Hello Monday

 

I’m glad it’s Monday and the weekend is over. I honestly did no sewing all weekend….you won’t hear me say that very often, but I just wasn’t in the mood. In fact, the little machine I use at home is still packed up from last week’s workshop. 

I delivered Barbara Black to the Austin airport Saturday morning. We left Victoria at 7:30 am, and I dropped her off at the airport around 9:45. I took the quickest route to get there, but coming back, I decided to return through Smithville and Shiner. There is a Consuela handbag store in Smithville,

and it is sort of an outlet, with a room full of markdowns. 

It was worth the trip. I left with two purses and a wallet.

When I left there, I walked over to a couple of the antique stores. All of these cool pieces have possibilities for landscaping my yard. 

Luckily they wouldn’t fit in my car. LOL. 

There were quite a few quilts, but I wasn’t really tempted by them either.

The prices were $175 and up, which didn’t feel like a bargain. I did like this one

but not enough to buy it. 

My last stop was in Shiner at the quilt shop.

They had quite a few bolts that had been marked down to $5.00/yard. You can see I had added a few more bags to my back seat when I left there.

I got home around 3pm, and I tried to take a nap, but the dogs weren’t having it so I got up and started cleaning house. An hour later, they had sacked out. 

Of course, it was too late then for me to have a nap.

I was tired Sunday and didn’t do much. After church, I stopped by the shop to feed the cat. She was waiting for me, and look what was right behind her!

I couldn’t get very close as they are both skittish, but I tried to get a better picture of the kitten. 

He looks just like mama. I love his white paws.

Vintage Quilt

 As promised, here's the picture of the vintage top I quilted last week:

It's super wonky, but that's no surprise. The top itself was really bumpy and wavy. At least it's a quilt now, and the great fabrics will be preserved.

It still needs binding, and I'm thinking of navy. We'll see.

I got the quilting finished on the blue quilt, and that was one of my weekly goals, so I'm glad to get it done.

When I finish this post, I need to go into the sewing room and get the binding cut.

I got a late start yesterday because I was trying to finish up the baking and get trays delivered.

I'm embarrassed to say I sampled everything I baked. I really didn't need to eat that many sweets, but I had to make sure they tasted okay before I delivered them. LOL! I tried to do a course correction for lunch.

Of course, it would have been healthier without the ranch, but the veggies are so much better dipped in ranch.

A New Old Quilt

I love old quilts--my favorite pattern is the Improved Nine Patch (aka Glorified Nine Patch). I have a couple of old ones in that pattern. In fact, you might have noticed my blog header is one of them. We have a box at church where we collect used coats and sweaters for the homeless, and someone put a vintage Improved Nine Patch quilt in it. The lady who distributes the coats asked me if I wanted it, and of course I did. It was pretty yellowed and dingy, but I soaked it for about 10 hours and hung it up outside to dry, and now look at it!

It is so much brighter! I didn't think to take a picture before I cleaned it, but it is clean now.

It isn't quite square, and the back has some stains. I'm not sure if I will try to deal with the stains or just leave it alone. After all, they didn't come out after soaking it, and they're not terrible.

This quilt is around 75" x 82", and the weather is getting cool enough to have a quilt on the bed, so that's where this one is right now. I'm enjoying it, and I like the vintage look. I don't normally gravitate to anything blue, so I don't have much of that color in my collection. Anyway, I felt a little funny about taking something that was donated for the homeless, so I went by Walmart and bought a jacket to put in the donation box. I think that's a fair trade?

Washing a Vintage Quilt Part 2

This was the before:

This is the after:

I’m not sure the pictures do it justice. It looks so much cleaner and fresher, and the colors are more vibrant. There were a couple of really bad stains that didn’t come all the way out, but they are considerably lighter. This one in mainly a discoloration in the white square 

and this one looked like oil or tar.

I did rub it with some soap while it was soaking and was able to lighten it quite a bit. It took a while to get it dry, but it was so worth it.

Washing a Vintage Quilt

I posted a picture of this quilt a few days ago.

It’s really dirty……some of the dirt may be stains that won’t come out. I decided I needed to try before this one gets put away. I am not claiming to be an expert, but I have had a lot of experience washing old quilts, and they usually come out so much better.

