Vintage Fabrics

I have a small collection of vintage fabrics, culled from various sources over the years including garage sales, thrift and collectibles shops, and flea markets.

I love these prints. The pink and aqua is unusual as mostly I find the prints in browns.

I love kitchen prints. So much fun!

This towel was in mint condition. Kendall towels are very collectible. I got this for $3 at a flea market.

At the same flea market I found a set of kitchen curtains in wonderful shape. I paid $5. Imagine the kitchen that had fabric will metallic gold on the curtains!

Speaking of metallic gold in prints, this remnant of drapery or upholstery fabric is wild! Gold, turquoise and olive green. These are the  decorating colors people had when I was a girl.

Over 15 years ago I found a lot of decorating fabric samples. They are all from the same time period and each pattern had several color ways. Gold shows up again.

The bottom pic you can see a snippet of the kitchen print shown above. So I know they are all from the same time period.

Some of these prints look similar to things popular today. Today's designs are less detailed and fussy, and more graphic and modern. Novelty print,s like the kitchen curtain print with coffee urns, are still popular. But I have yet to see a fabric decorated with microwave ovens, Cusinart blenders, and Keurig coffee makers! Or with iPads, smart phones and flat screen tvs. Although I have wondered why we don't make album quilts showing modern cars and fashions like the 19th c ones with horses and steam boats!

Friendship Ring Quilt Guild Show

The local quilt out of New Era, MI has an annual quilt show in the village park in Mears, MI. These small Up North towns have prolific quilters!

New Era has about 450 population. Mears is a small village close to Silver Lake, one of the Michigan sand dune/beach/boating tourist attractions. Just down the road from Mears is Hart, MI, which offers the closest grocery stores and pharmacy to me.

 This area of Oceana County has an abundance of farm land, with  many small family organic farms. The Farmer's Market in Pentwater is filled with their produce twice a week. Believe me, we eat real good in the summer around here!

The guild displays the quilts cloth pinned to clothes lines.

For a remote area, we are lucky to have several quilt shops and several other places for fabric, and there are two guilds in Oceana County and another in Muskegon County. So the local quilters keep busy.

My quilting friend, who just started quilting while we were in Montague MI seven years ago, had a half dozen quilts in the show. Sandy made a quilt for the guild's 20th anniversary.

Sandy made this quilt for a challenge with a Michigan theme. Oceana County is the" fruit basket" of Michigan,  producer of most of the asparagus grown in the country, and also has some fine wineries. Like Western New York State where I was born, the Great Lakes create a perfect climate for these farms. I love how she added a net curtain to make the black background less stark on the bowl of cherries.




I loved the two black and white quilts, Diane Kelley's Shadow Play with a touch of red,  and one by Penny Carlson with a brilliant pink.

This vibrant and fun quilt Friends are Friends Forever was made by Penny Carlson for a granddaughter.

The local Christian school made this wonderful hand print quilt.

A striking Hawaiian quilt was made by Lois Huth who was 95 at the time! It was one of the few that was hand quilted in the show.

 This quilt by Helen Pioche seemed very modern with the white background and bright solids.

There were several raffle quilts. The leaves had a 3-D edge and was for the Oceana Historical Society. The purple sampler behind was for the Friendship Ring Quilt Guild.

It was a beautiful day for their show.

Gees bend Quilt Revisited

The owner of the Gees Bend quilt, obtained in the early 1970s, was thrilled to hear from Jeff Cunningham that his brother Joe informed that the quilt was worth quite a bit more than she ever imagined.

The quilt was in the Pentwater Quilt Display in July, which the quilt owner and I organized. I was curious about a man who was talking to people about the quilts like someone who knew what he was talking about, and went over to meet him. I was surprised to find out who he was. He had been in the area for the Art Fair and heard about the quilts. He enjoyed the venue and encouraged us to continue the event.

Educating people about the proper value and care of their quilts is so important.

Reggie's Christmas, an 1881 children's book

Many years ago my mother-in-law showed me a children's book that was given to her by her uncle James Nelson. Reggie's Christmas was published by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1881. The hard cover book is small enough for a child's hands, a mere 5 1/2 " by 3 1/2" . 

Laura O'Dell Bekofske's father's brother James Nelson first owned the book. His inked signature appears on the front page. He then wrote "Book. Keep it clean. April 17 1890" and we find Laura Grace O'Dell's name written in pencil.

It was perhaps her only children's book. The story is about a family whose oldest son is lost in a shipwreck coming home from studying in England, but surprises the family by coming home on Christmas. His sibling's and mother's life is shown as they wait to hear news of their beloved Reggie. 

I used some of the line drawings of the children's life to make a little Redwork quilt.

Mabel goes to her mother, who is sewing by firelight, for a little chat and to dress her doll. The twins look at a book with children in a candy store, and a girl afraid of a sheep. Ben comes home from school and mother has to tell him that his elder brother was lost at sea. But after Reggie returns, the father goes out to buy presents for Christmas. At the shop are poor children wistfully looking at toys for "the rich children" but not for them. The father feels such joy at the gift of his son's life being spared, he buys the poor children presents for their whole family. At the end we learn that Reggie  had clung to a plank and was picked up by a steamer on its way back to England. Sadly the telegraph was out of order, and he could not wire home of his safety. Reggie boarded the next steamer to America, and so surprised his grieving parents.

It may seem a sad story for children but I fear that in 1881 it was too common a tale. Not unlike books for children today meant to mirror reality. I especially like the example of the father responding to the poor children. After all, when we understand what really matters, and have been given the greatest gift of life, we ought to share that bounty with those less fortunate and hence bring them great joy as well.

Mid-Century American Colonial Decorating Fabrics Quilt

About 12 years ago I found this quilt on eBay. It has a pieced top made of decorating fabrics from the 1950s and  1960s. Feather stitch embroidery outlines each patch. It is not lined. It weighs a ton! But it was cheap and I loved those prints everyone had when I grew up.

Revolutionary soldiers can be found

Lots of old signs, eagles, a wooden "Indian". Early American history re imagined for the Mad Men age!

Warm oranges and browns and cool turquoise and olive green predominates. Some prints have red, white & blue.

Vintage Grandma Moses style print decorating fabrics are still found for sale on eBay. I love this maple sugar gathering print.

Even the floral fabrics are in the same color palettes of colors, turquoise, blue, orange and brown.

In 1957 we moved to the largest apartment in our family home that housed three families. My cousins had lived in there until they bought a house. We moved in afterwards. The walls had a brown floral wallpaper. The wainscoting was painted brown. Mom bought a nylon couch in turquoise, with a matching chair in a brown and cream print and a solid brown chair. They lasted forever! We had the brown chair in the early 1970s. That color scheme is very familiar to me!

Around 1958 Mom redecorated with more turquoise. Dad built the wood cornices.

When my husband went off to college in 1968 his mom made him a quilt, one of her first. It includes some decorating fabrics that she had in her stash.

I wish I had a picture of the early 1960s turquoise and white pop-up camper my dad bought and gave us in the 1990s. The curtains were in a brown/gold/orange barkcloth American Revolution print. So cool! The electric system blew out and we gave the camper away after many years of use.

1902 McCalls Magazine

Many years ago I was given a battered, partial 1902 McCalls magazine which had been used to store silk embroidery floss. The floss was sometimes woven into the pages.  The pictures and illustrations are still interesting although the pages torn and battered.