Textile Treasures Book I

I enjoyed making the six books for the Roxy sister's Journal of Stitchery Volume 9 so much that I decided to carry on making little textile books. From this point forward they may not always be exactly the same size but for this first one I kept to 3.5" wide and 4.5" tall. 

 The cover for this book is a piece of a quilt I bought in a little kit from a gal who was destashing on YouTube (Uniquely Yours by Dawn Marie). I've been collecting bits of crochet and lace along with vintage handkerchiefs from various sources. The focal point on this cover was cut from a corner of one of those hankies. I outlined stitched it with a size 12 perle cotton. 

On the inside front cover I have raw edge "pieced" around a feedsack patch with other prints of a similar type. The yellow strips were once part of an apron. The selvedge edge is attached along the left edge but loose on the right hand side. 

I hemmed the bottom strip to turn it into a one inch by 2 inch pocket. I have a card in there with my name and the date for future reference. 

Turn over the piece of wide white lace to find one of Cicely Mary Barker's flower fairies. They were available as small panels on quilter's cotton some years ago. The light pink at the left side is the folded edge of a handkerchief you'll see later in the book. I decorated it with a strip of lace and left it loose as well. I seed stitched the background with some tiny upright crosses with a Sulky 12 weight thread. 

The next page is another corner from another hankie. I added a few embroidery stitches around the perimeter with a size 12 perle cotton and did some random quilting in the interior. There's a piece of batting between this page and the flower fairy to give the hankie some substance. The embroidered flowers on the right were on a vintage hand towel. I fussy cut them, raw edge appliqued them in place, and then couched a lightweight trim over the cut edges. 

 For the center spread I cut a piece of a fairly new cotton print. The large flowers were cut from one hankie and the smaller ones from a different hankie. The butterfly is wooden. It has a low profile and is lightweight. The patch is from snugglymonkey.com.

 Most of the violets on the left hand page of this spread came from one hankie. The darker violets came from another hankie. The right hand page is the pink hankie I referred to earlier. I folded it in half (using only half of the whole square hankie) to create the base for this page, lining up the crochet edges as closely as I could. The big pink rose is a commercial applique, the flower next to it is from yet another handkerchief. There's another dark violet and a strip of wedding trim along the top. I seed stitched this page with more tiny upright crosses. This page has batting between the two sides as this hanky was also very thin. It began life as a plain white handkerchief; Dawn Marie hand dyed it for me. 

 Here you have the other side of the pink hankie, more wedding trim, and more flowers cut from vintage handkerchiefs. The background areas are quilted with a pink Sulky12 thread. Opposite the hankie we have the other half of the white lace. 

Turn the lace over and you have another of the flower fairies on the inside back cover of the book.

And on the back cover I've applied another bit of crochet with a raised center. 

I

I love having the crochet edges peeking out on the sides and bottom of the book. And it's so soft and squishy; it's lovely to hold in the hands. I'm quite pleased with the way this turned out. There were many times I wasn't sure what I was doing. When I hit upon the fact that I'm trying to showcase the prettiest parts of the embroidered vintage hankies and find places for the short strips of lace and trims and such I realized that I'm trying to save textiles treasures. Thus the beginning of what I expect to be a new series of little books. 😊

Bogging Hiatus

 A couple of days after my post for Scrap Happy Day in July I had outpatient surgery. Recovery from both the surgery and the time spent in medical facilities (highly toxic to my body due to chemical sensitivities) has taken longer than anticipated. Now I'm on antibiotic and antibacterial medications. They are making me very lethargic. I've slept more in the last four weeks than I remember ever doing before. Frankly, there have been moments when I've wondered whether I will ever regain my energies. 

I can't say when I will be up to taking pictures and blogging again. I've done a little bit of stitching but nowhere near as much as I'd like. I appreciate my faithful visitors to this blog and am grateful for your comments in the past. I wish it were easier to respond to them. 

