Happy Little Vintage Find

This morning I dropped my sewing machine for a service (sob!) and stopped in at my favourite op shop (thrift store), conveniently around the corner.

As I was walking out, this little gem called out to me from the magazine rack, nestled among the craft magazines. Now I totally identify as a thoroughly modern quilter, but I figured for 60c it was worth the look.

Behold, a 1977 Better Homes and Gardens Patchwork & Quilting book. Officially vintage, almost as old as me, back when patchwork was brand new again, long before the invention of rotary cutters and die cutters.

Okay, so the fashions and hairstyles leave a lot to be desired, but some of the quilts are fabulous. If you thought using lots of solids was oh-so-modern, you were wrong. And if you thought bright was a 21st century invention, wrong again. Change up the styling and you'd have trouble telling some of these apart from current 'modern' quilts (though the puffy batting leaves something to be desired).

I was going to take photos of a few of the pages for you, but then I discovered this and I'm not one to reinvent the wheel. I'll wait while you pop over to check out this page.

Are you not loving that orange, pink and yellow curtain? Or that string quilt from solids? Or the applique flowers and butterflies?

But here is my favourite project. Serious love. I so want to make a modern version of this.

Don't you think it would be kind of fabulous? There are a few blocks I'm not so fond of, so I might make a 12 block version. Kristy suggested I make it a reward for finishing projects this year and I think she's on to something, I could make one block for each finish.

You can find your own copy of this little gem at Amazon if you so desire.

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A bit of this and that

Life is a little overwhelming right now, and I'm trying not to focus on everything that needs to be done between now and the spring school holidays in 3 weeks time just in case my head explodes doing so.... but between work, freelance writing, additonal paperwork for work, study, school plays, kids camps, renovating a study and a bedroom or two, not to mention two months worth of quilt block commitments.... it's doing my head in.

But that's enough keeping it real - today I wanted to share a quick Studio Snippet with you, and one of those sparks of inspiration for a new quilt (which I'll get to one day, eventually).

This is a little wall in my craft room between the hallway and the kitchen door. It's the perfect home for my vintage Pinnock treadle machine, which may or may not be functional. (I've never used it!)

Hanging above is the thread holder that my very clever husband and his three little helpers made me recently. I love it!

On top is a little collection of notions and my jars of selvedges. 

It's a happy little corner.

I also wanted to share a piece of inspiration with you - Diane at From Blank Pages has a cute little linky party happening called From Blank Pages where you can share the beginnings of projects.

A few months ago when we were on holidays in Queensland, we kept driving past this cool sculpture on a street corner. I eventually got around to snapping a pic out the window with my phone. However, I must have had the phone upside down at the time, and while I can rotate it on my computer, it won't load the right way up. So please just turn your head and imagine the grass is on the ground, okay?

Now can't you just imagine a quilt made of lots of solid bars at different heights, floating on a white background?

To top it off, we got to our hotel on the same holiday and this is the decoration in the foyer. It is, of course, the quilting for the negative space on the above quilt, is it not? I'm not sure if I should be concerned that nobody in the family batted an eyelid when I took a photo of it.

So one day I'm going to get around to raiding my solids bin and making this funky little quilt!

I love it when you find quilty inspiration in unusual places, don't you?

Hope everyone has a fabulously stitchy weekend, I am hoping for a bit of time to catch up on some stuff on my to do list.

Linking up to From Blank Pages

xxx Jane

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