Vintage Thingies Thursday & two finishes!

Here's a real treasure, seen at the local Humane Society thrift shop in Ridgway CO.


Now who do you suppose would have perambulated around with their baby in this wacky plaid buggy? Guess plaid was all the rage at that stage but can't imagine finding a buyer for it these days, can you? At least it would get lots of attention, it's a real show stopper!
The style though is reminiscent of the German Baby Carriage I used for our youngest DS [ now nearly 35 years old & expecting his own first son in April] but his pram was white & dark blue & quite elegant!

DS's pram was a rather fancy number- the top came off & could be used as a bassinette, & there was a way to drop the front down so that it converted to a stroller.Love that German engineering ingenuity!
It had the retractable hood too, very nice on hot or inclement days & it came [used but in immaculate condition] with some rather nice accessories, navy & red plaid pillow & coverlet.
Isn't he a sweet little baby, just about 2 weeks old in the first photo, all of 7lbs.2ozs. You'd never know it to see him now, over 6ft.4 & 218 lbs. of muscle! here he is with his Kiwi, Mems, early last summer.



Then here I am, around age 2-3 with my baby pram..........


and circa 1969, with my first brand new car [previous to that I had several"junkers"] a sizzling hot orange Holden Torana with black upholstery -how hot was that in the Aus. summer & no air conditioning either, but boy was I proud of that car -& $1 in gas kept her running for a whole week, those were the days. Do you dig the sunnies?


On a quilty note-



Yesterday I finished the second of two quilts going to my niece in Aus. for her baby girl expected in the next few weeks. I still have to label the farm quilt, launder both then get them in the mail ASAP. I noticed in the pic. a pin in the doggy block that is to remind me to fix a minor imperfection before laundering, just so you know the quilt is not going to the baby with a quilter's pin in it! Yikes!




I made the second quilt as a "drag around cuddle quilt" from left-overs, it's a Strip Twist from Bonnie Hunter's quiltville.com. I have enough "left overs" still to make at least one or two more from these same fabrics. As there seems to be no shortage of babies coming it's a good thing I have plenty of suitable stash fabric, right?

Sunday

I wanted to show the party favors from the birthday celebration. It was held at a new restaurant called "Liberty Market " . Food was very nice, a really good red Aussie wine & the espresso coffee was excellent, strong but not bitter must be Joe's refurbished antique espresso machine.
We came home with a couple of party favors, a box of the gourmet cookies[yum yum] & a bicycle horn each! Our hosts are both serious cyclists, so it was very appropo! We may have been a wee bit disruptive to the other diners [sorry folks] all tooting our horns last night
I have put my horn in my ML & plan to use it when road rage overtakes me, lol!

Bustin' stash, but adding too!

We are off to a 50th. birthday celebration this evening & when DH asked me what I would give this friend I thought, wine, chocolate, nah she might have to share those with her DH, but wait a minute, she's a quilter & loves CW repros & do I have a stash of those due to my work with HOBQP. I pulled out 4 boxes of CW fabrics & cut 12 FQ's & folded them & tied into little starry bundles, aren't they cute? What better gift for a quilter than more fabric and I feel good because I am getting 3 whole yds. out of my stash to share with my friend. Now what I must confess is that I added about 15 yds. yesterday at the big Bernina birthday bash-it was all 75% off, how could I resist?! And I wanted some more backings..........
Oh & check out Christine's one year anniversary give away a very cute bag.......I'm already thinking about celebrating my one year blogging anniversary in January now what can I choose.............and while you are blog hopping also visit Abbie's blog & see the very sweet lap quilt she is giving away!

Susie's quilt

As soon as we returned from CO. Monday I hit the ground running- had to quick- quick get right to the LA to get Susie's sister's birthday quilt done so I can mail it to her in CO. & she can get it bound by the middle of the month. Unfortunately this KS quilt would not fit in my largest box so tomorrow I have to find a bigger box.



The only quilting guidelines from Susie, she wanted echo swirls in the border so I had to make the block design coordinate. It turned out very nicely I think. I sent Susie pics. & she is pleased.

Found out today that my new Quilter's cabinet fromTracey's Tables is on it's way, yippee! It will be here next week & I can hardly wait. The old table is being recycled to my friend Gale in CO. & it will fit perfectly in the corner of her sewing room. I will post pics as soon as the new one arrives.

