Victory by Sewing

This is a WWII era poster. While the extreme propaganda of the War posters is reather surprising to my modern eye, it was an extreme time. I think about this a lot, lately, as more and more of my friends and relatives lose jobs because the company they work for has moved operations overseas.

I wonder what it will take for us, as a country, or rather for the very rich men who actually run the country, to strt making things here again?

I was at three diferent thrift stores today, scouting for machines. I didn't find any I wanted, although one store had a nice selection of fairly modern machines that would be good for any beginner. I did notice, as I always do, how busy thrift stores are these days. I don't remember them being so busy in the past. Perhaps my own fears and worries are magnifiying the situation. In any case, I didn't find any machines to play with, but I did find two shirts that I will be turning into fabric as soon as they come out of the dryer!

I could have cleaned house, but instead I did this....

I've been out of town for a week, meaning the menfolk have been on their own.  They did a good job keeping it all together, but there was ample housework to be done.  So, of course I did a furniture project, instead! Above is a nice little sewing bench that my friend Chris brought me from a thrifting adventure.  It might also have been a vanity bench.  Sadly, it has lost it's drawer somewhere.

At first I thought I would paint the shelf where the drawer goes, and then look for a tray or basket that fit the space, but inspiration struck in the form of an Amazon box.

A little tape, white glue, and cutting later, I had a drawer.  I doubled every side of the box, and used white glue on the theory that it would work into the fibers of the cardboard and make it sturdier.  I did 4 layers on the drawer front.

Then I wiped it down with Howards furniture polish, stapled new fabric and some batting on the top, and covered the front of the drawer with fabric and a single layer of batting.  The ribbon loop is how one would open the drawer.

While a cardboard drawer won't be as strong as a wood one, I think that because it sits on a flat shelf it will be strong enough to be useful for small, light things.  I'm going to look for a basket for the bottom, and keep things in there.  Or maybe the cone thread should go there? 

I have to say I'm thrilled with how it came out!

String Blocks!

Foundations made of phone book pages

I usually press after each strip set- one per side, then press. But, I am working with very wrinkled strips. If the strips were not so wrinkly, then I could probably just fold them over and press them open with my hand.

One about to be trimmed, one after trimming. These are turning out 8 inches. I was hoping for 8.5, but the pages were too small. Oh well!

A nice stack of work. The strips I'm using were sorted into mostly green or mostly purple. I just grabbed a handful of each. The center strip is from the mostly red pile. Sometimes, it seems, that means pink!

sewn into 4 bloc X's. I'm getting them to the 4 block stage, and letting them pile up. I think aroung 96 small blocks will make a good quilt.

Of course, If I wanted to set them as a zig zag, or barn raising ( any of the sets used for log cabin quilts work for string blocks) Then I would not put them into this arrangement. Great thanks to Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.com for teaching me this method, through her lovely blog and website! I feel like Bonnie is my own personal quilt godess, even thought we've never met. Go check out her website for tons of free patterns and tutorials!