Vintage Thursday Thingie: Vintage Fabrics from the 1960s

These are some fabrics I've collected from the 1960s. Check out the hot pink and lime green! Aren't they in style now?

Here's an art book from 1965. Even the colors used to decorate the cover, shout 1960s.

Two weeks ago, I showed some vintage embroidery transfers. Here are two potholders I made using the transfers.

On the back, I used one of the 60s fabrics, even though the transfer designs are earlier.



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This and that applique and embroidery

I finished the February and March blocks for the A Tisket A Tasket BOM. I'm having alot of fun doing these but for now, applique is on hold. Allergy season has struck and even with medication, my eyes tear so much that I can't applique, I sneeze so vigorously and unexpectedly that I'm afraid to rotary cut and sewing on the machine, between the tears and the sneezes just isn't a good idea. But don't feel too sorry for me, there is always embroidery!

Here are two of the vintage embroidery patterns I showed last week...the girl and the boy will become pot holders soon. I also decided to try my hand at punchneedle embroidery.

I had no idea what I was doing but I was having alot of fun and I love the way this has turned out. It will be made into a pillow. The design is from an antique quilt, the Wickersham Signature Quilt. I got the book of patterns while visiting York, PA two years ago. There are lots of these funky basket blocks with the baskets way too small for the flowers. I love them!

I just picked up the needlepunch and pearl cotton and started away on the design I'd traced on the muslin. As I went along, I thought that I really didn't know what I was doing... why were there those big loops popping up and did I really need to knot? I found this great tutorial at Ribbons and Lace Cottage and after that things went even quicker and more smoothly.

I'm thinking of doing another...I love chenille and this is kind of similiar!

2009 Support Your Local Library Book Review 4: Killing Time by Caleb Carr

The year is 2023, the pandemic of 2006 killed millions, the crash of 2007 ruined many national economies, the 2018 assassination of President Emily Forrester traumatized the nation and the Internet rules the world.

New York criminologist and professor Dr. Gideon Wolfe is visited by the widow of a famous special effects genius. She hands him a disc from her late husband, hidden away by him in a bank vault. Why? It looks like the well-viewed images of the assassination of President Forrester were not the original footage but were tampered with and changed. Investigating, Gideon Wolfe meets Malcolm, his sister Larissa and their merry band, perpetrators of this hoax and others. Malcolm believes that the Information Age is terrible and corrupt…his idea is that his hoaxes will be discovered and throw into question all the information received from digital sources. The problem is that his hoaxes are all believed.

While the premise is far-fetched and the actions taken by the “heroes” is questionable (including a lot of shooting with futuristic weapons), the book is thought provoking.

This is a book I would have read with my teen-age kids-an adventure yet thought provoking on issues of interest to them…computers, the internet, the fast pace of information today…leading to interesting dinner conversations. (We read a lot of Michael Crichton) There are also enough “howlers” that the kids would have enjoyed poking fun at the old guy writing the book…here’s just one:
“I switched on my computer, printed out the first section of the late edition of the NY Times….” (printed out?!!!!)

Do I think that the Internet is the villain of society today…obviously not, but read this book, think about it, and you decide.



Check out 2009 Support Your Local Library for lots more book reviews.

Vintage Thursday Thingie: A Vintage Adventure Book: TOM SWIFT and His Rocket Ship

Earlier this week, I set out to do some errands-one of which was to go to our local public library and exhange my books. When we (DH had his errand list too) got there, there was this big, long table piled high with books that the library was getting rid of: all were priced 5 shekels or $1.25 and there on the far left corner, almost falling off the table was this little vintage treasure! This is the third adventure in the New Tom Swift Jr. Adventures with a copyright of 1954, the year that the Tom Swift Jr series began...but this book was not produced that year -those books have blue spines, this has a yellow spine so it has to be no earlier than 1955.



Who was Victor Appleton II? The son of the writer Victor Appleton, the author of the original Tom Swift series? No, of course not but I do appreciate the cleverness of the publishers-the Stratemeyer Syndicate! It seems most of the series was written by James Duncan Lawrence.