Vintage Thingies Thursday

OK, you are going to love this one especially those of you who wear pearls & heels to do the housework! Ever hear of a mangle? Well, here's a type of mangle, a vintage "Glad Iron", circa I'm not sure!

It has the original instruction manual & reading through it I can see how the very best households would have needed one with all those linens to iron but it takes three strong men to move it! Now it does have wheels so you can tilt it & wheel it if you are able to lift the front off the floor! Must have been all that housework/ manual labor that made our grandmothers so strong.

The instructions amused me so that I had to photograph some of it to show here on VTT.

This is what we all want, right, iron a shirt in 4 1/2 minutes.....

and by all means press his wool trousers..........

and how about a few of the "youngsters things"......and of course those "wash dresses", special

attire for doing the laundry?!

And very important to all of us, the aprons, the perky ruffled curtains, starched of course, and let's never forget......tada, our brassiere's! Not starched! Also not shown here, his undershorts, eek.

If all that isn't enough to make you want to scour the antique shops & garage sales for one of these essential appliances, take note of the fact that it folds for compact storage[not] & is assembled with one finger,hehehe

Then see here my Glad Iron all compactly folded for disposal, gasp, yes I am giving up this little treasure, lack of space & I guess I just don't iron enough perky ruffled curtains, wool trousers & brassieres! Not to mention the undershorts-starched? LOL.

Tea pot cosy and a new piecing project

Our monthly Guild meeting today, fellowship, business, lunch & sewing. I didn't do the block of the month, a Christmas quilt, but instead I made this sweet tea pot cosy for a friend for Christmas. I think it is really pretty & it has a matching wall hanging that I plan to make for this same friend's birthday.
I also mended two prs. of DH's jeans, oh how I do despise mending especially jeans! They are so stiff & heavy & it's a real PITA to get the legs to fit over the free arm & maneuver around to attach & secure the patch. I think next time it would be worth it to go to Costco & buy new ones for $12 each, don't you think my time & effort is worth that much? Costco is less than a mile from our Phx. home so I know I could run out & purchase new jeans in the same time it takes to put the dratted patches on!
I still had some time at Guild so I cut up these lovely fabrics for my next piecing project- the pattern is called "Future's so bright". Here's the scrappy version I saw that initated this project-the quilter from Stashbusters was generous in sharing the basic measurements but I decided to make mine a controlled colorway & was able to pull these fabrics from stash, love using those stash fabrics! It's a very simple pattern set on point & I think it will sew up fast though there won't be much piecing for me for the next couple of weeks, too many tops waiting to be LA'ed. I think I also may have a suitable backing in stash for this quilt, I'd like to use up some backing yardage so I have a legitimate reason to buy others,LOL! I can imagine that a stop border in the bright floral will set it off nicely & then the W on W for a final border & bind with the floral.
Now how would you quilt this one? Just an all-over?
Tomorrow we must finish packing up to return to AZ & I am anxious to get back into life with my family & friends in Phx. Summer is over & it's time to go south!

Vintage Thingies Thursday

Here's a whimsical non-quilty twist that I came across on the Apron Queen's blog & it appealed to the old fashioned side of me. I do enjoy vintage stuff, not that I want it all in my home but it's a delightful trip down Nostalgia Lane.
My decorating tastes are somewhat eclectic-traditional- but with a twist! Every room needs something just plain fun in it I think otherwise it's a bit too perfect & uh..... boring? IMHO!
So, here's my vintage offering for this week-suitcases, or "portmanteaux" or luggage or whatever you call them. I love these quaint reminders of a more gracious & slower paced time. Aren't they adorable? Ah, maybe it's just me!
I use them for end tables, & if I still had the third one [my sister got off with it] I could stack them, so one day I'll find another in a thrift shop or someone's garbage pile!
One of these was $3, the other free!

Today at guild I made continuous bias binding for the applique baby quilt-guess I miscalculated because I ended up with about 12 yds. & I think I only need around half of that! I figured it out first using the square root of the total area needed [calculated by multiplying perimeter of the quilt by the width of binding] & then refigured with another method to double check my numbers & decided to use the second total which was higher than the first- just didn't want to have to make another lot if I came up a wee bit short. For any of you who have made bias binding you know it is a little more work than straight grain binding but when using a stripe it is a much more effective result don't you think? I used a 42" square of the fabric.
Oh well, next time I make a baby quilt with this same colorway I will already have the binding prepared.
Tomorrow I will attach the binding to the quilt then I only need to hand sew it down to the back of the quilt & make & attach the label.

