feedsack embroidery

What I've been doing when I haven't been posting the past few weeks:

I bought the feedsack at "the garage sale" and I'm pretty sure I photographed it for a previous thrifty thursday post. Above is where I'd gotten to a few weeks ago and was feeling like it'd never be finished. I thought I could do an "in progress" post.

Instead, the weather continued to freeze me out of the basement and I got addicted to watching Gilmore Girls in DVD. Handwork was the only answer to that dilemna. Before long I had this to show for my efforts:

All of the words are outlined in perle cotton in either the stem or backstitch. The leaves were filled in with chain stitches. Blanket stitching surrounds the oval.

The inspiration for this was a vintage quilt I spotted in a book (no idea what one it was now) that had advertising feedsacks in every block embellished with embroidery. This one is much larger than those - about 20" wide by 40" long. I'd like to feature it as the center of a wall-hanging sized quilt for my kitchen. That's a project for another day.

have a cuppa

Have you seen these travel mugs? You're able to put pictures or kids' artwork inside them. I picked one up last winter wanting to put some of my favorite fabric in it.

Prints like these:

Problem is - fabric is thicker than paper and not very stiff. It definitely doesn't want to go into the very narrow space of that travel mug. Starch didn't work. Interfacing would make it thicker. The solution finally hit me a few weeks ago - color copies of the fabric:

Three of my favorite feedsacks are on the left. The fabric on the right is a Japanese print given to me by Jan. I think some of my liberty fat quarters would be great for this too. You can't see it in the picture, but the copier (just our HP home printer) even picks up some of the fabric's texture. The colors aren't exact though and the very nice texture of the Japanese print showed up the least. However, I think they're a great representation of the originals.

How could I not smile drinking my coffee out of that? I wonder how I can get the string quilt on the copier...

vintage fabric from the states

Glenn and I spent a wonderful afternoon at the Museum of Contemporary Art on Friday. We had an outdoor lunch watching planes practice for the air and water show, a guided tour from a friend, and of course, a trip to the gift shop. I found the book in the title while browsing and had to bring it home when I opened the pages and saw the following:

Feedsacks from my collection!

Not the same colorway, but thrilling just the same.

Definitely worth picking up if you're a vintage fabric junkie like me. It's all about the pictures though - the writing is in Japanese.

feedsacks 3

This is the last of them.

I love the one on the right with the houses. Aqua/green and red - a favorite color combination, but no idea where on earth I'd put it.

The two on the right will probably make their way into a quilt in Ellie's new room. I have a duplicate of the leaf motif from the fall.

I'm not much for navy, but I have so much vintage fabric in these colorways. I'm sure there's a quilt top in here somewhere. Maybe a picnic blanket since I don't use navy in the house at all.

As I was finishing up my selections, Norm went back into the house and came out with two aprons that Shirley had made from feedsacks. This is my favorite - the colors, the ric rac, the long length on it - there's even a pocket for the phone. I promised to give it a good home. The ties are wrinkled in the photo because I've already worn and washed it. I didn't bother to iron them before taking the picture.

feedsacks 2

More vintage treasure today(and tomorrow).

I love the reds. Gingham, polka dots and the bottom one - what are those? Ravioli? Rectangles with pinked edges? Love 'em.

I have 7 in this print. I think I'll give the Heather Ross wrap skirt another shot with these.

Most of the prints had two of each.

These were all singles.

More tomorrow.

feedsacks!

Here's the first round:

I've not done any research at all on the prints, so I've no idea what decade they're from.

I don't even care, I just love the fabric. If I know too much about them, that will only make me more afraid to cut into them.

A few in this next picture are duplicates of pieces I bought in the fall.

No, I have no idea how most of them will get used. The easy answer is quilts. I figure I have a good 50 years of sewing left to decide.