Vintagey Goodness, Fame-ishness & and Giveaway . . .

While I was in Denver my sis-in-law and I came across a veritable treasure trove of vintage fabrics in a large box marked $5 at an estate sale. We snatched the box up and spent three days going through the fabric stash of an apparently avid sewer {or fabric hoarder with really awesome taste}.  Though we cannot date the fabrics officially, judging by pattern and print {and unfortunately, smell} some of it was more than sixty years old.

Sandwiched between stacks of folded fabric was a pile of half-finished, hand pieced quilt blocks.  Having a mother who quilted, I can marvel at the time, patience and effort this woman must have put into this project though she never saw it to completion.

The fabric choices were out of this world!  Individually, some of the fabrics were questionable, but when placed in a circle with twenty other fabrics the effect was so charming and nostalgic.

   

Mindy and I knew we had to do something with this unexpected find. So we channeled our inner hand-crafters and spend a night creating Anthro-esque pins.  Here’s how we did it:

1.We  ran the edge of the quilt block through a sewing machine on a loose running stitch.  We then pulled the bottom thread to gather the fabric.

2. We tied knots in both ends of the thread, then wrapped the fabric around on itself to form a flower and hand sewed center of the flower to keep in intact.

3. We then glued vintage buttons onto the center of each flower to cover up my horrible sewing skills and up the charm factor.

4.  The finishing touch was a felt backing and pin hot glued into place. These pins are so happy and fun!  They look great on a jean jacket or purse and match just about any color T-shirt or sweater.  We were able to make twenty that night and sold half of them the next morning at the Paris Market. 

I came home with enough material to make ten more pins.  I’ve been hard at work, but must confess, it was more fun to do when Mindy and I were delirious at 11:30 at night, giggling and saying stupid things.  Crafting with Mindy is one of my favorite things.

In other news, I’m fame-ish.  That’s what we’re calling it around here since an article about me appeared in the County paper last week.  You can read the article in its entirety here. On Wednesday I will be doing a radio interview.  I am currently freaking out about it and spent the majority of last night lying in my bed worrying about what kinds of questions I’ll be asked and whether or not I am going to sound like an imbecile.

And finally, I just wanted to thank anyone who’s still reading this blog.  I don’t know who many of you are {comment, already, please?} but I’m grateful for you and grateful that I can write each day.  So, tomorrow I am reinstituting my monthly giveaway to show my thanks, and you won’t want to miss it. Especially if you have ‘a thing’ for Halloween.

But, you can’t win the giveaway unless you comment.  That is all.