Weaver Family Quilt

There was no break after Christmas around here.....my dad's 80th birthday was the 23rd of January and I knew we wanted to celebrate that day!  I had several projects in mind and really wished I would have started working on it earlier, but that didn't happen.....

The story started last summer when the Silver Fox and I were able to go through a few things that came from the Weaver family home attic. The Weaver's are my dad's maternal side.  Part of what was there was a pile of old clothing, that would have been worn by my Great-grandmother, Rose Weaver or her daughter (my grandma) Mildred Kullmer, or even some of her brothers.  Some of it was not in the greatest condition, but I brought home most of it and into the wash it went.  Sink or swim time!  I had vintage quilts spinning around in my head.  There were shirtings, chambray, cadet blue prints & some wool.....my guess is work clothes from 1920's.  Here is some of what I had to work with......

Here is the wool overcoat....it was not in good shape holes everywhere, but the color was good and it was not a heavy wool....so had possibilities.

After spending a little time on Electric Quilt.  I came up with this simple design called Weaver Farm Memories. (If you have EQ7 I have included my project file to share.)  I wanted the piecing to be fairly simple.....most of the fabric is worn and thin.  I did spray starch it heavily and that really helped to handle the piecing.  I also used the walking foot when I was piecing with the wool....that seemed to want to creep on me.  Some of the fabrics have spots and a few tiny holes....just adds to the history and charm of it all.

Then I had another idea.  I have had my Grandma Mildred's wedding dress for a long time.  She gave it to me because it was falling apart and I had interfaced it to basically hold it together.  So I got that out and hand tacked it to the back of the quilt.  I have had the dress in a box and thought this would be a better idea, at least to use it, be able to see it and include the story.  It is tucked and basted down just enough to hold it in place on the back of the quilt.

I had this small piece of toweling that had been hand stenciled by either Great-Grandma Rose or Grandma Mildred.....so that became my label with the quilt info included.

Then I made a fabric dress tag.....printed out on fabric the picture of Keith & Mildred Kullmer's wedding and cut out a tag shape from that after interfacing it and then backed it with a piece of muslin that was also interfaced after writing the information about her wedding dress on the back side of the tag.  I basted around the outside edge to hold it together, then went around the outside edge of the tag twice to make a nice full edge.  Also finished a tiny circle to put the ribbon through.

I did ink the wedding dress info by hand, but it was a fairly small font....made it hard to do.  If I was repeating that, I would have printed it directly on the fabric.  The story my grandparents told me, was the day of the wedding they drove to Black's Department store in downtown Waterloo and bought this dress for about $25-30.

The lace is still beautiful!

I chose to machine quilt it with a free motion baptist fan design.

We had the party at my brother's house and I brought some things to display.

The black wool blanket came from Czechoslovakia  when the Fisher Family came to this country 1880-1890.  They used in when they traveled in the sleigh was the story Grandma told me.  The little bubble suit was made for my dad.

I made a quilt roll with the backside and the dress toward the inside.  And I used the belt from the wool coat to make a strap.

I like to do Shutterfly books for special occasions.  I used Dad's H.S. graduation picture for the cover on the left. 

Close up of the bubble suit.....see the little kitty faces embroidered on it?  Sweet & tiny knitted mittens too!  The story goes that my dad was born on his mother's birthday and there was a snow storm going and I don't believe the Dr. arrived till after he was born.  It was so cold, they wrapped him up and laid him on the open stove door to keep him warm.  He was born at the Weaver family farm.

My brother served BBQ brisket and pork loin and all the fixin's.  It was all so yummy!  And we topped the menu off with cupcakes from Scratch.  Too die for!!!

Ellis Family Sale

I love a good garage sale, tag sale, estate sale, auction, or thrift shop.......my only problem is I have a lot of treasures already. The Silver Fox and I were involved in helping to clean out several family member's homes a few years back and that brought my inventory around here to a new high!  Need I say more!  So lately I haven't done much thrift shopping.....but on Facebook several weeks back I got an announcement for a family/estate sale from one of my 2nd cousins.....very tempting because I knew her mother, Mary Lou, who is my first cousin once removed to be technical.  She LOVES garage sales and had bought for many years...... which makes for an awesome sale.

