quilt blocks

I love to find vintage stamped-for-embroidery quilt blocks, even if it's just one or two blocks from a set. I might feel differently if I were making quilts but the single blocks are perfect for pillows. I can embroider them to match whatever fun fabrics I choose to use for the rest of the pillow, and they work up very quickly.



The cute blocks shown here are from a batch I found on Ebay last week. Forty four blocks in all, a few of which were already embroidered (and not very well, either) but most were undone. Just a couple of repeats and most were images I hadn't seen before.



I love the combination of cross stitch with simple embroidery on these and they'll make wonderful children's pillows after I've finished embroidering them.

I finally finished the big custom embroidery job I was working on and now I'm trying to finish up all the bits and pieces of projects I started and never finished. Some just needed a few French knots; others just facial features on animals (I don't know why I always save these for the end—I should do them first!) Most of these almost-done projects are baby things and you'll soon find them for sale on my website. I've been neglecting the baby section lately and this is my attempt to fix that.

I'm seriously sick of all this rain we're having here in the northeast. My sinuses hurt, the strawberries in the garden are waterlogged and bursting, weeds are sprouting like crazy—everything is a mess. I'm getting lots of embroidery done but a little sun would be nice. Please!

coming together

I finished the embroidery on Saturday and then soaked and washed the finished blocks to remove the storage dirt and transfer lines. I also washed and ironed all the fabrics I'll be using for the quilt. On Sunday, I started cutting and sewing. So far, each block is surrounded by a strip of the green pindot (Recess by American Jane - Sandy Klop for Moda) and a corner square of the brown dots (Michael Miller Dumb Dots). The corner squares were not on my original sketch but I thought the quilt needed more brown and it solved the problem of matching dots (nearly impossible to get right) in the corners.



I love the tiger with his little coral flower. But I really love the raccoon eating the coral berries and it was a good opportunity to practice my satin stitch.



The monkey holding a banana is also very sweet. They're all so darn cute that it's hard to pick a favorite block.



Next up is a wider strip of the coral stripe (Timeless Treasures # Daisy C) and larger brown dot corner blocks. That will tie all the embroidered blocks together, then I'll see how much room I have on the border. I may do a thin strip of alternating brown and green squares but I haven't decided yet. Lots left to do!

the best for last

This is by far my best find at last weekend's show. I had picked up some fabric and aprons and was waiting for the vendor to finish with some other customers when I spotted a box on the table with some patchwork peeking out. Opening it, I discovered the makings of a patchwork quilt. Some blocks were done, some were combined into rows. There were envelopes of templates, the original printed patterns, and lots of cut out pieces. At the bottom there was even extra yardage of each fabric.



My heart skipped a beat. Then I thought, "no way will I be able to afford this." But it never hurts to ask, right? So I did. $35. Can you believe it! I saw the person standing next to me ear's perk up and I grabbed that box so fast it wasn't funny.


A completed block


Four blocks combined

On further inspection, everything seems to be there to make a good-sized quilt. What's done so far is hand-sewn. And everything is really clean and just about perfect.


such neat hand-stitching


A closeup of the print

The only problem is that I can't figure out the pattern. I've looked in all my quilt books and I'm coming up with nothing. I know that some creative quilters designed their own patterns but this appears to be a commercial one. And not one that appeared in a newspaper—there's nothing on the backs of the patterns. I'd love to know what the pattern is called so I can do some research to determine how old this is. Can any of you quilters help me out?


The block pattern


The diagram for arranging the blocks

new embroidery patterns

I've listed some new patterns on my website—


For you cat lovers there's Kitten Capers based on a vintage nursery quilt. This pattern comes with a copy of the original directions for making the quilt although you certainly don't have to—the blocks would make really cute pillows, too!

And a fun pattern of animals in hats that I'm calling Party Animals, also based on a set of vintage quilt blocks—


Can you tell I like quilt blocks? A lot of my patterns are based on them, and I think I like them so much because they are the perfect size for pillows. That's certainly the reason I started buying them. And I always scanned and digitally-traced (my computer background helps with this part) each one to keep for my records anyway. Then I got the idea to share them.

I have lots more tracings in various stages of completion so look for more patterns soon. And I may at some point, start selling off some of the originals. It's getting so that, even if I embroider every day for the rest of my life, I'll never get to them all. Yes, it's an addiction :)

Special offer for blog readers during the month of March—Buy 1 embroidery pattern, get 1 embroidery pattern free! I don't think there's a way to set up a code for this in my shopping cart so, when you check out, write the word BOGO in the comments section and tell me which pattern (equal or lesser value) you want for your free one.