Vintage Linens

Vintage Lines, TurtlesGood Morning, Quilters!

For the past several months, I have been working with the Craftsy editors to create a quilting class to complement my other two classes:  Divide and Conquer Machine Quilting and Creative Machine Quilting. (Get 50% off either class HERE)

Now that you know a wide variety of motifs, the question becomes how to design the machine quilting on the quilt tops YOU have.

We will discuss a wide variety of quilt types–including quilting on embroidered blocks.  I know many of you create gorgeous embroidery-both hand and machine designs.  We will give you some really fun ideas for quilting embroidered blocks.

I have been saving these adorable vintage tea towels for just the right project and I can’t wait for you to see the finished quilt!

What about YOU?

Do YOU do machine or hand embroidery?

Do YOU ever add your embroidery to quilt blocks?

Do YOU collect anything vintage?

We’d LOVE to hear!

Lori

PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt and are intended for personal use only.  Feel free to reblog, pin or share with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt.  For all other purposes, please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com.

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45 responses to “Vintage Linens”

  1. I have a collection of beautiful old ladies’ hankies that I’d love to put into a quilt someday….Also looking for idea for that.

    2. I recently made a butterfly quilt with antique hankies! It came out great! I folded them to emulate the wing shape then top stitched down then embroidered on the head and antenna! Darling!

  2. I have the 12 Days of Christmas on hand towels that I found several years ago. They are all ready to go into a wall hanging but just haven’t had the time yet to work on it….maybe your new class will help. When will it be available? Loved your other classes and books and have used several of your motifs…your teaching methods make it easy for us to understand. Thank you!

  3. You must have had ME in mind! ???? I am a machine embroiderer; I frequently add embroidered elements to my quilts. I also have a significant collection of old family linens that I would love to incorporate into my quilts…to be shared one day with family. I am currently working on a dresden plate quilt using vintage doilies as centers…but how to quilt??? Can’t wait for your wisdom and inspiration…THANK YOU!

  4. I have two pieces of embroidery (a dog and a little girl in the rain). That was my first embroidery attempt when I was 5 years old. I think my Mom was looking for something to keep me busy. They are both in good shape & I would love to use them in a little pillow or wall hanging.

  5. I saved a pattern with cross-stitch blocks in a small wall hanging. Finally got brave enough to do it. Really liked it and would do it again.

  7. Awesome! I have a set of about 20 embroidered blocks with birds on them in a beautiful bright blue. I recently bought some Kaffe Fasset fabrics to set the blocks into something…hope to work on that soon and then I will need quilting ideas! I always waffle on those blocks as I don’t want to stitch over the embroidery, but then what other than the old meandering standby which I’m not fond of. And crosshatching a large piece can be a lot of work! Looking forward to some inspiration.

  8. I love to hand embroider and have a couple of wallhangings completed with the quilting. One halloween one I wrote the words BOO around the border to quilt that and was lost what to do for the inside. One I just stippled around the embroidery which is okay but not what I would want to see if I did it today so very anxious to see your class now. I also have hankies and wondered what is best to do for them. Great topic!

  9. You inspire me so much. Watched your videos on Craftsy and bought you book Getting braver every day. Thank you

  10. Back in college (yeah, 35th anniversary of *graduation* was last year-yikes) I did two oval embroideries of winter scenes – sepia brown on a creamy linen. Still need to have them framed to put up in the winter…

    I collect – and use – vintage pillowcases. The fabric is so very much nicer than the stuff they use today, and it holds up beautifully to being laundered. Plus, they are still fairly easily found and much, much less expensive than vintage quilts, lol. (not to mention easy to store)

  11. Hi lori, i often get asked how to fmq embroidery while i teach. I always share many methods, it really is up to the individual what they like. ???? I show them vintage linens also where i have quilted on the embroidery as well as ones that i have gone intentionally around. You have to listen to your heart and desire for what you have invisioned it would look like????????????good luck with your class????

  12. I have a lot of machine embroidered blocks… Specifically flower of the month set that I ME on point… of all the crazy ideas. I need to figure out how to set them in a quilt.

    In addition, I many, many practice blocks of the pretty much every design that I used for gifts for my nieces and nephews, all the designs I stitched onto shirts for my girls when they were in elementary school (and would wear them) . Most of those are stitched on denim or chambray… It would be fun to get them into a quilt as each design was chosen to match the personality of the recipient.

    I also hand embroider, but only on dish towels… I’ve done less of that since I started EPP 5 years ago.

  13. I have a set of blocks my mum embroidered many years ago. I have plans to make them into a quilt, but again, I don’t know where to start with the quilting.

  14. Saving my grandmother’s hand embroidered pillow cases and hand towels has been
    a joy. I use one towel rack for a rotating display of them. I attempted a set of pillowcases while in Girl Scouts. Finished one and the other is still waiting.. LOL. I have her handkerchiefs from the 1930’s/40’s, but the fabric is too thin to use in a quilt …maybe in a wall hanging.

  15. My two favorite groups of vintage are handkerchiefs from both my and my husband’s moms and grandmothers and a set of pillowcases that were my introduction to embroidery when I was 7 years old. Thanks, Mom, for keeping them and giving them to me several years ago. They are all waiting for the proper inspiration.

  16. I absolutely need your help. I do quite a bit of hand embroidery for quilts and am stuck about the quilting. Show me how to enhance the embroidery without smothering it,

  18. I have my mother’s embroidered blocks sewn into quilt tops…. but I’ve never quilted them because I’m not certain what to do with the white space around the embroidery. I don’t like the idea of echo quilting nor meandering.

