Curating

When I was in Pittsburgh this summer, Bethany gave me these sewing notions from a friend's relative's someone's clearing out. Treasures from the back of a drawer, this pile includes rusted needles, a real emery strawberry with thick, steel pins, button hooks, and that wooden club is a handled darning egg, for mending socks. I've mended a few socks, but now I just replace them. Eight pairs for $10 at Target, they're not worth mending!

It reminded me, have I shown you this? It's an old sewing machine demo model that used to belong to my maternal grandmother. My sister, Laura, gave it to me earlier this year. 

I've cleaned it and oiled it so everything moves,
but I haven't tried to make it sew, yet!

All these treasures have gone to live with antique notions I'd brought home from my paternal grandmother's house years ago. They live in this cabinet, made by my youngest son in High School wood shop. Note the old iron being used as a bookend next to the cabinet. I bought it at a thrift store, thinking it would be good to have a hot, dry iron for pressing seams. Lucky I didn't burn my house down, it gets so hot! The end sitting on the ironing board burned a hole right through the ironing board cover!

Peek-a-boo!

Inside the cabinet there are more of the usual old or antique sewing notions: thread, buttons, snaps, needles, thimbles. I love those little black paper packets of needles and the wooden spools of thread. There are buttons in a jar on another shelf, and cards of bias tape and rickrack in a drawer. Seems like everything was labeled 29¢.

There are a few unusual items, though, worth taking a closer look.

Here are some needles, probably for threading laces through stays and corsets. One is (very tarnished) silver, one is mother-of-pearl, and the others are whale bone. From Massachusetts, you know. 

This is (again, very tarnished) a silver, folding measuring stick. Look closely at the case (the lid is missing) and you can see newsprint under the leather, forming the shape of the case. 

And though they don't have anything to do with sewing, these little shoes are stuffed into the cabinet, too. They were worn by my father when he was a baby. Hard to imagine!

I'm linking up with Beth's Sewing Museum Linky Party at Love, Laugh, Quilt, because showing off  sharing our own little sewing museums was her idea! I look forward to seeing the goodies others have posted!

Yep, I finished that!

Here's Melissa's charity quilt, finished. Remember, Melissa helped design the quilt, and I sewed it for her. Quilted with loops and flowers in a few focal points, and stitched-in-the-ditch throughout. Backed with the same fleece as Melissa's own quilt.

It's so windy outside, the only way to take a picture is to lay it out on the grass! 

I've mailed the quilt to Melissa, and she's spending some time loving it. She wouldn't be the first person to fall in love with something she's created, and to change her mind about giving it away! 

I finished the Liberated Wedding Ring quilt, too! I just love these colors and prints, and the way the rings interlock and re-form.

 It's been washed so you can see all of its crinkly goodness. I outline-quilted a few of the rings, hoping they'd stand out a little, but they don't. Now I know I'd need to trapunto them, to add extra batting in just those areas. I'll try that sometime, in another quilt.

 You can see in this next photo the border quilting, a mandorla shape and a diamond. (I had to look up the word to describe the pointed ellipse, or almond shape, between the diamonds, and I'm sure I'll never use the word again. Still, it's good to know there's a word for it!) Anyway, I chose it because it echoes the shapes made by the bisecting rings in the quilt design.

The quilt has an over-all vine and flowers pattern quilted on it, achieved by outline-quilting this large-scale floral print on the back of the quilt. I'd seen the technique at last year's quilt show, and recently I took a workshop class to learn it from an art quilter. My new sewing machine (a Pfaff Expression3.0) produces beautiful, even stitches on both sides of the quilt, and it turned out great! I love the loose, overall design on this busy quilt.

 The bright, cheerful floral compliments the blues and greens on the front, I think.

 Do you remember when I received this mini quilt in a swap?

 It sat on the railing for a year and never really belonged anywhere. What I really had wanted to ask for in the swap, was a sewing machine cover. I knew, though, that I'd eventually get a new, bigger machine, so I simply asked for whatever the swapper wanted to make.
I still wanted a sewing machine cover, however, and even more now that I have the machine I'd looked forward to getting! So, I took the mini-quilt apart, and re-made it into this really great-looking cover!

I also took inspiration from my table partner at the sewing workshop, and made the mug-cozy here, to hold all several of my sewing gadgets. I love sewing gadgets!

There have been some new babies born in the family, so I made some of my favorite booties.

Bethany sent me this photo of Poppy's I Spy quilt on her new bed. Many of the blocks in this quilt were made by partners in the 3x6 online block swap. I like how the sides of the quilt are long enough to hang nicely or get tucked in, and that you can still see the blocks, even under the foot of the bed. Isn't it sweet?

 Something new, and unfinished:
Last August I won some fabric from Lily's Quilts, a line called Indie from Pat Bravo's Art Gallery Fabrics.

Then I bought some more, from the same line, and let it sit for a while. Over and over, though, I've loved Sujata Shah's designs on The Root Connection, and I decided to throw all of this line, plus a few batiks and solids from my stash into making her Painted Zigzag. Here's my version, in progress on my design wall.

This weekend is Easter. Here's a picture from a long, long time ago of our friend Nancy (who reads this blog!), Ralph, and me, dressed as Three Blind Mice. We could pass for Easter bunnies, I think!

Which of my finishes is your favorite? Have you finished something lately?