Old Tobacco Road "flimsie" & African fabrics

Tada, it is ready for quilting, & even with all those little pieces & biases it is very square & flat. I was so pleased when I measured for the borders that there was less than half an inch difference any which way!
I sewed on the small framing border & it looked unfinished, on further inspection I realised that I had failed to check Bonnie's border suggestions after completing the FG so I missed the first framing border- oh well it's unique! I went digging in my autumn toned stash & came up with only this one piece that was really large enough for 5" borders. It is a bit lighter in tone than I would have liked & it has quite a bit of green but I am working from stash so there is some compromise necessary - I am hoping too that I will have something in my backing stash to go with it. Otherwise I will need to shop the 50% off shelves at a couple of my Phx. quilt shops!
The flimsie measures about 80 x 102, is that big enough f0r a QS bed? I can never remember all the mattress dimensions but I think QS is 60 x 80 so it would just barely do for a normal mattress, one without a fat pillow top. I should have thought about that & made the outside borders 6" or more, but it's hindsight now. This quilt is too large for a QOV & so it will remain with me until the right person comes along. With that in mind I would like to make it to fit a QS bed & I might just make a wide binding that would add another couple of inches, I have enough fabric for that. At this point I have no idea how I will quilt it, some kind of all-over design maybe a leafy thing. It feels great to have it done to this point-I am less uncomfortable with UFO tops than those in pieces still though this does add another quilting project to the expanding list of tops awaiting their turn on the LA. I am expecting several tops in the mail from out of state & I have quite a few already lined up so I will be a busy LA'er once I get to Phx.

I discovered a "forgotten" stash of African theme fabrics, I am guessing upwards of 20 yards & I would love to use it up, anyone have ideas for it? I bought most of them [on sale no doubt] but just when & where I am not sure. I suspect I acquired them the summer of 2006 right before our son died when everything fell through a hole in my brain - these fabrics have been "aging" ever since in a bottom drawer downstairs in the CO. house.
The first collection I think I bought when the Montrose QS was closing, the second Kris brought back from Rwanda & I have a vague memory of purchasing the two motifs at MQS. The plan was to make quilts to raise money for our sister church in Taba, Rwanda so it would be really good if I could get to work on that this winter- I would love to have those fabrics out of my stash, they were purchased with a specific agenda & it's time I followed up.



I designed & made this African quilt & pillow for my friend Kris who makes almost annual ministry visits to Africa & to date this has been my only attempt at showcasing African style fabrics.

Last Friday we turned in our election ballots at the city hall in Ouray. Filling out the ballots was quite a chore there are so many props here in CO. this year & as I was chatting with my friend S we decided that the nefarious plan is to make it so confusing we will simply give up & pass on any decision at all! DH & I both studied all the info. on each prop but I think we were more confused after reading the "facts" than before! Then when we were actually filling in the ballots each of us had to go back & re-read every prop over again to try to figure out what we had decided! Whew, glad that is done & boy I can hardly wait till this time next week when all the political ads will go away!
They will won't they, please tell me they will!
I know that everyone is sick & tired of it so we can all at least say hurrah for Nov.4th, even though some of us will inevitably be disappointed in the end result at least we should be spared any more of those annoying ads.
Last night as I was blogging around I discovered a few new blogs, new to me anyway, & what a diversity there is of people who make quilts-some work in construction, some drive the big rigs, some ride around mostly in campers of various styles, some love cats, others raise goats & so on, it is quite fascinating the variety of talents, occupations & interests in the quilting world!

OTR & Baby farm quilt

OK, well I do like my OTR much better now that the flying geese border is on, & I have cut another 2" border to frame out the geese that I think will finish it off nicely- that's a job for tomorrow after church.
I obviously cannot count though because here is the pile of little blocks left over after I had counted & recounted & recounted ad nauseum!
On the other hand my calculations for the FG border were more accurate & I think I have only three FG's left over that will add to my growing collection of orphan blocks. I do wish that I could finally use up all the old odds & ends of scraps but they seem to multiply like rabbits in the drawers!

