Something Old and Something New

Most crazy quilters love old linens, hankies, tatting, embroidery and such. I have a great friend who is fortunate enough to have some treasures her grandmother made. One was especially beautiful and I want to share a photo with you. Debi says it's somewhere around 70 years old.

Although she has never done any crazy quilting I think I've convinced her that she needs to piece a block and see if she likes it. With all these wonderful heirlooms she has a head start on collecting stash.

A solid base of triple crochets forms the skirt. The ruffles are made individually and attached to the skirt. Her grandmother has used a really fine thread. It's a beautiful piece of heirloom crochet.

Now for the new......the ladies in Tomball had made a wonderful pincushion with old CDs. They kindly shared how they did it and I pieced one at the retreat. I put it together last week and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Although beautiful, pink is not a color I would normally use to piece a block. Pat and Diana had brought some samples to share with the group and I picked out these fabrics to use. I'm really glad I did!

Jan shared some hand-dyed silk and the pattern for the grape leaf pictured on the left.

We all signed our names on a muslin heart at the retreat. I've put that heart on the bottom of my pincushion sandwiched between wool and a piece of tulle. I lightly burned the edges of the muslin to prevent fraying and it also gives it an aged appearance.

It's a fun and easy project and will be a wonderful keepsake from the Quilter's Cabin Retreat. I learned so many great things from this talented group of ladies and will share more in later posts.