I use a cleaner like Retro Clean to soak the quilt in. I never use the washing machine as I have been told the agitation of the machine can tear up the quilt. I mix the retro clean in cold water in my bathtub. I put a clean sheet in the bottom and then put the quilt on top of that. Make sure it is completely submerged in the cold water. The sheet is used to support the quilt when lifting it from the tub. The weight of a wet quilt can definitely pop the quilting stitches, and I sure don’t want that to happen. I swish the quilt around a little to get the detergent solution into the fibers, and I will let it soak for a few hours. After soaking I drain the water and then fill the tub up with rinse water and swish it around some more. I repeat the rinse “cycle” until I am sure all the detergent is out of the fibers. I try to lay the quilt outside in the sun to dry. Lay it in a sheet and cover it with another sheet to prevent fading. If there were any odors in the quilt, the combination of clean water and fresh air will generally eliminate them. 

So in the meantime, I had also washed and dried sheets and remade the bed with a fresh vintage quilt.

The lighting in the bedroom makes it look a little peachy, but it is actually pink. It is the little things make me happy.

Vintage Quilt Top

When I found the tote with the vintage quilt, I also found three unquilted tops. I truly have no memory of how these came to be in my possession, but I am guessing either a flea market or an auction as I am a fan of both. One of my very favorite patterns is the improved nine patch, so I have no doubt I bought this one.

. 

There are definitely some problems.

I think I can remove the damaged pieces and use them as a pattern to cut new pieces. The top is hand pieces. 

Im not sure what to do about the border. I think I will need to turn it under and appliqué it to a solid piece of stable fabric. That, of course, is easier said than done.

You can see how frayed this is. Here’s a word of advice. No matter how dirty an unquilted top is, never, never, never launder it. Wait until it is quilted, and then it is washable. This one was laundered, and the seams, especially the outside edges, definitely suffered for it. I know people don’t know any better, but it made this one a challenge.

Another Oldie

Here's another on of the antique quilts I packed up over the weekend.

It looks a little pink, but it is light purple. It is another one I bought because I have several old ones that are pink or yellow or green, but not too many purple -- if any. I found it in an antique mall in Alvin several years ago and don't remember what I paid, but I'm pretty sure it was less than $200. The batting on this one is not very thick, but definitely thicker than the blue one I showed yesterday. The quilting is not really fine on this one either, but not bad.

The fabrics in this one intriqued me. There are some that are quite old, and then you see the quirky floral or the black and white geometric, and those look more 40's or 50's to me. So, even though it said on the tag that it was early 1900's, I don't really believe it. 

I like this "make do" block where she ran out of one fabric and subbed in another. 

The back is solid purple:

And, here it is packed up with its sisters ready to go back to Victoria:

A Busy Sunday

It was a really productive day. I went through the bedroom to see what was in there that could be packed up and decided the antique quilts can go back to Victoria now. Here's some pictures of one of them:

I bought it at an antique store in LaGrange that was going out of business. It was their last day and everything was half-price. It had been $150, and I really debated with myself about paying $75 as it is a little primitive....not what I would call really fine work and there are a couple of stains. But, I didn't have any blue quilts in my collection, and the black embroidery thread around the dresdens gives it a lot of charm. The batting is really thin so it is lightweight. Funny thing, when I took it to the register, the lady said she was going to only charge me $60 because she was wanted me to have it and was hoping I would buy it. I took it home and soaked it in oxyclean, and most of the stains (and a lot of dirt) came out. Here are some close ups of the blocks and the quilting.

The border is really cute. It's just a little wider on the top and bottom than it is on the sides. The backing is the same light blue as the setting blocks and the binding.

Vintage Thingie Thursday

While blog-surfing, I found a blog (Coloradolady) with some cool pics of vintage collectibles. She has invited viewers to join her in Vintage Thingie Thursday by posting pics of their own vintage treasures. I was enjoying seeing what other viewers had chosen to post and decided to post a pic of my own.
The cutest thing about this little washboard is the writing on the top saying it's ideal for silks, lingerie and hosiery. Can you just imagine washing your hosiery on those rough metal ridges? Oh, it also says it's the perfect size for traveling as it fits in a suitcase or small travel bag. Makes you think about how things have changed.........

Carolyn