Fashion Friday

We have six lovely models today in pretty summery outfits for you to enjoy. On the left is Maggie, my grandmother, wearing a pretty skirt and blouse with three-quarter sleeves and looking lovely. The next girl is unknown, but is wearing what appears to be a lacey short jacket and just darling strappy shoes. Next is Ruth, who is a friend of my aunt Nelle, in a dark skirt and white bouse. Then Nan - who is looking a little pouty in this photo - in a lovely print skirt, pretty blouse and dark belt. She, too has really cute shoes. The next girl is dressed in a simple, yet pretty, skirt and blouse. Our last model, who seems to have a lot to say, is looking lovely in rather a frilly outfit. Again, I am wondering what was the occasion that these women are attending and where it was. (Click to enlarge)

Fun Stuff in the Mail Box

There is a quilt I had seen in a magazine that I really love - and found that it was designed by Barb Adams and Alma Allen of Blackbird designs. I found that it was in a book they had written and I also saw two more books (among others) that were theirs that I really liked. Decided to be really good to myself and ordered all three from Pickledish which is associated with the Kansas City Star. They came today and they are so great. I have one other book by the same authors that I purchased sometime ago on a quilt outing with the guild. Must confess I have done nothing from it - and further confess that I have quite a few other books I have done nothing from!! Doesn't that kind of go with our addiction to quilting?

This is the quilt I think is so cool. Will I ever get it done? Who knows - but I will enjoy thinking about it and looking through the lovely projects in my new purchases. I kind of look at things like this as "tranquilizers". And, PS, there were two quilt magazines in the mail, also. Don't know whether I'll get Red Delicious appliqued today or not. (Click to enlarge)

Start of Another Red Delicious Block

Two more blocks after this one and this is going to be very pretty. Just getting started appliquing and am definitely going to lay in a fabric stem over the machine stitched one. Still have leaves to put on, also.

Will probably get this finished tomorrow. Today I spent a fun day with my daughter and youngest granddaughter. Sherry and I drove to Ann Arbor and had lunch with Hannah at a nice restaurant downtown. It was a nice day and we ate under the big umbrella on the sidewalk. Then we went to the mall and shopped. There is a neat little shop called Forever 21 with cute, trendy clothes for the cute little gals like my granddaughter. The prices are really reasonable. She tried on five or six dresses and looked cute in all of them. Two went home with her, along with a couple of t-shirts, some socks and a little billfold. Good little shopper. My daughter found some pretty shoes to wear to Norah's wedding in early September. Me, I bought some candy!

Working on a Project for Next Fall

Come October, I will teach a class in machine buttonhole stitch for our guild. I have been working on a sample for the quilters work to on, and this is what I have come up with. I will make one more sample so there will be a choice. These will be big enough to put sashing and borders on to make a pretty little wallhanging or just a small border for a pillow. (Click to enlarge)

Fashion Friday

Today we find Nan, my mom, posing prettily beside some greenery that is probably in that popular place in Peoria, Glen Oak Park, where many of the pictures of the Pearces were taken.
She is wearing a lovely summer frock with three-quarter length sleeves that are gathered forming a pretty little ruffle at the edge of the sleeve. Her hat has rather a high crown and medium brim with what appears to be a fabric band and lovely flower, She is wearing white shoes with heels and her outfit is completed with a lovely purse with a chain handle - I am wondering if it is one of the pretty metallic ones. (Click to enlarge)

Before and After

Here is the first small block of the Polka Dot Girls finished. I can still see the pink lines of the transfer pencil that I used to draw the block on tissue paper for ironing to the fabric. It really works well but the floss doesn't cover all of the pink. One area I can really cut down on that is by just putting a dot at each end of a lazy daisy - no problem there. However, when I was playing around on another piece, I washed the fabric and the pink came out quite well.

So here is the piece after I washed it and it seems to be all gone except just a bit toward the bottom. The threads that run from place to place on the back show through some but don't think I will sweat that. I am using diferent pinks and dark reds and a touch of orangy yellow which I do like. Reading other blogs, I see that some of the girls use iron on interfacing on the back of the fabric to stop the thread from shadowing through. I suppose there is no perfect way except to use heavier fabric. Anyway, I think this looks okay and I will forge ahead.