It's doubtful I will have something to share for Scrap Happy Day in August. Please be sure to visit the other participants to see what they've created out of scrap materials. 

Kjerstin, Eva, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan,
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Sue L, Vera, Kate,
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin, Alissa, Tierney,
Hannah, Maggie and Wizzy 

Scrap Happy in July

My latest scrap busting effort involved making what's called Big Dipper blocks in my reference book. I see hourglasses personally. Or time turners maybe? That may not be totally appropriate in terms of the Harry Potter series of books but it makes sense to me. Some of the prints are new-ish while others have been in my stash for many years. Time Turners it is. 😁 

 The individual blocks finish at eight inches. I made 64 of them so I could set 63 in 9 rows of 7 each. ('Cause you know I'm not into sashing. 😉) That gives me a flimsy 56.5" x 72.5." With a two inch border down the long sides and four inches across the top and bottom I'll have a quilt top that measures 60" x 80." 

As I went through my fabric collection I couldn't find enough yardage of anything I was willing to part with to make the borders for this flimsy. So I ordered yardage. I also ordered some extra wide fabric for the back. They haven't arrived yet. But right now the flimsy qualifies for Scrap Happy Day! 

This blog hop has been hosted for 11 years by Kate at Tall Tales from Chiconia. Unfortunately, Kate has developed some physical issues that will curtail her making and blogging for the immediate future. Kjerstin has kindly volunteered to take over hosting duties. Thank you Kjerstin. ❤️

Here are the links for everyone who joins ScrapHappy from time to time (they may not post every time, but their blogs are still worth looking at).

Kjerstin, Eva, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan,
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Sue L, Vera, Kate,
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin, Alissa, Tierney,
Hannah, Maggie and Wizzy

Independence Day 2026

 In honor of the 250th birthday of the United States of America I have put together this vintage 500 piece puzzle from Milton Bradley. I love the image. It wasn't as challenging a puzzle as one might expect at first glance. Or maybe my puzzling skills have improved since I've been doing jigsaws more frequently of late! 

I have posted a No Kings flag along with a pair of small-ish American flags for passers-by to view. Hubby and I will be watching the movie 1776 and then trying to sleep through the fireworks after dark. Pretty low key but that isn't a reflection of our gratitude for the founding of this nation, more a reflection of our ages. 😉

I will be back very soon as I have finished my Textile Tales book for June. I have a scrappy quilt top under construction too. See you then!

 

Scrap Happy in June

 This Scrap Happy Day I am sharing my start for my Textile Tales book for June. These little books are great for putting small scraps to use. This time I'm using Janet Kime's book Quilts to Share as my inspiration. 

 

This is an older book, published in 1991 by That Patchwork Place. It's one of many in my library I've had to have taken apart and individual pages put in archival sleeves to protect myself from the particulates/fumes that emanate from the ink or paper. It's the source for the cat block I've used for quilts in the past. 

 Most recently I've had this quilt from the book on my mind:

 What if I made the cover for my book like that?

 I didn't get as much variety in strip widths but I was also working at a much smaller scale. This cover piece measures 8.25" x 4.5." I worked strictly out of my bag of scraps that are less than 1.5" wide. 

I used the sew and flip method to secure the strips to batting and the piece of fabric for the inside of the cover. 

 This is a Mary Lou Weidman print. A major part of the book is dedicated to sharing how to organize the making of scrappy community quilts (quilts to be donated to a charity) within a quilt guild or group. So I felt the print of "quilt ladies" would be most appropriate to include. 😊

I have also constructed one half of one signature for my book. Out of scraps of course.

 This 7" x 4.5" unit will eventually make up two pages in my book. I have an idea for the center spread based on the little house quilt blocks in Janet's book. After that I don't know what will come next. The cat block will not work at this small scale or the square format of my pages. The Textile Tales books are not meant to be exact replicas of the inspiration volumes by any means. Just a jumping off place. 

