1960s American Eagle

Here's an heirloom quilt that came to me for a bit of repair.  It had one small hole and quite a bit of missing quilting.  Also, the owner asked that I put a sleeve on the back for hanging.

He told me that his mother made this quilt for him in the 1960s, after he got out of the service.  She also made a quilt for each of her other three children.

Cigarette Girl Costume

My friend Julia of Basya Berkman Vintage Fashions learned through the grapevine about a woman with a stash of vintage clothing.  This is one of the amazing items that Julia acquired.

The woman said that her mother had been a performer in her early life.  It's likely that several of her vintage things, like this outfit, were costumes worn during her mother's career before her marriage.  Her mother was most likely dancing in the 1920s.  A real find!

Spools and Bugs

You are probably wondering about the title of this post.  Here's the spools part - a quilt made in 1965. It had quite a bit of wear in the squares along one edge, and several open seams.  (This photo was taken post-repair.)

Here's the bugs part - a fabric with chartreuse and turquoise bugs on a grey background.  The color combo is pretty much a marker for the 1950s.  Pictorial prints were popular then, but why the large bugs?  Hardly a print to appeal to the stereotypical perfect housewife of the era! And to me, they look rather dead, what with those curled up legs and all.  Huh.  Not appealing in the least.  Maybe the fabric is meant to illustrate the maxim, "The only good bug is a dead bug."  Maybe.