This is illustration was used for both the front and back flyleafs. There's Tom not in his space ship but in his flying laboratory.


Here Tom is in the space ship: doing a very urgent repair!

You may have guessed: as soon as I got home, I read this book! I loved it! The science may be a little out-of-date but then it is science fiction!

When it came to juvenile fiction, I was more a Sue Barton kind of girl, so I enjoyed my first Tom Swift adventure. Would I recommend it to a kid today? Definitely...its a rip-roaring adventure! (and they would get to tell all about how silly some of the science is...there are communications from beings from outer space-maybe Mars! and ask "What are cathode tubes?" What fun!)

Here are Tom and his friend Bud racing to check on the rocket...the security alarm went off...saboteurs!

So remember, Support Your Local Library in 2009 and it just may support you in unexpected ways.

For more Vintage Treasures, visit Coloradolady-just click on the button!

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Bloggers Quilt Festival

Amy at Park City Girl is hosting a virtual Quilt Exhibit this week so hop on over to Amy's to join in the fun and share a favorite quilt of yours.



I'm showing this hand-quilted colorwash log cabin quilt with hexagon flower applique. I made this two years ago and think it is just perfect for a lovely spring day.

It is one of my favorite quilts...if you want to see my ultimate, #1 favorite (and already blogged about) quilt, that would be the Wedding Quilt.

Vintage Thursday Thingie: Springtime Embroidery Transfers

Often when I buy vintage embroidery patterns, there is an element of mystery: I never know what will actually be in the box or envelope...and sometimes the little bits are the true treasures!Here are two partial pages of springtime designs...two little bit treasures!

On this page, spring is truly in the air: there is a ladybug (the only ladybug transfer I've ever seen) a bee, a butterfly, a dragonfly (again a first for me) and a hummingbird! On this page, there are two birds (one's definitely a cardinal, not sure about the other) but the real treasures here are the boy and girl. I'm pretty sure that these are potholder designs, which is why they are both half designs and include no legs. I love the way the girl's face is drawn in profile-my Mom could draw girls like that (probably from doodling in class-remember those dogs with big ears all our kids could draw!)

Both of these partial pages are printed on very thin paper...most of my vintage 30's embroidery transfer collection is printed on heavier stock (think construction paper) . The paper is so thin that the ink has printed through to the back and there is a shadowy look to both sheets, especially the bottom one. I don't think this is from ironing because who would iron the whole sheet as it is? Click on the pictures for a better, bigger look.

While incomplete sheets, both are 8" wide-like a sheet of paper. All of this makes me wonder if these were free premiums...anyone have any ideas? I know free premiums were given out...could these be "freebies"?

For more Vintage Treasures, visit Coloradolady-just click on the button!

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Black and White Challenge: An Apron

Spring cleaning sometimes unearths some interesting things...this year I found this single log cabin block-a leftover from a black and white sampler quilt I made in the early '90s and a piece of "cow" fabric that I had used to recover the desk chairs in the boys' rooms about 5 years ago (have staple gun, will create!).

Hmm, what to do with them...well seeing all these beautiful aprons on lots of blogs, I decided to try my hand at one . Now, I have never sewn clothes, only quilts, so this was a bigger challenge for me than you might think- which with the b & w block and the b & w fabric made it perfect for the B&W Challenge!

And I couldn't resist naming it: Home At the Range :)
Not too shabby, I think :)

Quinglish: Annual English-speaking Quilters Meeting

The Annual Quilglish was held at Terry's this year. (BTW, Terry is the only long-arm quilter in the country!) The Quinglish is an annual meeting of English-speaking quilters from all over Israel and is always a fun day...lots of show and tell...

a report on how various groups charity quilt projects are going (and a peek at one of the charity quilts from a group in Haifa) and more show and tell quilts hanging on a clothesline

some shopping...Debby from the Quilt Center set up a "booth" with lots of fat quarters, notions, and batting...

visiting with old friends (including fellow blogger Debbie) and making new friends and seeing something new and beautiful...Elaine felts on silk and makes the most wonderful shawls. You can see her shawls in her Etsy shop. There she is, on the right, modelling one.

