Cold Weather and Warm-Hearted Friends

Like much of the country, we have had our share of snow and cold weather this winter.  And earlier this week, found ourselves in the deep freeze of the polar vortex.  brrrrrr  
But a sweet package arrived to brighten my week.  A lovely pair of handmade kitchen goodies from the talented quilter, blogger, and pattern designer, Stephanie of Loft Creations! (Who, by the way, now has her very own book!)
I just had to share a picture of them in front of the vintage bread sign hanging in my kitchen.  Look how awesome they go together.  And the little pear applique on the hot pad is all vintage fabrics...too perfect.  :)

 

And in an effort to make peace with all the snow, I've put together a few vintage fabrics that remind me of snowflakes.

These are all from the 1950's.  The design is sort of a Penn-Dutch, geo-floral that was quite popular at the time.  I've always liked them as they were reminiscent of the Spirograph designs of my childhood. And although similar, they were each unique, like snowflakes.  :)

Stay warm, everyone!  Only 10 more weeks until spring! (ugh, can that be right?)lol

Pink and Blue Feedsack Pieces

I came across these lovely feedsack pieces in my stash and decided to list them on the website.
I have these 3 smaller pieces listed as a lot.

And the other two listed separately. Love that aqua and roses!

The last two antique show/flea markets I wanted to go to were pretty much rained out, so I'm getting a bit antsy. Hopefully we'll have clear skies for the next one or I think I'll have to do a road trip!
Have a great week, everyone!

Vintage Corduroy Fabric

This week's post is about vintage corduroy fabrics.  Although corduroy is generally thought of as a winter clothing fabric, its a fabulous year-round textile for quilts, bags, and other accessories.
I find it very easy to sew and love to pair it with similar weight fabrics such as barkcloth, wool tweeds, and printed and cut velvets.

I remember corduroy being very popular in the 1970's, and had a well-loved pair of orange corduroy gauchos when I was a kid.  :)  This cute Penn-Dutch print was likely produced around that same time.

This next one is my favorite ( love the color combo of teal, navy, and olive) and is probably a little earlier, 1960's, I imagine.

It is a great match with the solid teal, as are several other fabrics.  The bright Fairy tale barkcloth is just begging to be paired up with it!

I also have a couple vintage linen towels that pair well with the solids.

Not sure yet what project these combos will be used for.  But what about you? Have you worked with this sturdy, versitile fabric?   Any other fans of corduroy out there? 
There's a lot of nasty weather across the country this week, stay safe everyone!

Vintage 1930-40's Butterflies and Quilt Squares

I'm in LOVE!  I recently found these gorgeous vintage butterfly applique pieces in the most wonderful 1930's and 40's prints.  There is 128  of them...2 of each print!

How about a closer look at these amazing prints...there are lots of blues.

Pretty greens and teals.

A nice collection of reds (love the cute fish print)

Yellows.

Rusts and orange.

And just a few pinks and purple.

I've had a couple of these prints in full width yardage before, but many I've never seen.   I think I'll have to keep one set for myself to use in projects and just to fawn over. :)  The rest will be listed on the website , after a bit more research is done to confirm they're vintage.   Not sure yet if I should break them up into smaller lots or keep them as one.  (opinions welcome).
I also purchased a lot of 4" quilt squares from the same seller.  There were many feedsacks in this lot.

And lots of cute fabric prints along with checks, stripes, paisleys, and a few solids.

Here's a few of my favorite prints.

Those little topiary trees are just too cute, and the patchwork print in the center...love that one.
So as you can see, I've been in vintage fabric print heaven.  But its not over yet! I also came across a 4 yard length of 1960-70's Kettlecloth.  Its the same mod daisy and lily of the valley design that I had before, but in a black and tan colorway.

Ok, that's it for now. I've bored you with enough fabrics for one day. lol  I do have a few more finds to share (including 4 amazing 30's juvenile print fabrics) but that will have to wait till later in the week.
Wishing a safe week to those in the path of Hurricane Sandy.  Its chilly, rainy and windy here in Ohio...a perfect day to stay in, make a big pot of soup, and sew.  :)

Fabric Gift Wrapping and Craft Paper Flowers

This weekend Hubby and I went to a fun wedding shower/reception picnic.  It was held at a local park and the weather was just gorgeous!  Normally, when it comes to gifts, I'm a big fan of gift bags...they're fast, easy, pretty, and you can fit most anything in one.  But on this occassion, our gift was not going to fit in a bag. I was going to have to go old-school and wrap this thing.  No wrapping paper in the house, but I did have some craft paper and lots of fabric. So I went with an Obi sash look using a pretty yellow and pink cherry blossom fabric and a small strip of white cotton.

