vintage quilts, signature wraps and Blackberries

Well more seemingly unrelated items...except in my world.

Vintage Quilts...


I've posted a picture of a vintage quilt that I am honored to own.
My grandmother was a quilter, a doll doctor and maker of many many beautiful things. My mom only had three of the quilts that she made. Two of them were utilitarian quilts - made from scraps of old clothing and left over fabric. But warm. They served three generations of my family well. The last one is the one that I posted. It's a needle turn applique quilt that has a beautiful pattern on it. I'll try to get Mr. Wonderful to get a picture of the entire thing for me. But the close up is a small section of the beautiful Flower Tree pattern. I would be willing to bet that it was a pattern - as you can actually see the lines on the fabric around the pieces. Beautiful coordinating fabrics were used - pinks, yellows and a pale brown. There is even some hand embroidery on it. It is so old and worn that the actual quilting thread has disintegrated in spots! But not so worn that the stain from one child's misplaced cup of Kool-Aid hasn't faded...a testament to the staying power of Kool-Aid fabric dyeing! I never understood why anyone would allow a toddler, a cup of Kool-Aid and Grandma's vintage quilt in the same place...
Anyway, I love the quilt, stains and all, and am so glad that it found its way to my home.
I will cherish and use it well...

On to the Signature Wraps...

Last night I worked on another signature wrap. This time I used vintage muslin (from my grandmother's doll making stash), coffee stained lace for edging, scraps of meaningful fabric (from mom's doll dress fabric, romper I made for my son when he was a baby, lace from grandmother stash, vintage button, fabric printout from my buddy DJ and silk fabric from a new friend) and a few beads, baubles and other vintage ribbon. I spent hours trying this layout and then that one. I finally decided (or the fabric did) to go with the one in the picture. I will go back and add some other little bits of things as I happen upon them...

I also worked on the closure for the front of the book. I used scraps of rusted drapery material, piece of a vintage doily and tiny pearl beads. You see the round doily section? Right up under that is a grommet that I put in so that I can later add some ribbon or something to tie the whole thing together. The way I'm going, it's liable to be a big, fat Crazy Callie book...

Blackberries...

Big, fat, thornless blackberries to be exact...yum yum.

Bigger and fatter than a quarter (oh a bobbin too!)...did I mention the absence of those pesky thorns? Yep, wonderful.

But what will be more wonderful than that is the blackberry cobbler that I'm going to make as soon as I get enough of those babies!

And another wonderful thing - sharing them with friends that come by...

don't you wish you lived closer now?