Midweek: rummage pre-sale and placemats

 

Yesterday's forest preserve hike was close to home at Van Patten Woods.  79 degrees and partly cloudy made it comfortable. I've walked the same trail in 85 degrees with full sun.  

Tussock moth and monarch caterpillars both eat milkweed.  Their coloration is meant to deter predators; apparently milkweed-filled caterpillars don't taste very good.  (How do scientists figure that out?)

Husk cherries or ground cherries.  The ripe fruit is golden yellow and easy to spot in the fall when the husks have dried up.  The flower is about 1/2". 

On Monday afternoon I helped set up for this weekend's church rummage sale. Earlier in the summer I brought over boxes of stuff, including a lot of Stevens' clothes. It was a little weird/sad to see his things on the racks and tables, but I realized that I've donated a lot of clothes over the years.   Helpers get to purchase before the sale and I did.  

These bluework pillow shams were $1.00 each. 

No stains on these vintage table cloths.

 

And this wooden box because it's pretty as well as a handy size.

(Two weeks ago the sale chairman texted me and said, "We got a box of quilt fabric if you want to take a look."  I went over to the church (and took another box of stuff to contribute), sorted through the fabric, and took some (but not all). For free!)

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I made six placemats out of orphan blocks.   Added to the four I made last week, I've achieved the 10 placemats for my monthly goal. 

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss

Friday check in: welcome autumn! vintage finds, OMG all set, and something new

 It's gotten so that if I don't take a good walk at least every other day I really feel it! This week we went to Sedge Meadow/Des Plaines River Trail and Illinois Beach / Camp Logan.  

Top: compass flower, snakeroot, false Solomon's Seal (b.erries). Center: goldenrod, fungi, riverbank grapes. Bottom: white heath aster and skyblue aster, New England aster, butterfly weed (can you see how the spent stems make a whorl?).

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Isn't this the coolest souvenir tablecloth ever??? I got it for $3 at a church rummage sale.  The midcentury graphics are terrific! 

It has some stains and I thought I might cut it up and use elements in a project. But I probably wouldn't.  So I mailed it off to a librarian friend who lives in New Jersey and collects vintage textiles.  

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The Magpies are collaborating to make quilts for the twin sons of our dear friend Sarah Curry.  Her favorite block was variable star and she liked bright colors.  I volunteered to make the flimsies. Here they are -- very similar but somewhat different, just like the twins.  

I've mailed them to Carolyn who will quilt them and make a collage with the signature squares to piece into the back.

Creating the flimsies is my September One Monthly Goal. Here's the link up.

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Here is the new project.  I've had a box of 1.5" batik HSTs for a long time. A while ago I made a bunch of very scrappy cake stand blocks (4.5" unfinished) and some variable star blocks. 

 

I'm not sure how I'll combine these, or if I'll combine them.  It's just fun to do some no-destination piecing.

Linking up with  Finished or Not Friday   (Busy weekend ahead!)  

P.S.  More vintage purchases from that rummage sale and another.  The Christmas candelabra tablecloth is the third one that I have. It must have been very popular.  (Did I need a third? For $3, how could I resist?)  The two dishtowels are linen.  

OMG: a baker's dozen

This is the last day to post about my January One Monthly Goal.  The account of my trip to Philadelphia for the ALA Midwinter Meeting will have to wait.

I've finished thirteen out of sixteen tote bags for TexFest Dos, the Magpies' meetup in February. ("Dos" because  our 2016 meetup was also in Texas.) I thought I needed fourteen bags but the guest list grew.  

The pattern is by Vicki Genz and was published in American Quilter in March, 2014.  I used vintage tablecloths from my collection and quilt fabric.  It was a good exercise to find quilt prints to coordinate with the bright colors of the tablecloths.  I could get enough for two bags from some tablecloths, depending on the size and also on the stains and tears I had to cut around.  The pattern called for snap fasteners but I used buttons, which meant I got to learn how to use the buttonholer on my now two-year-old Janome (and the button-attachment foot).

Twelve totes folded up and buttoned closed.

This is #13, unfolded.  The tote bags are 16 x 14 with a 7" gusset -- great for holding quilt show purchases.

#14 is nearly finished as I write this. I expect to get the final two done over the weekend.







Of course I still have a lot of tablecloths.  Now that I've had the courage to cut into some of them maybe I'll be emboldened to repurpose more.




P.S. I have vintage tablecloths that are the size of our dining table. I do use those.

Linking up with the OMG finish here
and with Alycia's Finished or Not Friday

Quilts on the trip

 Of course I spot textiles wherever I go!


At the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio:  campaign quilts and bandannas.

 A dress made from fabric printed with James Garfield's portrait.   And the wearer couldn't cast a vote in that 1880 election.

 Autographed blocks from Garfield's era.

 Early sewing machines and a haberdashery at Harpers Ferry.

A contemporary quilt at the Applachian Trail Conservancy, Bolivar, WV, with ATC patches.
























A quilt and a pillow at the museum on Smith Island.
Closeup of the pillow label.

This elegant quilt was on the bed at the Teackle Mansion in Princess Anne, MD.  There was no identification.



The quilting and trapunto are beautiful.

