A New Additon To Our Vintage Style Towel Challenge

We have another towel to see today! This is Laren's towel from a vintage Vogart pattern. You may remember that I stitched this set myself earlier this Summer! Isn't it beautiful? Laren used a few different colors than I did. It's so interesting to see the same pattern worked by two different stitchers!



Laren is going to do the complete set so be sure to visit her Needle's Excellency Blog for updates. Laren has also acquired a few new vintage Vogart patterns if you're interested in seeing them.

Thank you Laren for joining in on the challenge and for allowing me to share your stitching with my readers. Your towel is beautiful!

Crazy Quilt Block For My Mom

I did some more stitching on this block yesterday. I added the black trim with the red flowers to the bottom right corner and the added the blue braid over the edge of vintage lace. I sewed on a few ribbon flowers on the edge of the black fan stitches as well. Those little flowers are about a 2 - 3 inch piece of picot edged 1/4 in satin ribbon that I hand-dyed myself. They're simply gathered along the edge and then tied off. I had a feather stitch along the edge of the brocade patch at the top but I didn't like the way it looked so this morning, during Simply Quilts, I took it out. I'll have to figure something else out for that seam.

A New Crazy Quilt Block

Well, I was going to start on the Harvest Peacock next, but after sewing up several more blocks on Friday, I decided to do this one instead. This will be a Christmas gift for my mother. She doesn't know anything about weblogs so I think I'm safe in posting about this!

Anyway, here is the block before I started stitching on it:



And here is the block after 1 day of stitching. I worked on it most of yesterday afternoon and part way into the evening:



The large floral print is a brocade. Geez, I wish the lovely shine of this fabric would show up on the scanner! The light blue is a printed satin, the black is crushed velvet, the aqua is a poly of some type, the blue with the gold is a cotton with metallic on it and the other medium blue is a batik.

On some of my last blocks, I noticed that the needle was pulling my fancy fabrics, snagging them really. I always put a new needle in my machine everytime I sewed so I couldn't figure out what the problem was. My sewing machine is a Singer so I always bought Singer brand needles. Well, I was whining to my mom about this little problem so when she was up at JoAnn's, she bought me a pack of Schmetz needles to try. Wow! What a difference! No more snags! I was pleased to find them at WalMart for under $3.00 a pack! From now on, it's only Schmetz needles for my sewing machine!

Robin's Vintage Style Towel Challenge

Robins tea towels
Originally uploaded by Kitty And Me.

We have another addition to our Vintage Style Towel Challenge today!

Robin has shared 2 towels with us. These designs are from an Aunt Martha's Iron-on transfer and Robin enhanced the designs with some crayon tinting!

I love the purple fruit with the yellow border! So cheerful and happy looking!

Robin is going to continue on with the rest of the set and she kindly offered to send me photos to share with my readers.

Thank you Robin! I think it's safe to say that we're all looking forward to seeing the rest of the set! These are lovely!

Reproduction Vintage Iron-On Transfers

I've been asked several times now, where I find my cute and charming transfer designs. Well, some of my vintage transfers were given to me. And some of you already know that I find many at Flea Market & Antique Shows as well as Antique shops. I've also purchased a few through Ebay.

A really great source for Iron-On Transfers is PatternBee! Vicki's transfers are reproductions made from her own extensive collection of vintage transfers and they are "iron-on". PatternBee offers over 500 reproduction designs including transfers for baby items, towels, redwork....you won't believe all the great designs there are to choose from!

I have several of Vicki's reproduction patterns. They are packaged beautifully and come with complete and excellent transferring instructions!



I met Vicki through her Turkey Feathers Blog, which is absolutely wonderful! Every day is like paging through a lovely Home Arts magazine. Lots of beautiful photos too as Vicki shares her sewing, embroidery, gardening and cooking & baking with her readers.

Vicki and I recently did a fun craft swap. She had found some beautiful vintage cherry fabric which I fell in love with. She kindly offered to swap 1/2 of it with me!



Scott is currently in the process of refinishing a set of 4 mismatched antique pressback chairs. I'm going to use this to make some seat covers for them.

Also in our swap, Vicki sent me a beautiful vintage style towel that she made as well as a handmade potholder that she did from a vintage kit.





In return, I sent Vicki some various fabrics, some buttons and trims and few other things that I thought she would like.

Anyway, if you're looking for transfers, try PatternBee!