(Click to enlarge)

My Home Ec Project

Yesterday at Sit and Sew we were talking about sewing. As mentioned in a previous post, no one in my family ever did any sewing, quilting, embroidery, crochet, etc., and I have no idea how I became so enamored with working with fabric, thread, yarn, and needles and hooks. But I most certainly did.I was telling about the dress I made in home ec when I was a freshman in high school - it was done on a treadle machine - and I just scanned a picture of me in my dress. I also have my hair up in pincurls covered with a bandana which was common for me back then. Shirley Temple and I are the same age and I think all little girls of that era thought you had to have curly hair! With me in the photo is my sister, Joanne - Jo - who was about three years younger. The dress had insertion lace with red ribbon running through it around the hipline seam and on the collar. The fabric had red roses in it. Now that I look at it closely, it looks rather complicated for a first time project but it appears to be pretty well made. Check out the anklets! This was taken in the summer of 1943. (Click to enlarge)

Starting the Polka Dot Girls Embroidery

I haven't done any embroidery for a long time until this past summer. The previous post of the little sunbonnet girls was done probably five years or more ago when redwork first started making a comeback. As I have been looking at the blogs of many of the needleartists - especially from Australia, New Zealand and Canada - I see there is a lot of really pretty embroidery out there. Above is some "pink"work I did and I plan to do several more of these little pieces of china to be paired with fabric shown or some like it. That is a Moda charm square package that I just love. I also have the layer cake.

Here is the first try of the Polka Dot Girls - which I am trying in shades of pink and maybe a shot of orangy yellow and a green. Not sure about the green, though. The fabric above will go great with this, also. Will start on the little pieces and see how I like it before doing one with the girls in it. I have seen one out now that is called Gingham Girls that is by the same designer and is applique and embroidery. So cool. Wonder when I will quit wanting to do everything I see.

(Click to enlarge)

Busy Little Ladies

Here is a little wallhanging with some "Days of the Week" stitcheries that I did sometime ago. When I quilted it, I didn't do the actual embroidered blocks because that was at the very beginning of my trying to machine quilt. The blocks were all puffy and I was disappointed in the way it looked. After quilting the little blue work hangings, I got this one out and decided to go ahead and quilt it.

I think it looks much better and is not so poufy. I suppose some people probably don't want to quilt the embroidery, but I think it looks fine. At our quilt show last spring, there were some really nice quilts that had the embroidered blocks quilted and they were lovely.

These little girls are working sooooo hard. A woman's work is never done. Except maybe on Sunday, the middle block in the hanging above. (Click to enlarge)

Pieces of the Past, my New Blog

As I mentioned earlier, my brother and I have been e-mailing back and forth after a long phone conversation one day and he has been sending me lots and lots of pictures. Some I have seen but do not have and others, such as this wonderful old photo here, I had never seen. Our mother, Nan, and Aunt Nelle are in the middle of the four girls. Where do you suppose they were going? I think this is fabulous.

So, I have been inspired to put up another blog - this one entirely old family pictures of both sides of my family and Ray's, too, eventually. I will still post old photos on Funoldhag but don't want to get away from the quilts, etc., on that blog.

If you would like to check out Pieces of the Past - here is the link -

http://piecesofthepast-funoldhag.blogspot.com/

Hope you enjoy it. It is certainly lots of fun for me to post to it.

Some More Things from an Old Quilt

In a recent post, I showed some things I had purchased that were made out of old quilts. The things in this post, I am ashamed to say, were made from an old quilt that was given to me when I was first married and that I actually used up. A woman I worked with in a law office gave it to me - her mother had made it. No one in my family ever did anything like quilting, embroidery, knitting, crochet, etc. In fact, I wonder how I came to love so many of the needle arts so much without ever having been exposed to them by someone close to me. As a little girl, I would buy small kits at the dime store if and when I ever got any money. I learned some things by being in 4H for a little while and taking home ec in high school. I do remember my grandmother making aprons. I was fascinated with a yoyo coverlet on their bed but I don't know who made it or whatever happened to it. Here is bear that is made from part of the old quilt. I also made at least one smaller one like this and gave it to my daughter-in-law. The bear is sitting on my old oak commode that I found at an antique show in Peoria--part of my chamber pot collection. You can see another little pot peeking out from beneath the oak one. The stockings in the above photo are trimmed in some old antique lace I got at an auction in Illinois.
The pattern for this little fellow is from a 1983 That Patchwork Place book called Country Christmas. I should put a neat little bow around the kitty's neck. Since I am a quilter now and know the time and work (and enjoyment) that goes into a quilt, I feel sad that I did not take better care of the quilt. (Click to enlarge)