Weekly update: meetings galore and vintage treasures

The first week of the month is always meeting-filled -- P.E.O., Zion Woman's Club, Friends of the Library, quilt guild -- plus Rotary (every week).
Thursday noon I had an  AAUW Gender Equity Fund committee meeting at the restaurant at Nordstrom's at Woodfield Mall.  It had been a long time since I'd been to a department store.
 On Thursday evening I went to a candidate forum for contested Zion commissioner and mayoral races (election April 2).
Friday was the P.E.O.bimonthly round table meeting.
 Saturday began with the annual Kiwanis pancake breakfast. We went early (7:15) because I had to get to the AAUW general meeting by 9:00 to set up the AV for the speaker.  She was excellent  the first openly transgender public school teacher in the U.S., who finished the 1997-98 school year as Mr. and returned in the fall as Ms.  (She told us how she told her then-wife, her kids, her parents, the school administration, and her colleagues. Different reactions, in the end supportive.) One of her three children is also transgender. (Among the things we learned was that "transgender" is an adjective and not a verb.)   It was also Rotary's annual spaghetti dinner delivery -- lunchtime, that is -- to elderly and homebound. My husband was able to take some of them but I got home to help him finish.
Saturday night was the  time change that everyone moans about. 
Sunday afternoon was the next in the Lake County Community Concert Assn. series -- Vox Fortura .  They were terrific!!

 Valli Schiller gave a humorous talk at the quilt guild meeting:  "A Guide to the Quilter's Natural Habitat." She showed photos of quilters' studios -- quite a variety! -- and brought a selection of her bright scrappy quilts.
















I had limited time to sew, obviously. I corrected the corners on Good Fortune, pieced the back,  and took it to Barb, the LAQ, on Friday after P.E.O. round table.  [Doing all this is my OMG for March.  Glad to have it done!]

I assembled the Jeweled Windows blocks and pieced the back. It's now under the needle.




On my way home from the AAUW meeting I stopped at an estate sale.  Half-price day!   I paid $9.00 for all of these treasures.


All-cotton rick rack. Note the top packages are 6 yds. for fifteen cents. The bottom package has a different label design and is 5 yds for fifteen cents.  (And the cardboard for the brown rickrack is longer.)






This unused linen towel is signed: Lois Long.
I didn't know this designer.  As a result of reading this post I do now!

Similar towels are on Etsy for $20 +.  I think I'll keep this.  


The real treasure was in a battered box that originally contained a man's shirt (from Sears).

All the pieces for a Double Wedding Ring, cut and sorted.

The white arcs and melons are foxed (=stained) but the segments are okay.

Now that I've shown you the photo I will remove the sharp pins (the cashier stabbed herself as she checked out my purchases) and put the segments in ziploc bags.

Be careful of old pins! They may be corroded.

Monday link ups:
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday
Oh, Scrap!
Moving It Forward

Weekly update: wedding shower and goal progress

On Saturday friends and family had a wedding shower for my niece at the groom's parents' house (just up the road west of Racine).  Though the bride and groom are registered at Target, I shopped in my vintage stash.

The suitcase is from Lillian's Legacy   The Fiesta c/s with figure eight tray was an estate sale find.

I was late getting to the shower because I took the wedding wheels quilt to Barb J., the longarmer.  We spent a long time selecting quilting patterns.

















Preparing the backing and getting the quilt to Barb was #1 of my four-part April OMG. 

Here is #2.  This runner will be a door prize at the GFWC-Illinois convention.  [I am not going to the convention -- AAUW-Illinois and P.E.O.-Illinois are all I can handle!]  I adapted the design from a Debbie Mumm pattern.  It is approx. 17 x 52.

I made four Night and Noon blocks for the April Block Lotto . There are some slick tricks to the cutting that make this easier to piece than you'd realize.  Note that I promptly trimmed the cutaway corner HSTs.

It turned out that I did NOT give a book review for the church women's group last week. It's the first Thursday of May. (My notes said, "April 5," but they have  a new program chairman who most likely said, "Can you come when you usually do? April? May?" and I wrote April. But May it is.)  That gives me three weeks to truly prepare.  Meanwhile, this week I will give a book review for my own church women's group (much less pressure).  AAUW is Tuesday evening. On Wednesday DH and I are going on a Frank Lloyd Wright field trip. And Friday is the Really Big Quilt Show (the International Quilt Festival) at the Rosemont convention center.

Monday linkups:
Design Wall Monday
Oh Scrap!
Monday Making
Moving It Forward

Fiesta, linens, and sewing lessons.

I went to an estate sale in Waukegan yesterday afternoon, by which time everything was 25% off. I was surprised these Fiesta pieces hadn't been snapped up, but I was happy to buy them for  my collection.

The creamer and sugar bowl on the figure 8 tray were new to me.  I already have the salt & pepper shakers, coincidentally in these colors, but all five pieces were sold as a unit.   The estate sale staff said this was the only Fiesta they'd found.

There was a box of cotton pillowcases with the Pullman stamp. They were all yellowed with fold marks. I chose the least yellow (from what I could tell).  Old sheeting has wonderful heft to it. Since these were made to be laundered a lot I will do just that.

Dishtowels (one unused) and hankies, too.

Note to self:  investigate why the handkerchief-making was a Philippine industry. (I've seen similar labels on other never-used hankies.)

 Here is Betty Jones's Grade 7 sewing sample.  I've taken pictures of all the entries.
(No date, no location, but I suspect it was the homeowner.  They said the house was built in 1953 and only one family has lived there.)

 She got an A-.   She would have gotten high marks for penmanship, too.

 "Overcastining"

 I'm holding up the sample so you can see the seam.

 "Feld" seam. (Actually, it's "felled." One word origin I found said 'fel' meant animal pelt.)

The felled seam up close.

The last entry.

There was a sewing machine at the sale--a 1960's Viking in a cabinet--so perhaps Betty put these 7th grade exercises to good use when she grew up.