I found this train case at the quilt show.  It was covered in contact paper and had wool yarns in it.  It was a great price and so I bought it (along with a bunch of other stuff)!  This morning I peeled all the contact paper off the case, decoupaged the inside with pretty paper and made the top from a piece of vintage linen.  I added a little antique lace and a few tiny buttons.  I didn't want to add too much to the top because I think the simple beauty is just right. I'm listing this and the garden doll I made a while back to my Etsy shop. Check it out at sewoldsewnew1.

On Friday I attended a local quilt show.  The quilts were amazing!  But here is the thing I noticed, they were all machine quilted.  No question about it, they were quilted beautifully, but I didn't see a single quilt that was hand quilted!  I have been working on my quilt steadily this month and it is very time consuming, but I think it's worth it.  I had a comment on Instagram about how hand quilting is a lost art.  I guess my old soul still believes in the beauty of hand quilting too.
Here is a photo of my favorite quilt at the show.  Can you imagine all the time and work this took?  No, I would not enjoy hand quilting this.  Yes, the machine quilting is amazing!
So here is my thought, I would like to see both hand quilting and machine quilting in a show.  I have to believe there are people out there who do both.

I have made small flowers out of vintage fabrics, but today I decided to make big flowers.  They range from about 24" X 24" to 26" X 26".  I completed the main part of the flowers using vintage fabrics, quilt blocks and needlepoint pieces.  I had the hardest time figuring out what to put in the center of the flowers and finally came up with puffy vintage needlework pieces.  These would be pretty laying across something, or in my case, I think I will use them in my vintage and handmade shows.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!  This is my 3rd or 4th try with this stand and I'm finally happy with it! Funny how you can leave something alone for awhile and then it just comes to you, the color, the purpose, everything.  What I love about this stand is that it is adjustable.  It was intended to be an adjustable work space.  You can stand up and work from it, or you can lower it and sit.  What I thought would be fun is to put my Ipad on it so I can quilt and watch a movie or listen to music.  It can be outside, you can hang a towel from it, the sky is the limit.  Finally!!

This pillow is made from 1930's quilt squares, a 1980's stitched saying and a 2016 dish towel.  This is truly sew old sew new! 

This project started with the bar case.  It's compact and would be so easy to travel with.  It came with the little glasses, tray and bottle opener.  There is room for 2 bottles on the opposite side of the case.  Well, I was gifted the cup in the picture and my mister gave me the stainless steel  bottle and they both fit into the allotted space.  How cute!  I can use the cup for coffee or whatever and I can bring along my own drink.  So once the inside was complete and I started working on the outside of the case.  I found this cute image on Pinterest.  It didn't give the illustrators name or I would include it.  Any way, I sponge painted the outside of the case to match the colors in the picture.  The I decoupaged the image onto the case and it's ready to go.  Now that I think about it, wouldn't it look cute in my vintage camper?!

I wanted to do something fun with this applique piece.  I had a piece of vintage quilt top that had all the right colors and so I decided to combine them.  I finished the front of the piece and went with another completely different quilt piece for the back.  It just turned into a fun pillow that would look great with a quilt on a bed, or just a pillow on a chair. 

I have been working on this quilt top for some time!  I have been adding pieces, taking away pieces and covering some pieces that I don't like.  I think I am finally ready to finish the top.  I have some hand stitching that needs to be completed on one section only.  I am using all vintage materials.  Some are blocks from cutter quilts and some are blocks that I sewed from vintage materials I have collected.  It's a bit laborious, but now that I am almost finished I am glad I put the time and love into it!  I think I am going to hand quilt this top, but I'm going to use embroidery thread in different colors and use bigger stitches.  I will be a happy girl when I finish this quilt!

I realized today that there is a name for some of my textile work called Slow Stitching.  From what I read
in the book Slow Stitch by Claire Wellesley-Smith, "It is a thoughtful approach to your textile practice. A kind of methodical stitching of selected areas".  Hey, you learn something new everyday!