Fashion Friday

Nan and her sisters and friends weren't the only ones that were fashionably dressed back in the early 1900's. Their parents, Dan and Maggie, were also very savvy in picking out their wardrobes. We see Dan in a three piece suit and white shirt featuring rounded collar and cufflinks. His hat looks to have the brim turned back at a jaunty angle. Some sort of a watch fob hangs from his vest button. Maggie is wearing a beautiful smile and her coat has an inset band and pleats and is worn over what appears to be a two tiered skirt. Her hat is wonderful - a wide brim and what probably is a taffeta band with a flat bow. As seen in the notation at the bottom of the bottom of the picture, they were spending a lovely day in Glen Oak Park. Isn't it amazing how leisure time is spent in the early years of the 2000's in comparison to back then? (Click to enlarge)

Feels Good to Get Some Things Done

Our guild has been making quilts for charity and this is one of them. Helen made the thirty-five blocks and I volunteered to put them together and now Mary Ann will bind it. There are other ones that have been made, also, but I don't know how many total. This was a wrestling match to get together and I hope no one looks at how the seams match up too closely, but it's sturdy and will keep someone very warm and cozy.

Then I am wanting to start my Polka Dot Girls embroidery blocks. I think I am going to do them in one color and it will probably be this pink. The fabric I have has lots of that pretty color in it. I did the teacup because I wanted to test out using a transfer pencil by tracing the pattern (after I had scanned it and printed it in mirror image) on tissue then ironing it on the fabric. It does very well! I also took one that I had experimented with and wet it down - the pink came out quite well so I don't think there would be any trouble in having it smear.

To the far right is the tissue still over the pattern and left is the tissue ready to iron onto the fabric. Makes tracing much easier than trying to trace it on the fabric. I think that is the way I will go. The Polka Dot Girls are so cute! Barbara has lots of hers done already and they are beautiful. The patterns she traced on to her fabric look like they had been done professionally.

Seems like everyone is getting the itch to embroider again! (Click to enlarge)

More Pictures from my Brother

Bud has sent me many, many pictures the last couple of days - some of which I have never seen or cannot recall having seen. This one is one of the standouts. In my grandparents' living room most likely sometime before or after 1915 at Christmas time long before I was born. At first, I thought the Christmas tree was on the table, but now I can see it is behind the table. I recognize the old victrola and that has to be the same piano I used to "play" when I was little. When my grandfather got tired of hearing my music he would give me a little pinch. I love the floor lamp and don't remember that. The picture of the lady on the wall I think is a great grandmother.

Then to the left of the window I spied the little oval picture which looked familiar. I have that picture - not the same one but one just like it. Mine is above. Love the old pictures that have poems and messages on them and I have a lot of them from antique stores and auctions. Later I will post some pictures of their house which I am so glad to have. And Fashion Friday will be going on for a long time thanks to my kid brother!! (Click to enlarge)

Summer Garden

Took a couple of pictures of my flowers the other day and thought I would post this one. My mandevillia (sp?) is really flourishing and filling in the trellis I had. What I thought was so neat about this picture is that you can see clear across the street to Andy's house and her beautiful pots of flowers on her front stoop. I am also enjoying looking at the ones around her patio, also.

(Click to enlarge)

From Old Quilts

Over the years, I have found quite a few things at craft fairs and antique stores made out of old quilts. From the condition of the pieces in the items, I assume the quilts were not repairable, and, if not, this is one way for part of the quilt to live on. This basket with the hinged quilted lid was found at the AQS show in Paducah in 1992.

Although not made from a quilt, this seems to be made from vintage fabric and is such a pretty heart shaped basket done with fabric wrapped around some very stiff cording. My sister gave this to me for my birthday one year. This is really pretty.

This little fellow came from the Ozarks, picked up someplace when we went on a fishing trip. He is very sturdy and very cute. For a lot of years, blue was predominate in our home.

Here is a cute little lamb that came from a craft fair in Peoria. So well made - there are blocks of wood in his legs. A favorite of mine.

This little angel sometimes sits on the top of my Christmas tree, but she is out all year round. The momma cat and kitten was from an antique show in Peoria. Someone had a tattered old crazy quilt - I hope it was really not repairable.

