Rescued Blocks

Today was a beautiful spring day, so I took a lovely drive north to Story City and Antiques Iowa, where I have a booth.  I made quick work of re-stocking then meandered through part of the mall to see if there was anything that really needed to come with me.  Naturally, there was.  However, I exercised extreme discipline and only purchased a few select items, including these two quilt blocks:

I love Dresden Plate quilt blocks, but I don't think I could make them myself.  So it was serendipity that I found these; my plan is to make them into pillow covers.  They're 17 inches square, perfect for a 16 inch pillow.  When I was taking these pictures, it reminded me that I already had some other quilt blocks I'd rescued last summer at the Valley Junction Antiques Jamboree; there were 12 of them sold as a lot and some of the prints were so pretty that I couldn't resist.  Here are a few of them:

These blocks are hand-stitched.  There is a variety of fabrics, as you can see--I think some are feed sacks and some from old shirts; I don't think this quilter went to JoAnn's and bought yardage, it seems apparent to me that this is the real deal from back when most quilts were made from old clothes and other fabric scraps. And when I see quilt blocks for sale, I feel a little sad, because I always feel certain that the quilter never got the chance to finish the quilt.  Obviously, it's my job to finish it for her.   I think I can get these 12 blocks made into quilt over the summer....

And speaking of rescues, my sewing machine is back where it belongs today.   In February, I took it in for service because the needle position was stuck on the left side.  That issue was fixed the same day.  When I brought it home, thread was getting stuck in the bobbin like nobody's business...so back to the shop. Because sewing machine repair places guarantee their work with a 90-day warranty.  Apparently that also means that "warranty work" might take nearly 90 days.  And here's the kicker: now it only sews a straight stitch!  BUT, that's okay, because that's all I need to make a quilt, right?  And also because I'm not going to let it out of the house again!

Happy stitching!