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.

 

Textile Tales Book 3

 I used Rachel Ashwell's book My Floral Affair as inspiration for my third effort in Roxy's Journal of Stitchery Volume 9. I also used it as a place to feature some of the embroidered corners of the vintage hankies I've been collecting. 😊 But it was a hand towel that became the outer cover for the book.

 I decorated it with short bits of lace. 

The stitching on the back cover started as a way to make the back long enough when I accidentally cut it too short. I added on another piece of the towel with herringbone stitch then added a row of blanket stitches and another row of herringbone to balance it out. Oh, and I added a couple more of the lazy daisy flowers and leaves to fill up he back cover. 

I used a quilting cotton for the inside of the covers. There's a layer of thin cotton batting between the two layers. 

 All the flowers (and the leaves on the inside front cover) have been fussy cut from vintage hankies and raw edge appliqued in place. On the first page I used the corner of the hankie to save the scalloped hem and seed stitched the background area with tiny upright cross stitches. They've become my favorite way to give a background texture.  

 On the left hand page of this spread I used a green cotton print under the hankie pieces to give more a feel of a garden. I used detached chain stitches (lazy daisy stitches) to fill the background and give a further impression of leaves. The yellow on the next page was from a linen handkerchief. I added to the foliage on the upper half with some fern stitches.

Here I've used another corner over a burgundy cotton. I outlined the flowers and big white-on-white leaves, securing the hankie to the cotton with those stitches. 

 This is a linen and Battenburg lace doily that was hand dyed (but not by me). This is the center spread in my book.

 This page on the right was the last one I worked on. I was able to purchase the lacy pocket and the little pots of daisies from the same lady the pink doily came from. I used this pocket to hold a tag with the documentation I'm trying to include with each book.

 Next we have more of the yellow linen with another corner laid over top. I've simply stitched around the flowers again. On the right I appliqued pieces from two different hankies, once more preserving a shaped corner.

 The final page features a rose and rosebuds, again from two different hankies. 

 When I made the cover I added a square of a plaid I particularly like, intending to use it for documentation. I'd forgotten about that when I found the lacy pocket and was anxious to complete the book pages. 😉 I didn't add the crocheted flower until the very end. 

 And that closes the book for March! 

 

Scrap Happy in March

Welcome to Scrap Happy Day! I have a couple of quilts to share with you this time around. First off, this Shoo-fly and Courthouse Steps quilt that I pieced last year.

It ended up being about 60" square. The blocks are all six inches finished surrounded by a 3" border. 

 It has been donated to be used by a child in Foster Care or a patient in chemo therapy.

I haven't done a lick of piecing on the machine since I started on the Textile Tales books. Before that even. It's a little unsettling. We shall see what the future brings. 

The other quilt I want to share was made some time ago. I have no idea exactly when or by whom. I purchased it when we were living in Texas from a sort of antiques shop. That would have been between 1988 and 1990 probably. It was intact when I bought it and have treated it gently but it has suffered since then. Somewhere along the way a mouse got to it and removed some of the cotton that was used for batting. I've enjoyed it folded at the end of my bed and over a chair back most recently.

 The last time I had a good close look at the quilt I noticed some stitching between patches had fallen away and a couple of places where the fabric was all but gone. It was beyond my ability to repair. {sigh} So I have begun taking it apart. 

Based on what I've learned over the years my conclusion is that this was made by an African-American woman, maybe in the 1950's. The batting is raw cotton. We were living in what would have been cotton growing country at that time. In fact, it still was when we were there, just not to the same extent I suspect.

 I have discovered a repair that had been done before I purchased the quilt but hadn't realized was there. There's also at least one patch that had been pieced before being used in a block. Everything about this quilt speaks to my soul. It make me sad that I can no longer use it in its' original state. I have every intention of figuring out how to use and honor the parts of it that are still viable. 

Scrap Happy Day is hosted monthly by Kate at Tall Tales from Chiconia. Not everyone participates every month but there's plenty of inspiration to be found in the list below. 

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 

 

 

Textile Book Number 2

Honestly, I meant to do this a week ago! Life sure has a way of subverting plans.

I'm following along with the Roxy sisters and Volume 9 of their Journal of Stitchery project. Not that I'm adhering strictly to the brief, but I am trying. The idea is to use a physical book as inspiration for a textile book. For February I went with a genre rather than any specific title. I'm calling my book Tales From the Macabre. 😁 

It all began with a beautiful vintage hankie. Black, with cutwork outlined in white. I'd never seen such a thing until I found it on eBay. Fortunately, I didn't have to pay through the nose to get it. For the cover of my book I laid a piece of purple cotton underneath the cutwork. I used black batting to pad the cover. 

 

The hankie was a bit too big for the size I wanted my book to be so I had to make a pleat where the spine would be. In the end I was able to decorate the spine with some crinkled seam binding and beads so the pleat disappeared. 

 I used a piece of hand dyed (not dyed by me) crochet to create a pocket on the inside front cover. Then I made a tag from an Edward Gorey note card to give me a place to write my documentation.

 The haunted house was cut from a quilter's cotton and surrounded with a piece of gathered black lace. Actually, several pieces from my quilting stash were used to create the pages of my book.

