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String style quilts during hard times

by

Image from Selvage Quilts
Image from Selvage Quilts

Quilt historian Kimberly Wulfert gives us a history lesson in string quilts. It starts,

During the economic slump of the early twentieth century, string style quilt making thrived. Rural mid-century women, cut off from mainstream society and markets, founded their own string quilt style. The twenty-first century version is known as selvedge edge quilts.*

Go here to read the rest of her article.

Go here to learn how to make a string quilt by Janet Wickell, About.com.

 Go here to see Karen Griska’s book, Quilts from the Selvage Edge.
Via Quilting Lessons Online.

Technorati Tags: quilting, history of quilts, fabrics, women’s lives and quilt style, Kimberly Wulfert, string quilt, selvage quilt

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Christmas Ornament Cross Stitch Patterns

The other day I shared some cross stitch patterns with ornaments on them, so this time around I wanted to share cross stitch patterns that you can use as ornaments. It would be fun to do a whole tree in your craft room with cross stitch ornaments, or just add a few to your tree or give them as gifts.

These little quilt inspired cross stitch patterns from Flamingo Toes look like ornaments and fit in 3-inch hoops, which are perfect for hanging on the tree or using to decorate a gift. I love the pastel colors on these but you can use more traditional Christmas colors if you like.

This cute Christmas tree from Lagodargetoshop uses a single color and fits in a 4-inch hoop, but you could make it smaller if you wanted by trimming the last ornaments and gifts from the sides, or just stitch the tree without any other embellishments. Either way it’s a cute addition to your holiday tree.

Stitched Modern has a super cute collection of retro Christmas ornament cross stitch patterns from designer Gera. This is a printed pattern that will be shipped to you. Each pattern is about 40 by 56 stitches, or 2.9 by 4 inches/7.4 by 10 cm on 14 count fabric. To work the whole set you’ll need 20 colors of floss.

These snowflake ornaments from Our Little Handmade Home are each about 2.5 inches/6.4 cm when stitched on 14 count fabric, and they use a single color of floss. They are pretty in red but you could also do white on a blue or black background, or whatever suits your other Christmas tree decorations!

From the description it sounds like this set of vintage style cross stitch characters is presented as one large chart, but the photo from Sampler Antique Stitch shows each of them stitched up as their own little ornament, so it gets included here. You’ll find Santa and snowmen in different poses in this cute collection.