Next I needed a flower of some sort.  I've seen some lovely paper flowers so I googled for a How-To. I found this tutorial and after unearthing my glue gun, i went to cutting.   I added a few extra layers of petals to mine, but the instructions were super easy.  I made one out of polka dot napkins that I picked up at a yard sale and the other out of the craft paper that I wrapped the box with.

Although I love the polka dots, it was a bit more fragile than the heavy craft paper, so I opted for just the solid one for this gift.  I could totally get addicted to making these little flowers! They are so fun and think of all the possibilities...you could use pretty vintage wrapping paper, newsprint, the sunday comics, sheet music, old book pages, old sewing pattern paper, etc...

In other news, the For Sale By Owner sign finally went up at the Tiny house.  We had the first showing over the weekend and received an offer! Hubby is dealing with the price negotiations and hopefully we'll be able to come to some agreement. Personally, I'm ready to say YES  just to have it done and over with quick, but we'll see.

More Fun 70's Fabrics

After bringing home the cute 70's fabrics a few weeks ago, I couldn't stop thinking of the stacks I had left behind. So, I went back and got some more!

Most are novelty children's prints and so fun!

The red is a heavy weight canvas with calico print toadstools and turtles and the other has jade green and yellow ladybugs and butterflies and is a lovely rayon or rayon/cotton blend by J.Manes co.
And then we have some bright neon pink.

The tulip and daisy fabric is a semi-sheer dimity? And my favorite of the bunch...Fairy Tale barkcloth!

It is a light weight cotton barkcloth by THC Hawaiian Textiles. It has the cutest scenes of every fairytale and nursery rhyme I've ever heard of, plus some. Look at that adorable Alice in Wonderland square above!...and the GingerBread Man! Too cute.  :)
Look for these and other great vintage fabrics on the website. 
I'm tackling a painting project in the basement, today, so hopefully I'll have some before and after pics soon.  Have a great week, everyone!

That 70's Fabric

I recently purchased some amazing fabrics from the 1970's.  Gorgeous brightly colored Flower Power designs:

...this pretty neon pink cotton sateen is my favorite:

These cute polka dot strawberry and turtle prints were in the bunch, too.

They sold out the minute I listed them, so they are already on their way to a new home.  But there is also this little turtle daisy print, (turtles must have been popular in the 70's) :)

And this cute strawberry ladybug fabric.  I think this one is just a bit older, maybe 60's.  It has a 36" selvage width and has the prettiest color combo of red, pink and aqua.

Most of these are listed on the website or will be soon.  Be sure to check out all of our latest finds in the "Newly Listed Items" section!
Have a great week, everyone!

Vintage Calico Fabric

Today is all about vintage calico fabric.
Although here in the US we generally associate the word “calico” with small colorful flower prints on quilt-weight fabrics, it originally referred to the cloth itself.
Here is a brief history of the fabric and term: Calico is a plain woven textile made from unbleached cotton originating from a city in Kerala, India once known as Calicut. Block printed cottons were sent from India to England as early as 1630 and referred to as "calicuts." The term "calico" was soon used to refer to all Indian cottons with an equal weft and warp, then to any plain-weave cotton.

In the early 1700s, England banned the importation of printed fabrics from India. This caused
grey cloth (calico that had not been finished—dyed or printed) to be imported instead, and these were printed in southern England with the popular patterns.
Printed calico was imported into the United States from Lancashire in the 1780s, and here is where a difference in terminology occurred; while Europe maintained the word calico for the fabric, in the States it was used to refer to the printed design. (source:wikipedia)

In this post we’re highlighting the cute tiny floral prints known as
calicoes.
Ok, enough with the history lesson…on with the pretty pictures! :D

These are just a few of the ones in my inventory and can be found on the website. How many cute vintage calicoes are in your fabric stash? Their small scale makes them an obvious and perfect choice for quilting, but for what other projects do you find your self reaching for a calico?