What's in a quilt magazine?

Yesterday, I had the best day ever! A totally relaxed day with a wee bit of quilt related stuff.  Actually, I had a few errands to run in the morning and then had lunch and spent the afternoon with Vivenda! We're in the process of tackling a Laura Heine (collage) pattern. While we did a little bit of work, we mostly chatted and then we were off to visit a quilt shop that I've never been to before.

The pattern has a collaged background but we wanted to do a different thing for our background. After much discussion, it was time to cut and see what we could come up with.

Vivenda cutting her background fabrics

While we had a lot of the same fabrics for the background, we also each had different ones that we shared. Then we drew up a "firm" plan of the background on a piece of paper, made a basic (more detailed) cutting plan and we were golden. Once we get the backgrounds together, we'll meet again and discuss how to put the bee together. I do love these quilts, but not her method. So we make it up!  Vivenda finished her giraffe - I have not! But since that was a quilt that I started this year and technically, I'm supposed to finish everything that I started - I'd better get busy!!!

This store (new to me) has been around for a couple of years. It's mere minutes from Vivenda's house and we decided to pop over to see if there was anything else we might like to add to the background. Oh my - I think we found four more fabrics. The more the merrier!!!

The shop is called Owl be Sewing (the name used to be Arts and Crafts for you). It's in a very neat little neighborhood. There's a long block that's built with shops on the ground floor and two floors above that where the owner can live. There's angled parking out front and it's really a quaint little neighborhood. Anyway - she does have an amazing selection of fabric in a small space and we happily took some of the fabric (and patterns) home with us!!!!

Owl be Sewing storefront in Brampton

If you haven't visited, then you should take a trip there.

As I mentioned the other day, I NEED to start going through those magazines. Me nagging my kid about stuff is like the kettle calling the pot black. So now that things are out in the open, I feel very ready to deal with it.

It's a hoot. I'm not going to share every magazine with you, but there are a couple of things that I thought were blog worthy.

McCall's magazine has been around for a long time. Oh - I should mention that I've been quilting since 1998, but at quilt shows or through "friends", I've acquired a bunch of magazines that were published before I even started to quilt.

This first lovely magazine called McCall's Country Quilting is copyright 1990. And I am the proud owner of not just one copy, but TWO copies of the same old magazine. Now how did that happen???? I almost died laughing when I saw that.

Not one, but TWO copies of the same magazine from 1990

Here's something to keep in mind if you're making a quilt for someone. Look at these old quilts. These are vintage quilts - each one is a two color quilt. But they are so classic that they do NOT look dated. Both are very appealing - at least to me.

Two color vintage quilts

Now have a look at this one. This is from fabrics in the 80's/90's era. Would you want that quilt on your bed today??

A quilt made with fabrics from the 80's/90's

I think the pattern would easily translate to today with that giant Dahlia, but the fabrics? Oh boy - they are dated. And that darn puffy batting that was all the rage back then. I think I'm actually grateful that I didn't quilt in that era. 

The cover of the magazine said "easy photo printing on fabric."  I opened to that page to find that you could buy cyanotype kits called The Blueprint Printables. Oh my - times have changed on the technology side as well. Yep - the patterns (even the squares) are cut with templates and scissors. I'm very glad that I didn't have to go through that! GIve me a rotary cutter any day!

Cyanotype photo printing

Keepsake Quilting was in existence (founded in 1986) and they were advertising their free catalog in the magazine. The shop remains open today (after passing through several different owners) and still offers the free catalog, although now you can view the entire thing online. I remember getting this catalog when I started to quilt and drooling over page after page of neat patterns, kits, and fabric.

Keepsake Quilting advertisement

And there's a buyer's guide on the last page of the magazine. Oh my - you have to send a SASE (I bet that the younger quilters have no idea what that is) for information and in one ad that was selling ribbon floss, the colors were listed by name! No picture. I wonder what color Mist Green was???

Anyway, those two magazines are now in the recycle bin. I had fun going through them. Did I learn anything? Yes - I learned that making quilts with trendy fabrics is RISKY!!!! But I love going through those old magazines. Good thing because there are a lot of them.

Here are two more that I went through. Both from McCall's. I think I had sorted all the McCall's into that first box to go through. One of these is from 1993 and the other is from 1988.

Two more dated magazines, one from 1993 and the other from 1988

I noticed that in the 1993 magazine that there were phone numbers which you could call for more information rather than requesting it by mail. That saves a wee bit of time. In an article on "care of fine textiles" (which basically said if you have trouble with stains of any kind, write her a letter and she would respond to each one. Good grief - why not put the information in the article? Anyway, the one thing that hasn't changed, she provides a recipe for removing stains. I'm going to copy it here for you. The article was written by Maryon Pittman Allen - the magazine is McCall's Needlework from December 1993.