I try to keep a stack of scrap patches near the sewing machine to sew together inbetween the seams of other projects. These are the blocks I've built over the last month or so:

 One of these days I really need to do something about the drawer FULL of 6" Hole in the Barn Door blocks (also known as Churn Dash blocks). It's getting so I can't easily put any more blocks in that drawer. 

Scrap Happy Day is hosted by Kate of Tall Tales from Chiconia on the 15th of each month. We have a new participant joining us this month. Welcome Wizzy!  

Kate, Eva, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin,  Alissa, Tierney,
Hannah, Maggie and Wizzy 

 

Textile Tales #5

I'm a little slow to share my May textile book with you. Better late than never I hope. 😊 

I didn't have a specific book to use as inspiration this time around. I might have had if I hadn't thinned out my library before now. Suffice to say I used my collection of African prints for this one. I'm calling it African Tails and Textiles.  

 

On the front cover I simply did a bit of outline stitching around the warrior and the shield.  Then I couched a chenille yarn around that patch. 

 

The inside of the cover is a single piece of fabric. It's pretty tightly woven, making it less fun to stitch through, so I just put some tiny upright crosses in the sky area. A lot of the stitching in this book is very simple.

 

The black lines on the print behind the cheetah were stem stitched with black floss. I used a green perle cotton to overstitch the green markings in the print in the lower right corner of the right hand page. 

 This is the center spread. The background is a single print. I didn't bother with any stitching other than what was necessary to applique the animals in place. 

 

Again, I only outlined stitched the face in the center of the upper half of the left page then put some straight stitches in the orange background behind the rhinoceros. African trade beads were strung to dangle from the button in the top corner of that page. On the left are a few more beads and another button (lower right corner). 

 

The final page has four more buttons and a few Colonial knots. There are some straight stitches in the yellow area at the bottom of that page. Opposite that is the rest of the blue print from the inside front cover. Then a string of African trade beads separates the blue from the next patch. The light batik print is folded over the edge from the back cover.  

 

The back cover probably has the most stitching of any page in this book. It was no easy feat to stitch with a black thread on that black background around the figures in the central patch. At least, not for my aging eyes! It's basically echo quilting. There is a layer of thin batting between the cover pieces. 

 

Here's the outside of the book open flat. I had more trouble stitching up the spine of this book than I've had with previous volumes. Not sure why. There are some tightly woven fabrics, and it's possible I ran into knots or stitches in some of the pages. I'm happy to have it done finally and am pleased with the result. Now it's on to my Textile Tales book for June! 

In case you weren't aware, I've been making one book per month since January of this year, following along with the Roxy sisters on YouTube. Their project ends with book six. I may very well carry on for the rest of the year as I'm finding this a great way to use up little pieces of favorite prints and treasures that I can stitch in place.

 

Scrap Happy in May

Scrap Happy Day occurs on the 15th of each month and is hosted by Kate at Tall Tales From Chiconia. The idea is to share a project or object that has been made entirely out of scrap materials or repurposed somehow. A couple of months ago I was gifted some vintage 8 pointed star quilt blocks that had been rescued from the trash! 

 I forget now how many of these blocks there were. Six or eight maybe. The star points were pieced on paper foundations from what I think was a catalog.

 I took off all the papers and hand washed the blocks. Then I separated the star points and eventually quite a few of the patches as well.

 I hadn't a clue what I was going to do with the patches. I had no interest in trying to put the star blocks into a quilt. But making slow stitched scrolls has been a source of real pleasure lately. In order to use the patches without cutting them down at all - because I always want to showcase the prints and colors - I figured a 4" strip of foundation fabric would accommodate the largest patches and I could use the smaller ones to fill in around them. So I ripped a strip off of a dress I can no longer wear (off the sleeve actually) and used it as the foundation for the scroll.

 A second strip from the other sleeve off the dress on the left and the scroll I made on the right. 