I look around my house and I have so many things sitting around - I really should simplify or minimize things. But, by golly, I don't think I will!!! (Click to enlarge)

New Old Pictures from my Brother

Late this afternoon, I talked to my brother for probably an hour and a half - how fun to reminisce about the old pictures of our mom's family. He had sent me about ten that he had and I didn't although several of them I had seen before. There were also pictures I had never seen including the one below.
In it is our mom, Nan, girl on the right, with two other girls and three fellows. She looks to be a teenager or in very early 20's in this one. We speculated on the bridge - probably in Glen Oak Park where so many of the pictures were taken. Then in the picture belowThis has to have been taken the same day, don't you think? Mom (fourth in middle row) has the same dress on and the same hairdo and a couple of the girls could be the ones in the first picture. It looks like a class - although I don't know for sure if Mom graduated from high school. Goodness, wish more questions had been asked - but at least there are some nice pictures to make us think and contemplate how those who came before us lived their lives. Note the wallpaper - isn't that great? Bud has promised to send me more pictures so Fashion Friday will go on for quite a while. (Click to enlarge)

Tisket A Tasket Seven

Here's a wooly little lamb for July but minus a little flag that he will hold in his mouth eventually. The buttons in the stars are not sewn on yet - I am going to try and find some little white star buttons - and I will sew some little red seed beads jutting out from each v of the middle star. I should have faced my wool or used ultra suede scraps but am not going to tear it apart now. (Click to enlarge)

Fashion Show

Today finds Nan, wearing a summery white frock with three-quarter sleeves, a pretty satin sash, and lovely dark hat with a light band, posing with her sister, Nelle, and a very pretty friend that I am unable to identify. Nelle, looking very sophisticated, is wearing a chic dress with a three tiered skirt, many buttons, and a dark belt. Her hat is beautiful and features a very large floppy brim and a pretty band. She looks to be carrying gloves. The pretty friend also is wearing a white frock that features a two tiered skirt and a lovely wide sash made of a printed fabric. She is hatless so we are able to see her cute hairdo. I always wonder where the girls were going in their lovely outfits. In front of the front porch at the Pearce home was a favorite place to take photos, and I appreciate those photos more all the time. Hope you enjoyed today's show.
(Click to enlarge)

What a Mess!

This is the fabric that I go through for the Tisket A Tasket BOM. I make such awful messes when I am trying to pick out my fabrics - never take the time to refold anything and therefore never can find my scissors, rulers, rotary cutter, etc. I eventually make all the decisions and then clean up my squirrel's nest.

This is the mess I made figuring out the layout for the little Christmas stitcheries I have been doing. Eight are done and the last one is about half way finished. I intend to make three wall hangings pretty much the same.

Here is the row that I have figured out. In the blank block I will put appliques in one of the dark reds. Thinking mistletoe - easy to cut - maybe two clusters with red shiney buttons for the berries. The second row would have the embroidery first and the third row will be pretty much like the first one.

Here is a peek at Tisket a Tasket with what I am going to do for sashing - and some of the fabric I am thinking of for July's basket which features a little white lamb. I will use a piece of the white wool from my little white quilt. This is fun and quick to do. There is a page on Flickr that has lots and lots of pictures of the blocks being done -

http://www.flickr.com/groups/969252@N20/

You might want to take a look at it and see some of the pretty blocks. (Click to enlarge)

Leslie's Peter Rabbit Cutting Garden

Leslie, one of my friends in the quilt guild, sent these darling pictures of her Peter Rabbit cutting garden and I asked her if I could share them. How clever and cute can a garden be? Here are Peter's little shoes lying by the watering can that he hides in when he sees Mr. Macgregor. Here is his little blue dress jacket that he left in the garden The farmer's boots have flowering plants in them. I think that must be Peter right there in the foreground. Here is the farmer's old wheel hoe - just like the one that my dad used in his garden. Isn't Leslie's garden just about as cute as it gets?

Welcome to a New Blogger

Can my fellow Q2 members tell who took this photo and who has a new blog? The answer is Melissa - and I hope you go to my sidebar under "fun blogs to visit" and click on "Melissa's Photos" to see the great pictures she has been taking. And you really don't have to be a Q2 member to take a peek! (Click to enlarge)

More Old Bluework Blocks

Here is a second little piece made with the old bluework blocks. This time I used some of the charm squares that I ordered from Hancock's a few weeks ago and it will be quilted the same as the first one. More buttons, too, maybe all blue and maybe assorted colors. (Click to enlarge)

Happy Fourth of July

Here is the perfect picture to post along with a wish for a fun holiday. My grandparents, Dan and Maggie, are on the left. On the back of the original picture, if my memory is correct, someone had written that the five young ladies worked at Thomas and Clark, the biscuit and cracker company where Dan worked. I feel certain that they were all at my grandparents cottage, the Sionilli (Illinois spelled backwords), for a Fourth of July celebration. (Click to enlarge)

Hope you have a bang-up Fourth!