"Here is my formula: fill up your washing machine or tub with hot water (heat is a must when removing stains) and pour in equal parts Dove Dishwashing Liquid and Clorox 2 Powder. The entire formula is heat + Dove Dishwashing Liquid + Clorox 2 powder + plenty of water + soaking, soaking, soaking + washing + rinsing, rinsing, rinsing at the same temperature you used for washing."

Not sure if we still have Dove Dishwashing Liquid around, but Dawn Dishwashing Liquid seems to be the go-to for stain removal today. So why don't they market that product as a stain remover???  Anyway - I thought it was funny that nothing has really changed in this area. Not sure about the heat part to remove a stain??  Any takers? Maryon was an expert on textile restoration. I say was - she could still be alive????

Irons were made by Norelco. You could get a Nancy's Notions catalog from the 1993 magazine. Jinny Beyer had already designed her iconic Eyelash fabric. I noticed it was used in one of the projects.

And what was it with all these baby bonnets???  Seriously??? Did people use them???  What do people use today?

Baby bonnets were a popular item!

Notice in the box to the right of that picture is an advertisement for the Quilt Festival in Houston! You could send a SASE for more information on the 2,500 quilts and 100 classes. What a hoot!!!!

Oh god - I also found a C&T book catalog and a Connecting Threads catalog - both from 2009.

Catalogs from 2009

Yes - all of the above magazines/catalogs are now in the recycling!!!!

After I got home from my little day trip, it was time to get back to work. Oh - we're still eating leftovers, but I had the last of the lentil soup for dinner. I think we'd better get the recipe from James and make up another batch with all the veggies still in the fridge. However since there are so many leftovers, no one has been the grocery store in days and there was no banana for my oatmeal. Oh well, a few chocolate covered almonds will suffice!!!  Oh god!! Well - I have 10 days left to eat badly and then I'm giving all the bad stuff up again. I see that I'm on the high end of my 5 pound buffer zone and I can feel the difference. Actually, it's not so much the weight that I can feel - it's the fat content. My pants just don't fit as well because of the happy little fat cells around my waist!  I'll be putting them in their place soon!!!!

After dinner, I was down to the studio to get something concrete done. The end of the year is fast approaching and I still have things to finish!!!! 

I had put the binding on this quilt earlier in the day, but it needed to have the sleeve hand stitched in place. I had to dig through those tubs of fabric from Northcott to find the matching fabrics. There were just scraps left from the backing and I used those to make a sleeve.

This is finish number 88 for the year.

Finish number 88

I know - isn't that exciting?? I can still make 100 finishes for the year. It's going to be a stretch, but not really as there is enough stuff sitting there that's so close to being finished. And I have a sewing day with Ronda planned for today. So lots should get done.

Look at me - I've emptied three spools in the last couple of days. 

Empty spools!!!!

I did have to clean off a spot for Ronda to sew today. Oh, shoot - I found two more small boxes of magazines. Those are now on the shelf. And there was this stack of books on the table. I bought these when I was in Houston. The price was a steal and I couldn't resist. I was going to pick them up at the publisher's location in Toronto, but on one of those crazy days when stuff was being delivered, the box arrived. Oh boy - how much did they charge me in shipping???  The box was very heavy! It wasn't that bad considering the books were a steal. Can you guess how much I paid for all these books?? They are all hardcover.

More new books to add to the bookcase!

I paid $162 US including shipping and tax. That's a good price even considering the shipping was $50 US.  The top book alone was $50 US. But buying more than 4, I got a very good deal. I love this type of book - coffee table kind of books. They're the best! Now to include those in the reading mix!

Speaking of reading, I finished TWO audiobooks in the last two days. Yikes! I'm getting very used to the audiobook thing.

Thanks to Shelly, I got my Cherrywood Challenge fabric bundle. They are NOT cheap to buy, but the cost of the bundle includes your registration fee to the challenge and all the shipping costs related to the challenge - well for them to ship the challenge back to you.

Cherrywood challenge bundle

 The thing is going to be to start NOW so that the piece will actually be ready by July 1. That's for the new year!!!!

And it even came in an orange bag!!!!   Thanks, Shelly for being my fabric mule!!!!!

Orange shopping bag

So much more to say and no time!!! 

Have a great day!!!!


Ciao!!!!