Vintage Becomes New

A few months ago, I saw this cute little crazy quilt block on Kelly Cline Quilting (fb) that included an embroidered piece. I love the block, and I was pretty certain that I had a pillowcase with one of these kittens on it somewhere in my "vintage items to keep" box.  

This "VITK" box lives under my sewing table...

I kept thinking about it as I pieced my scrappy green wonky star blocks for my RSC (rainbow scrap challenge) quilt.  I made a few dark, I made a few light... positive and negative.  I was pleased with how they look. 💚 (why am I mentioning this project again?  Keep reading ;))

It was as I was digging for the embroidered pillowcases that I found a collection of green blocks that came from another quilter a few years ago.  The blocks were pieced so that they were a little (quite) imperfect but had lovely greens.  I sat down with my good friend, Jaqueline and started to part them out... in the end, I added two more lovely RSC blocks to my collection... left side top and middle.

While I did not find the pillowcases I was in search of, I did find lots of other treasures... some linen hand towels stitched by my Grandma T - Tressie - and a crocheted pansy doily.

Grandma was born February 16, 1915.  She loved the color yellow.  The two pieces looked like they belonged together and the vintage pieces quickly became something new... in her honor!

I marked the centers of both pieces (by pressing creases with a hot iron), made my quilt sandwich using Hobbs fusible batting (being careful to leave the center crease marks) and then pinned the doily into place.

I machine stitched the outer edges of the white portion of the doily down and then quilted the center star, following the wider lines.  

I pushed the pansies to the center so that they were out of the way and marked my quilting lines to reflect the scalloped edge of the center of the doily.  

The pansies were then pressed back into place, pinned.  I then hand-stitched the outer edges.

The binding matches the backing from Connecting Threads - Swallowtail Grove.  I sewed the binding to the front and then hand-stitched the binding to the back with an exposed running stitch.  I made sure I added in two labels.  One to show I had made it... and one was just for fun!

If you are interested in making a purchase from Connecting Threads, you can use the code ACTMelvaLovesScraps to receive 15% off, including sale items.

This was a fun and quick project and I love the result.

Here's one final look at the piece all washed and ready for its new home. 💜💛

I wanted to offer a brief update about the grandson's basketball game... He only had a few minutes of playing time in each quarter, but each time he scored!  His skills have improved since we last watched him in December and he was happy to see us.  

Heather dropped him off at the game and was picking him up but did not stay.  While disappointed, we made the most of our time with Ty.  I was able to use him as a courier for the valentine's cards I had with us.  I had fun making these up and Mom had fun as we made the stained-glass cards from her.

For those that offered up prayers for our time together... Thank you! 💗

Now... where did I see those embroidered pillowcases???

Keep Piecing,

Melva

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