There was also a table piled with baskets and bags...I just have to try making one of those baskets!

It was a fun day until the ride home! We live in the north, right on the Sea of Galilee, and a big vacation day (or week) destination...it took us 1 1/4 hours to get to the Quinglish near Tel Aviv and 3 3/4 hours! to get home :(

Since I had my little pocketbook size camera with me (which is why all the pix aren't the greatest), I took a picture from the barely creeping forward car...the wild daisy has made itself quite at home in this field!

Vintage Thursday Thingie: Play Ball! Baseball Books

Baseball season opened this week so I thought I'd share a treasure from our Baseball Book Shelf.

This collection of Official Baseball Stat guides was collected by my Dad and given by him to our son: a baseball stat lover who is building his own collection of baseball stat books (he started in 4th grade!) This is the oldest book on the shelf: 1942, during WWII-there was still baseball!

This is the back cover: check out An American's Creed and the bottom left corner-Buy United States Defense Savings Bonds and Stamps.

Besides pages and pages of baseball stats, both for the previous year and historical stats, there are wonderful pictures of then in-use baseball stadiums! Wasn't the Detroit stadium beautiful!

And in Philly, my husband remembers going to games here:

The ads had a wonderful baseball flavor too and with the fastest coast-to-coast service, TWA will get you from NY to LA in less than 16 hours!

But this has to be my favorite ad...maybe of all time!

The comments just write themselves: "Oh you boys!" "You kiss your mother with that mouth!"

Hope you enjoyed a peek at a vintage baseball book and the days of yore! If anyone would like to see a pix of their old stadium, just let me know and I'll post it.

Hope your team does well this year -that is unless you're an Atlanta Braves fan-our Phillies nemesis!

The World Series Champion Phils have already lost the first two games of the season to the Braves!

For more Vintage Treasures, visit Coloradolady-just click on the button!

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Log Cabin Medallion Quilt Finished

Its been ages since I last posted: I've been totally obsessed with machine quilting this log cabin quilt!

I've mentioned before how this quilt was pieced years ago and then sat in the closet: now I know why-I think I just couldn't figure out how best to quilt it. I finally decided to quilt the log cabin medallion simply in the ditch using free motion...I'm happy with the result! I usually don't use alot of quilt- in- the- ditch in my quilts, certainly not as the "default" pattern but it really worked well on this quilt.

After I got the log cabin done, which took much longer than I thought it would! (the quilt is 80" x 96" so all the quilting took longer than I thought it would!), I couldn't decide how to quilt the pieced border-I'd always thought that I would quilt diagonal lines following the squares and in the end that is what I did with some extra diagonals added and a little quilt in the ditch again.

The pieced border is made up of two blocks-a double 9-patch and a Jacob's Ladder. (On the left is the double 9-patch which is a little hard to see because the blues have blended a bit in the pix) I got the idea from a quilt in Nifty Ninepatches by Carolann Palmer (its from the early'90s). When I started this quilt, it was going to be simply a Chimney and Cornerstone Log Cabin but when I tried different fabrics for the border I just didn't like anything. Then I thought of trying the double 9-patch/Jacob's Ladder in the border and I loved it! I love how the Log Cabin just seems to float on the border.

I also really like all the diagonal squares across the border picking up on the squares in Chimneys and Cornerstones. I always like to see what happens when I put two different blocks together-usually something interesting shows up.

All of the fabrics in the log cabin have been repeated somewhere in the border, two blue fabrics have been added as the "background" fabrics of the border squares and the red was added to give a little zing.
Its turned out that I finished this just at the right time. Yesterday my friend Maureen of the O'sheehan Quilt Gallery called and asked if I had a quilt for the new exhibit she's having at the Gallery! I think this quilt will fit in with the theme-an overview of the different possibilities with quilts-from traditional to contemporary.

If you're a member of the AQS, you may remember reading about Maureen's gallery and B&B and the quilt shop, the Quilt Center in the Fall 2007 issue of the AQS magazine. It was a great article with pictures of the gallery and quilt shop (and even a picture of me teaching a Baltimore Album class :)