Cozy Calico

Mom and I recently discovered the blog Posie Gets Cozy. (How have we missed her all these years?!?) We are so in love with her blog, her charming bungalow, cute as can be daughter and lovely quilts! Hours have been spent ohhing and ahhing. And before we knew it, inspiration was swirling around. So two weekends ago, the fabric was sorted, the sewing machine cleaned and threaded, the iron heated and a quilt was made.

Inspired by Alicia's calico comforter, we used an Ikea comforter instead of the usual cotton batting, tuffy floss ties instead of quilting stitches and simple 4.5" squares. From the fabric stash we pulled out all the reds, orange, blue, green, and browns (to match the living room) we could find.

Can you believe we had all these fabrics in the stash? Some had a copyright of 2000 stamped on the salvage...... It was so good to finally use them up!

The top went together fairly quickly. I was a little sad not to get it all finished by Sunday evening(couldn't wait to see how it would turn out!), but by Tuesday evening all the layers were sewn together and safety pinned. Though there are still tufts to be tied as we ran out of black embroidery floss.

 We are so happy with our new calico comforter, it has already become favorite. Kerri especially loves cuddling up in it. I love how nicely the colors go with the living room, even though to me it looks slightly reminiscent of the 1970s.

Clean the New Year in Right!

 Last weekend with my time off I gave my room and closet/sewing room a good cleaning and re-organization. The best way to bring in a new year, don't you think?

I live in an old house that has wonderful walk-in closets that you can get lost in! My closet is both a closet and my sewing nook. I am now able to move my sewing space out to a bigger place, but for now I love coziness of it! I can tuck myself away from the everthing and not get disturbed. mostly because I am hard to find!

 Come right in!

Part of my milk bottle collection I try to make useful and a pattern for inspiration.

 My little 50s Kennmore sewing machine. I love her. We have been through so much together! I think this is the first sewing machine that was mine, as I learned on my Mom's. Not so crazy about the color, but love the size. It is a half size machine.

 A little inspiration on the walls!

 My new organizer boxes! So everything is just not a heap on the table.

 Of course there is one for aprons! And one for fabric waiting to be made into aprons.

More vintage ads on the other wall.

It was really hard to get good pictures as it is such a small space! Well, small with a sewing table in it! I am quite proud of my little space as for years and years I just had to sew on the dining room table. I love tucking myself in and losing myself in a project.

Do you have a sewing space or crafting room?

Repro Fabric

Oh......... I just got spring fever! Is this not one of the prettiest fabrics you have seen? It is such luscious eye candy.

These fabrics are from one of my favorite fabric companies. Marcus Brothers (http://www.marcusbrothers.com/) This is from the Aunt Gracie Collection, which is 30s reproduction fabric. Perfect for aprons!

Another of my favorite fabric companies Windham Fabrics (www.windhamfabrics.com) has a reproduction feed sack collection.

a repro feed sack with flour labels

"Printed floursacks, (and feedsacks) were a tradition beginning in the great depression, but lasted into the 1950's. It is estimated that by the early 1940's over 3 million women and children were wearing some version of a printed feedbag garments.Not only were flourssack designs simple, so was the concept. They were used as a promotion to sell more flour because the bag, or sack that the flour was packed in could be reused to make clothes. One of the reasons for there being thousands of different flour sack designs was the idea that the shorter the time that a particular design was available, more designs would be used. Women wanted more fabric designs and would therefore help drive demand for the flour."

(an excerp from http://www.windhamfabrics.com/ )

Can't you just aprons!

I found this little shop on Etsy, www.etsy.com/shop/NauvooQuiltCo They have repros (from Windham and Marcus) and also vintage feedsacks.

1940s art deco vintage feed sack. Fun!

A 1930s feedsack. Love it!