  19. I am new at quilting and the only thing I know about quilting is what I’ve seen my grandmother do and she did everything by hand but I am trying to use the machine I’ve tried every way I can think of to add the batting and I am still getting wrinkles in the material and also when I’m sewing the material is puckering I have tried basting spray and also pen and tacking but I’m still getting some puckers please help

  20. The Splendid Sampler quilt has many embroidered blocks and wanting to know how to quilt those. Also after my Mother left this world my sister mailed me Mother’s blocks that she had hand embroidered, one set of state flowers and another with antique cars. Really want to know how to quilt and put these together instead of sitting in a box.

  21. I love embroidery…and I do both machine and hand embroidery. Some people say they’d never do hand embroidery once they started using their machine. But, me, I love the hands on of hand work just as much as machine work. I just finished a 365 day challenge; making a 4.5 inch unfinished block that has a circle of fabric in the block. I made my circles into a sort of journal and I did lots of machine embroidery and hand embroidery in the circles. It was labor intensive but what a testimony to my hard work.
    Now to ‘vintage’. I love vintage…goodness…even I’m vintage! lol I still have the dish towels I hand embroidered as a child and I USE them, too. I keep thinking about incorporating some vintage fabric or crocheted items into a quilt but haven’t attempted that yet. It’s a great idea so I’m thinking a Craftsy course would be a hit.

  22. When I was small my sister embroidered blocks, which my grandma made into a quilt for me. The blocks are storybook themed and the quilt is made with an old flannel blanket and tied. I also have Barbie Doll clothes that my grandma sewed, knitted and crocheted for me. I have some vintage handkerchiefs that my grandma got when we visited a Swiss town in WI. All Treasures!

  23. My grandmother taught me to hand embroider when I was a child, and I’ve loved it ever since. I love working on those large embroidered quilts while watching tv with my husband or on car rides.

  24. I love machine embroidery (I work as a commercial embroiderer). Not much creativity on the job, but I have added machine embroidery to many quilt projects at home. I have made an Irish chain quilt that has 12 blocks machine embroidered with assorted little teapots, tea cups and birds. I have most of the quilt done, but am stumped with how to quilt the embroidered blocks. So there it sits since winter, waiting for some inspiration. I can’t wait for what you will come up with! Thank you in advance.

  25. I have a collection of hand embroidery tea towels from my husband’s grandmother. I’ve been trying to incorporate them into a quilt, so am looking forward to your class! Also have a redwork top ready to quilt for the past 10 years!

  27. I didn’t even know I was waiting for this but apparently I am!! I have about a dozen tea towels that my husband’s grandmother embroidered and I’ve been saving them for the past 33 years to do “something” with them. Now I’m very excited about the possibilities. Thanks!

  29. I am 80 years old and still love to hand embroidery. One of my grandma’s taught me how to embroidery when I was 8 or 9 years old. My efforts were never up to par as being really neat on the back. Grandma was a school teacher and pretty strict. However, it apparently didn’t deter me as I thoroughly enjoy it to this day and continue trying to have things neat. I made a “Baby Animals” quilt for my son in 1957. I ended up putting it away in my cedar chest before it was ruined and took it out in 2007 and tore it all apart, keeping only the embroidered pictures of the animals which were in good condition. Put them back into a quilt and gave it to him on his 50th birthday and he was thrilled. I have two more sets of blocks made up, one in a top and the others just blocks that I want to make baby quilts for his two kids to have for their first babies. The patterns are still available in the Aunt Martha collections.

    I would like to learn new ways to quilt hand embroidered items. I will look forward to what you and Craftsy come up with.

    I also do a lot of hand embroidered dish towels for my daughter and granddaughters. I have a couple of sets of pillowcases that my grandma made, complete with crocheted edges. Also have a couple of dresser scarves that I use proudly. None of my granddaughters have shown the desire to embroider but I hope they keep the memories of their grandma doing it as I sure do remember both of my grandma’s doing handwork. It is a treasured memory.

  30. Like so many above, I have a container full of hand embroidered dresser, lamp, table toppers, all done by my mother. Plus, about 50 hankies (of hers!). I prefer FMQ, but I do have experience with hand embroidery. I’d love to “re-create” these items into something my ‘modern’ daughters would cherish from their grandmother’s hands. Look forward to your ideas.

  31. I’m a longarm quilter and get a quilt with embroidered blocks from time to time. I’ll be interested to see what you advise about quilting on embroidery. I always think it needs some quilting, so the embroidered part doesn’t just puff up and be liable to get wrinkly when washed, but I don’t want to do more than necessary to just tack it down and emphasize the main lines of the embroidery pattern.

  33. I also have some towels hand embroidered by my Aunt. They were gifted to my Mom years ago. She didn’t have to heart to use them, so she gave them to me to make a quilt from. I can’t wait to see what you’ve done with yours.

  34. I collect vintage lace runners and recently picked up a full size hand crocheted delicate Lovely bed spread. It was just gorgious. Had to take a few stains off it, but no worries.

  35. I embroider by hand. I’m I’m the final stages of embroidering redwork blocks for a queen size quilt. I transfered pictures from a 1960 coloring book to fabric. The images are so sweet; little boys and girls with their Brown leather shoes and adorable clothes. They are pictures of children doing all the common games and play outside that I did when I was young. There are pictures of playing leap frog and cowboys, flying kites and passing with a hose, and girls playing with dolls and boys playing with trucks in the sandbox.

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