The cat is a flat back embellishment I was able to couch in place. I left the adder alone. That page has next to no stitching on it in fact. I used a spider charm and a bat button on the next page. The skeleton was cut from a twill ribbon that I tea dyed. 

 This is the center spread of my book. I was able to use a third corner from the hankie here which pleased me very much. I still have the fourth corner to use somewhere else. Those are tiny black star sequins held in place with a bead scattered across the background areas. 

 The crescent moon is a sequin and the flowers at the bottom of this last page are paper on top of a strip of lace, secured with a matte flower sequin and a bead. The background is scatter stitched with a thread that is virtually the same color as the fabric. The pocket on the inside of the back cover was made with a piece of vintage lace. So far it remains empty.

 And finally, the back cover. All of the stitching on the cover was done with a purple Sulky cotton petite thread. The purple on black about did my eyes in. I used Sulky threads and occasionally a size 12 perle cotton throughout. Three strands of floss to blanket stitch the pages together. Overall my book measures 3.75" wide and 4.5" tall. The idea is to keep the books all the same size but this one turned out a bit larger than my book of feedsack fabrics. I think my feedsack book is going to turn out to be the smallest in the series actually. It was the first one, and I learned along the way. 

My book for March has been started. It will pretty much be the polar opposite of February's book. But then, February was not at all of a piece with January!  

No Kings Since 1776

 I've been using my needle and thread to help me cope with what's been going on in the United States of America. I shared this little book a few months ago, when it was still in the works. It is now complete.

 I have ancestors who participated in the original American Revolution. 

Most of the men in my family have served in the military through the generations. 

I firmly believe in the principles that were the foundation of this nation.

I wish I could do more to fight in this new American revolution.

So I turn to fabric, needle, and thread.

Scrap Happy in September

 Good heavens, it's been a whole month since I last posted! I can only say I have a list of excuses, none of which you want to be bothered with. 

Last month I shared the pink scroll I'd been working on. This is how I finished it off:

I backed the length of the scroll with that mottled pink batik and then also wrapped a short strip of batting with the same fabric. I included a loop of elastic cord when I closed up the batting "spool." It loops over the button at the end of the scroll. And then the whole thing rolls up and gets tied with some sari ribbon.

 I added a bead before tying on the heart charm at the end of the ribbon. That project was so much fun I went right ahead and made another one. 

 

Can I just say, scrolls are frustrating to photograph. I tried making a video but wasn't allowed to upload it here for some reason.

  I lined this scroll and then looked around for something to wrap it around. Finally I just gave up and wrapped a bit a batting around a wooden clothes pin, secured it with a few stitches, and then wrapped the scroll around that. 

(I do love variegated threads.) 

I wrapped this one in the opposite direction from the pink scroll. It just seemed to read better that way.

 Scrap Happy Day is hosted on the 15th of each month by Kate at Talltalesfromchiconia. We share something we've made out of scrap materials or something repurposed. Some of our makes are useful, others are more decorative like these scrolls. 😊

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

 

Scrap Happy in May: A Finish and a Flimsy

 Back at the beginning of this year I made the decision to use up some of the fabric that had been in The Magpie's Nest for decades. I settled on a simple four patch pattern using patches that finish at 3." I had a bunch of 6" (finished) fussy-cut squares that I could use between the four patch blocks too. I had to cut more of those to get the size I was after for the finished quilt. Overall it was a pleasant project. It is finally a finished quilt.

 

My original intention was to donate it for a child in foster care or to Wrap the World With Quilts. However, now I find it to be a comprehensive record of the quilts I've made over the years (and a few I haven't yet made but thought I would). So this quilt is going to stay with me for the time being. 😁

I have continued my quest to use up older prints and remnants. If you've been here before you will have seen some of the scrappy blocks I've been making.  The greatest number were flying geese.

 When I stopped to count them up I discovered I had more than enough for another version of the free Remixed Geese pattern from Kaufman Fabrics. In some flights of geese I used a print for the large triangle (the goose) and sometimes I was able to also use that same print for the background. So when it came time to audition the geese for this new quilt top I tried to avoid using a single print more than once. 

If you follow the pattern directions they have you making only two geese at a time. The quilt top can then be assembled in horizontal rows. I tend to make my geese four at a time and sew them all into a strip. That makes it a greater challenge to lay out the blocks. Sometimes I have to separate the flight into two halves. I don't consider that a huge drawback. 

 The bigger challenge for me is extending my design wall to accommodate all the geese and then keeping everything in place until I can get it sewn together. Pins and the camera in my phone are a great help. Then it becomes akin to assembling a jigsaw puzzle, another activity I enjoy. 

 This is the completed flimsy. It would finish at 54" x 72" at this point. (I added an extra row to the pattern.) I'm currently debating whether to add a 3" border all the way around just to bring it up to 60" x 78." I believe I will be able to send this one out into the world when it is finally a finished quilt. 😊

I'm probably one of the last to post for Scrap Happy Day as this blog hop begins with Kate in Australia and I'm on the west coast of the United States. We all post on the 15th of each month in our various time zones, spanning the globe. You can see how others are repurposing or using up scrap materials all over the world by clicking on the links below.

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