Here is a little peek at my reproduction civil war era fabrics.

This week I have been off work, and among other things I have decluttered and tidied the sewing loft.  In August it will be six years of sewing there, and a little elbow grease was in order to keep it inviting and inspiring.  

Oh no!  There are more civil war repro scraps than the box will hold.  So, I took a break from cleaning and made scrappy botch handle (aka devil's claw) blocks.  Mr. IQ likes this block, says it looks like a medieval mace.  We will see how many turn up from these scraps.  It takes about one chubby eighth (9x22 inches)  of a light and a dark to make one 8.875 inch block, but if you have strips just find a similar chunk and include it instead.  That is what I did with the block on the right.

Civil War reproduction scraps yield botch handle blocks

These are my two favorite pincushions (above).  A milk glass parfait with a handmade cushion inserted and the sunflower with a ladybug button in the center.  The parfait has loops that fit a seam ripper in - so convenient!  The sunflower pincushion was designed by Anna Maria Horner, she calls it Wildflower Pincushion and it's available here.


Here are pictures of my antique thread holders/sewing caddies. 

The thread holder on the left was gifted to me by a kind friend.  It had a terribly faded tomato pincushion on the top, which is now stashed in the drawer with other goodies that came with it.  The one on the right I discovered in an antique shop with several thimbles which are my size.  How cool is that?  I have left them in the drawer, but if I need one, it's there for me.   Each of these holders came with the wooden spools of thread that are on them too. 

Have a great weekend...let's drink in the last week of Spring!

~~Lisa