The applique baby quilt is ready for binding but I have discovered that I do not have sufficient of any one of the quilt fabrics for my preferred double fold binding but I do have a perfect matching stripe that will make a great binding cut on the bias- I think that is the way to go!
It never fails that the moment I lay out a quilt on the floor Miss Button has to come over & stretch out on it-I have heard other quilters/animal lovers say that they have the same experience with their pets so anyone want to hazard a guess as to why our animals do this?
Of course the quilts will be laundered before gifting so I didn't worry about it.
The quilt is from a design by Kookaburra Cottage but as usual I had to make my own revisions- in my opinion recipes & patterns are merely suggestions [unlike the Ten Commandments!] & my imagination is inevitably drawn to additions, subtractions & embellishments! All the fabrics for the top were from my stash, the backing I purchased from thousandsofbolts . When completed the farmer girl will have lace on her coveralls & perhaps a flower on her hat? Hmmmm.....

Old Tobacco Road

Just finished pressing the OTR, all those seams & I noticed a few I had going the wrong way but I'm not about to frog anything! So far this very scrappy quilt is not exciting me, the scrappiness is not pleasing to my eyes I think the autumn colors aren't strong enough so I'll try to emphasize those more in the border. Maybe it's the lights in the pinwheels & 4 patches, they may be too light..........? I'm hoping that once it has borders I will like it better, one hates to put so much time into a project to find the finished product less than pleasing.
No matter though I'm thinking that someone will love it, probably a wounded warrior as it will most likely be a QOV.
Tomorrow at guild I plan to work on the flying geese for the border.
The new water system is under construction in our development & our vehicle is parked about a quarter mile away at the neighbour's out of the way of all the excavators etc, so I have to run the gamut in the morning to get to the car. My DSM & projects are already loaded up this evening so at least I don't have to haul those along too.

Guild retreat

I made a major gaffe when I forgot to take essential supplies to the retreat, namely the Easy Angle ruler [which makes HST's, Half Square Triangles, really fast & easy] for my Old Tobacco Road quilt & some freezer paper for the paper pieced BOM "Singing His Praises" which is definitely an Un-Finished Object[UFO]! Fortunately for me Gale had tossed in a whimsical appliqued wall hanging pattern that occupied my time for the rest of the two days we were there. The wording on it said something lame like "proud to be a quilter" but you can see I made up my own legend which I think is way less lame! I'm thinking I will quilt the background with a McTavishing sort of fill, not sure about the border yet. I wish that applique were not so fiddly & time consuming because the results are very effective. Most of the fabrics I used were cast offs that no one else wanted so it was a very "green" project.
My OTR[Old Tobacco Road] is ready for construction now that I have all of the 388 HST's sewn into 96 pinwheels, along with about 184 Four patches & 108 "bricks" etc, & it is partially laid out on the floor downstairs so I hope that Button doesn't decide to make a bed on it before I can get that much sewn together! OTR is as you can see up close, a scrap quilt with everything but the kitchen sink in the four patches & HST's, no matter, because it all sort of blends in when pulled together with the preponderance of autumnal colored fabrics. However to my dismay I didn't bust nearly as much stash as I had hoped so there is still at least one or two-or maybe more autumn themed quilts on my list of WHIMM's[Works Hidden In My Mind] which list is, I confess, endless! I still have to make a heap of flying geese for the border, I won't have an idea just how many until the main body of the quilt is pieced & I can measure the outside edges.

More color & more quilting

I had been down the mountain for 2 days over the weekend & returned to see such a difference in intensity of color, I am adding a couple of pics. It rained all weekend in Montrose area but the Cimmarons & Sneffels ranges got a lot of snow.

I was house-sitting on my friend's farm-just the house animals only, cats & dogs, they have someone else come to feed the horses, cattle & donkeys. The first night I "lost" the new kitten-well she began the night on my bed but was nowhere to be found in the morning. She did re-appear when I returned from Guild meeting later in the day. The second day the big dog, JR, jumped the fence 3 times, the third time somehow he managed to take the short legged ,stocky little corgi with him! She can't jump so how did she get out? Hmmmm, it's a mystery! Little miss corgi then got into more mischief-absolutely destroyed one of the TV remotes while I was I was out in the quilting studio, all in all quite the weekend & some house sitter I am!

Using Gale's Prodigy, I quilted two more laptop bags & a baby quilt & another HOB. Two more HOB quilts went out the past week to the families of Fallen Heroes, but I'm running out of ways to find these families & it's very discouraging.

I received a lovely surprise in the mail, a box from my friend Loretta with a wonderful carrier for my thread! I was complaining about keeping it all together & accessible when I travel & so she sent me this great thread tote! It is double decker & holds all my lovely Essentials threads I love it, isn't it wonderful? Thank you Loretta!