When I got to the end of my strip, which is about 17" long, I didn't know what to do with it. Then one day the lower quarter of the strip got folded up and the idea came to turn this into a hussif (needle roll or sewing kit). 

 That section will become a pocket to hold scissors, maybe a spool of thread, whatever might be needed. 

Above that I plan to put a pin cushion and somewhere along the length there will be felt pages for needles.

 Folding it up again and then the last bit becomes a flap and a place for a closure.

 That's as far as I've come. I'm thinking of using a piece of blue jean pant leg to line the patchwork. The pin cushion and needle pages will be secured to the denim. There will be a little bit of decorative stitching I think, and maybe an embellishment or two. Don't expect to see the end result next month though. I have two Textile Tales books I need to work on, not to mention a couple of other projects I have in process. In the meantime, you can visit the links below to get even more inspiration. 😊

Kate, Eva, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin,  Alissa,
Hannah and Maggie  

 

Not UFO's - Slow Works in Progress

I have started creating a textile book for April but work has stalled. I'm waiting for delivery of some special supplies. While I wait some old needlepoint projects have resurfaced. And I've been enticed by a new hand painted canvas. 😉

You may remember this one if you've been around for a few years.

 I'm thinking I will overstitch a spiderweb to liven up the background. Just haven't had the courage to attempt it yet. 

Then there's this canvas.  

 There are still a few detail stitches to put in. I'll need to do something about the background around it as well. 

The canvas I just bought fits right in with these two. 😁

 So someday I (or our children more likely) could have a triptych to display in the fall! That's assuming my eyes hold out long enough to get al three completed. They are all 18 mesh canvases, meaning 18 stitches to the inch. My eyes have changed in the last couple of years. One improved, the other got worse! So now in order to see what I'm doing on these canvases I'm having to remove my glasses altogether and hold the canvas right under my nose. 

Except that I haven't been working on any of these Halloween theme images. I've been stitching this one:

 This is another 18 mesh hand painted canvas. The black areas have been particularly challenging to see. When I purchased the chandelier canvas the seller gifted me a card of bamboo thread that was the perfect blue for the darker areas in the background. That's actually what got me started on needlepoint again. Since this photo was taken I've filled in the patch on the dog's face and on her body (more than once - I couldn't find the right color brown to use) and put a bright green in the light areas of the lower border. I have a feeling I'll be finishing this one up before I move on to either of the Halloween canvases. And then there's the book for April to get back to... 

 

Scrap Happy in April

 I've got another little book to share with you. This may have been my very first attempt at a fabric book, inspired by Susan Taylor Brown's "just because" books. Other books have been started and finished since I embarked on this one.   

 This book is about 3.25" wide and 5" tall. I only used things I found in my stash. The challenge was to see what I could do in a black and white palette. The 'Liberty' tag was cut from a silk tie. The buttons are vintage. I had fun playing with my buttons in this book. 

 I tried to use a variety of fabric types. The eyelet on page 2 is a little pocket. The black flower next to it is a crochet piece as is the white flower on the next page. 

 More labels from neckties on page four. The number 2 and the spiffy fella on page 5 were cut from quilting cottons. I used this book as an opportunity to feature some laces along with everything else.  

 After I'd added the mouse (from another quilter's cotton), the strip of crochet and the fibers I couldn't bring myself to do any additional stitching on this center spread. I really like being able to read the words that were printed on the cotton along with the images of cookie dough on the cookie sheets. 

 More labels. Then I fell into spooky mode. 

 On the upper left of the back cover is a waterfall of scrap patches. 

 I used this book as a learning experience. That's one reason it has taken so long to get it to a finished state. I'd get stuck, not knowing what to do next. Then I'd come across someone else's approach or technique and give it a try. I've learned what I enjoy doing and what doesn't appeal to me so much. 

Here are the links for other bloggers who generally participate in this blog hop.  😊

Kate, Eva, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin,  Alissa,
Hannah and Maggie