Great Granny Squared - Finished Quilt

Meet Mabel Mae!

Mabel Mae is my Great Granny Squared quilt, quilted and bound.  The pattern is by Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet and is easy enough for a beginner.  I made it from fabric I had on hand (2020 is my year of stash busting), even the backing and binding are from my stash.  

I modified the border design and my quilt is roughly 57" by 70" after quilting.

Mabel Mae was quilted by Karen Thompson using a pantograph design of a leafy vine.  

I used a pale green floral for the binding.  It puts a stop at the edge without announcing it presence so all the focus is on the blocks.

The backing is a floral/ticking stripe combination, likely added to my stash when I was in my shabby chic/cottage design phase.  

I asked for name suggestions when I showed you the finished top and Ellen in Oregon's suggestion of Sweet Granny got me thinking why not name the quilt after one of my great grandmothers.  

Mabel Mae Roberts Briggs Seger was my mother's maternal grandmother.  My mother is the child in the photo below, with her mother, her two grandmothers, and the three great grandmothers that were still alive at the time (this must have been taken in 1936); Mabel is on the far left in the back row.  Mabel was born in 1883 in Wolverine, Michigan, a logging town in the northern part of the lower peninsula.  She married Joseph Briggs in 1903 and had three daughters; the eldest, Ruth, was my grandmother.  They moved to Lansing around 1914 and opened a dry goods store.  After Joseph died, Mabel continued to run the store and later, was married again, to Art Seger.  Mabel died in 1958.

Mabel was a quilter and her quilts were well-used so few have survived to today, but my mother does have a few.  My grandmother sewed as well but once the Depression and World War II were over, and consumer goods were back in stores, they did not do much sewing as they associated it with having to "make do" and felt they did not need to do that any longer.  My mother is a great cook but never liked the sewing part of home economics; when I see her, she often has something for me to fix or a pair of pants to hem shorter.  When I was in junior high, all the girls had to take home ec (the boys had workshop) and I enjoyed the sewing part.  In the lead up to the bicentennial in 1976, there was a refocus on traditional Americana, including quilting, and that's when I became interested, though I did not get totally immersed until about 1992, and obsessed shortly thereafter.  

An aside about the family photo above.  When I worked in the skincare industry, I used the picture to illustrate how expectations of aging have changed.  The three great grandmothers in the middle of the back row were in their early and mid 70's at the time the photo was taken.  The two grandmothers were 53 and 55.  All I can say is thank goodness I have tretinoin, sunscreen, and advanced moisturizers!

Singer Sew Handy - Vintage Child's Sewing Machine

I mentioned in my last post that I recently visited my mom at her home in Michigan.  She's been doing some cleaning out, with thoughts of an eventual move to some kind of  "senior" living, and she came across this very old Singer Sew Handy child's sewing machine.  She knows it came from her parents' house but does not recall ever using it as a child.  My mom is not a crafter and does not sew and her own mom sewed only out of necessity during the Depression and WWII.  But Mom's own grandmothers were handy with a needle and one of them may have given this to her for a birthday or Christmas present.

It is an entirely metal machine, heavy for its size (cast iron I think), and works with a hand crank (the turn wheel on the right side).  It uses thread on the top, but not a bobbin, and sews a sort of chain stitch that appears to be formed by a looping mechanism from underneath.  

I took this photo with the rotary cutter to give you an idea of how small it is.  Also see below, where each square on the grid is 1 inch.

I looked for a date on the machine itself and on the booklet but did not find one.  I found a little history of the machines on a website and conclude mine was made after 1926 (makes sense as Mom was born in 1934).

While I can't see actually using this to sew, it is a fun little thing to have in my studio.  Please leave a comment if you know anything more about these machines.

LQS Parisian-Style - A Visit to Le Rouvray

I try to take in a quilt shop or two on every vacation and our Paris trip was no exception.  I had heard of Le Rouvray and given its easy to reach location near Notre Dame, Ile St. Louis, and the Latin Quarter, we stopped in for a visit. 

We had a little difficulty finding the store because they had recently moved from the address given on their website (website not updated yet as of today), but the new premises are only a block away on another little side street.

The new premises are very small and they have a very limited inventory.  The store hours are also quite limited (Tuesday-Saturday, afternoons only), leading me to think it is a sort of hobby business.  Having previous experience with the price of fabric in Europe, I was not expecting to buy anything (we may moan about quilting fabric reaching $10 a yard in the US but in Europe it costs much more).  Le Rouvray had a limited though carefully curated selection of mostly 19th century repros with a "French-y" look.  Most were from what I think of as British companies like Westminister.  They stock some FQ-like packs but I did not see much in the way of patterns or books.  We came away only with a couple of postcards, but it was worth the visit.

Our other sewing-related adventure was trip to the Puces de Vanves, the flea market held at Porte de Vanves.  This is on the outskirts of Paris but was easy to get to on the Metro and a tram-like bus.  It is held on Saturday and Sunday mornings on the sidewalk of a few blocks of two streets in what appears to be a middle class residential area.

Miss Main Street and I spent an enjoyable few hours browsing.  Miss bought a vintage ring and a small army-issue satchel she intends to use as a purse (military is "in" she tells me); I bought some vintage sewing items and a vintage bed cover with eyelet lace trim. 

I came across two different vendors with vintage sewing "stuff."  From the first, I bought two boxes of vintage ribbon embroidered with my initials, CM.  However, she did not have LM for Miss Main Street or initials of anyone else I could think of on the spur of the moment.  Those wooden things are bobbins used for lace making.  I thought they'd look interesting in a little bowl.  They can be used to hold embroidery floss, should I ever take up embroidery (you never know!).

Another vendor had all sorts of other sewing things.  I bought the card with buttons, card with linen thread, little pieces of lace, and floral card, with thought of putting them in some sort of framed collage for my sewing room. 

This is the bed cover.  It is too small to use on any bed we have (smaller even than a twin bed, making me think it was for a crib or child's bed) and it in thin in places and has some stains here and there but not on the lace.   It is embroidered with the initials ER in red cross stitch.



The lace edge runs across the top and bottom.  I am thinking or recycling it into pillow shams somehow.  Must think this out carefully before I cut...

The Practical Bag came in very handy for carrying our purchases. 

At the Eiffel Tower, I bought this tin, which will hold pins after I've eaten the candy it contains. 

Vintage Button Wreath

I made this wreath a few years ago. It hangs year 'round on a door handle on our second floor. I made it by sewing vintage white buttons (some are fancy, some are plain shirt buttons) to white ribbon then wrapped the ribbon around a styrofoam wreath form. I tied a long piece of white ribbon around the wreath to form bow and hanger.

closer up view

You can get the styrofoam wreath form at craft stores like Michaels. Just pick the size you want your finished wreath to be. Warning - it takes more buttons and more time to sew than you would think! You might want to start small. My finished wreath is 9" in diameter and it is plenty large enough for hanging from a door handle. I had purchased a couple of large lots of white buttons on eBay and used those. You can buy buttons in bulk at craft stores but buying new buttons meant for garments would get a little expensive for this project.

If you want to try making your own button wreath and need more detailed directions, just leave a comment and I'll get back to you.