Just for fun, I thought I would share with you their wedding story, since it was so unique.  And for those of you who are not family.....trust me, you will love it just the same and wish you had a record like this for one of your loved ones!!!  Don & Mary Lou Wedding

Don & Mary Lou Ellis Wedding Picture

So off I went to Cedar Rapids with my Garmin.....can I just say I love that thing!  I would never have gone without it.  I am not that brave, but that crazy thing makes me brave!  I pulled up as I saw the cars parked and picked a place I could drive right into, because I don't parallel park either.  I went on Day 2, as I was busy the day before.  Which is OK, I knew it would have been crazy and it was!  And I am of the mindset, if I am to have something it will be there.....

My cousin, Judy had worked so hard to pull this off.  I can't describe the amount to things that were there.....humongous amounts & it didn't include the furniture because that had been sent off to an auction house....her aunts and brothers also pitched in and it took the whole tribe to handle this!  It was so good to sit and visit with them in between customers, which I would not have been able to do on the first day.  It was pretty nutty, not surprising!  I went through the house I think 3 times because there was so much to see and I was trying to be pretty selective......remember the lady that doesn't NEED anything!  But I must say it was sooo much fun cause I hadn't done this in a very long time! And throw a little cousin love on top of it.....a really delightful day!

Some of the Schmidt girl cousins......Linda, me & Judy

So this is what I brought home with me......a beautiful crochet lace table cloth.  I am a sucker for them, it had a few stains, but I washed it and it cleaned up beautifully!

My mother's family has a thing for Amana made furniture.....it is usually solid walnut or cherry. Although they did make some things in oak too, but mostly walnut. We got most of our furniture at Krauss's which is no longer in business....which makes me sad.  But we also got a few pieces from Schanz Furniture, if you want to check it out.  I don't know where this started, any of you cousins know?

 But several of us have pieces from there and they are beautiful, solid, heavy, well-made and timeless.  So I was looking and this piece I actually missed, but my cousin Gary thought I would like it and put it on my pile.....so glad he did....so sweet, small tray.....did I say I like trays too?

Now she is all decked out with a few Halloween and fall embellishments.....so very fun!

Then I ran across these wonderful milk glass vases, my daughter, Sally has a beautiful black hutch that my dad made for her and she is collecting milk glass to go in the top of it, so I sent her a picture of these two.....so these made a brief stop at my house before taking a trip to Chattanooga, where they live at her house now.

I also picked up a candle lamp, can't have too many of them either.  I turn it on most nights, great night light!

My heart did a little pitter-patter when I saw this Amana foot stool.....like foot stools too!  Imagine that!    And it lives very nicely with the Amana Lincoln rocker.  And the walnut quilt stand my dad made me many years ago.

 The patchwork pumpkin looks wonderful on it's little stool.....I never had a great place for it, because it is BIG!  I had no idea when I did this project how big it would be......now it has a spot to be and it looks wonderful!

I picked up this old Charles Denby cigar box and the geode too....I like old advertised and ephemera. This lives for now on my book case with some books that fit right inside!  Judy had a whole tote of geodes, I wished I would have gotten a few more of them after the fact.  Can you believe it?  I like pretty rocks too.  That was one of the first things I collected when I was a girl!  Got it all scrubbed and it looks beautiful!

I wished I could have taken you all along that like old things, it was so much fun.....thanks Judy for a great summer day outing!

Crazy Quilt Wedding Purse

I love to do crazy quilt projects.  On one of my sewing lists, awhile back, we were talking about wedding purses and I promised to post about the one I had done for one of my girls.  These projects are such fun to do and I love using pieces from my grandmother's stash of lace, bits of crochet pieces and fabrics.

This purse includes fabric from my wedding dress, my daughter's prom dress, my mother's stash.  It also includes lace and crochet snippets from my Grandma K. and her mother, Great-Grandma W.

The back of the purse, showing buttons, ribbon and crystals.

  This views shows the purse open and some of the crochet pieces.  Both my Grandma and Great-Grandma would crochet out small parts of a design before committing to entire projects.  So I have bags full of these small bits and pieces and love using them in small projects.

You can see this is a very easy shape.  One you could easily draw out.....a rectangle with one edge curved to make a flap.  I am sure I used a piece of muslin as a base and I just covered it with my crazy quilting fabrics, lace, etc.    Trim any fabric or lace to the finished shape of the muslin.  Add an optional ribbon or cord for a handle before adding the lining.  Then using a piece of satin to line it, stitch it together with right sides together, leaving an opening to turn.  After turning the piece and stitching the opening closed.  I hand stitched the bag together to make the bag shape and checking to make sure I like the way the flap comes down to close it.  Then adding a snap to close the bag and any other embellishments you want to add to finish.