A Well Earned Rest

I'm taking a break for 2 months over winter.
So my last 2 markets are The North Melbourne Market this Sunday and then the Hand Knitters Guild on the Following Saturday the 28th. So if you need goodies these will be your last 2 opportunities to stock up until August.
So, there will be no markets until August 21st At the North Melbourne Market.

Laundry Lady

Well my hands are red and sore, but I am mastering the art of laundering antique and vintage quilts. The special recipe from one of my ladies in the USA is being used. There is a trick to it as the fabrics are old, some not colourfast and the old battings were usually unbleached cottons. You often have rust spots, age spots and just general old stains from use.  Lots of hurdles to be worked out before they can be done. But they come up a treat...and so are my muscles! A fully sodden quilt weighs a ton!
With so many arriving I have to stay on top of them all. I know that in some cases you shouldn't launder, but as I sell these I try to give them a gentle freshen up. Some, I know you just can't and the best you can do it line air them.
So now the slipped seams will be re-stitched, popped patches and shattered squares will be carefully replaced and a few other little repairs will be done. I do not like to change the character of the quilts, I like the ageing and the irregularities of them so I tend to only do what they need.
I let the new owner decide what they would like to do.
And its a great chance to get up close and have a good look at all the amazing patterns in them. I can look at them for hours and still find prints I didn't see before.

1920's turkey red Squares. To be made up.

1920 to early 1950s Strip Patch quilt with loads of Novelty Prints, Silks, Rayons and Cottons.

1930's Feed Sack String Patch Quilt

Close Up of a 1950's Block 16 Patch.

1950's Block 16 Patch. Novelties and Rare Mid Century Prints.

Some more Quilts

I am loving these quilts, they are so lovely, unique, pretty, useful, delightful and just plain wonderful.
Nice and warm and thick and some over 100 years old. Its a tribute to the ladies who made them and to good old fashioned quality. Fabrics are just not the same these days.
I am unpacking more over the next few days, I still get surprised when I open them up and roll out.

1800's Bow Tie Quilt 

1930's Crazy Quilt from Feedsacks

1920's to 1940s Fabrics Multipatch Quilt

1940's Tulip Crosses Quilt

New Arrivals for Winter

Well the weather has turned for the cold now, time to rug up and start sewing by the fire!
Here are some recently unpacked goodies to kick off the markets for May.
There is the Yarraville Market on Saturday the 16th, Thread Den North Melbourne Market on Sunday the 22nd and the Hand Knitters Guild on Sunday the 28th.
For more new arrivals photos, please head over to my Flickr page.