shape, however, the book within is practically mint!  And, this book must have been a donation to the sale, as it had an inscription on the flyleaf.

"Janie, Christmas 1971, Have many happy hours! Love, Mums".  Well, Mums, I hope Janie did have many happy hours with her book.  Now, forty years later, I hope to as well.

Also, I did manage to purchase the buttons I needed for my sailor dress.  Back to work on that project!

Hi!

Welcome to the Seams Sustainable blog. This is an off-shoot of my home-based business, which is clothing design and munufacture, using as many recycled and upcycled materials and embellishments as possible. I also do custom sewing (costumes for dance and historical re-enactment, formal wear, wedding attire, etc.) and I give sewing lessons, including lessons in clothing repair - an essential sustainability skill. The blog will give me a forum to share some of these things with you, and will probably frequently digress into other topics that interest me (and I hope some of them will interest you, too!). Just a few of these interests are sustainable living, frugality, gardening, cooking, Pagan spirituality, jewelry making, paper crafts, quilting and creativity. I sound like a granola crunching Grandma Moses (well, ok, I do like granola!), but I'm actually just learning about a lot of these things, so if I "say" something that doesn't sound quite right, please join in the conversation and help me out here!