Wayback Wednesday: August 13, 2025

 

It's time for a musical version of Wayback Wednesday!

Teeny bopper adoration of pop or movie stars has been happening for years.  You could even say it's been going on for centuries (example: Franz Liszt in the 19th century).

The first time I remember this was the Great Debate of the early 1960s.   Who was cuter/better/ etc: "Herman Hermits or The Beatles?"  

Everyone usually remembers the first record they bought or requested their parents buy.  What was yours?

Remember these ads?  The Columbia Record Company gambled that members would forget to cancel subscriptions.

I usually bought 45s.  I loved Motown, Sly and The Family Stone, The Monkees, and later, Carole King.  Actually...I love them all today.

Music can awaken memories.  My brother and I will often cite that a particular record was a "summer song" that we heard at the local swimming pool.

What kind of music do you still love?

Have a safe and happy day!

August Wears a Golden Crown

 

I spent my 12th summer writing poetry and enjoying playing with words.  I did save the poems and they are packed away in the attic in one of the trunks.

I do remember one poem was called "The Last Day of August" and it is a sad adieu to summer.  The poem wasn't just about going back to school soon.  I didn't like autumn even then.

I'm looking back at the summer months and seeing that again I didn't get accomplished as much as I had planned.   Creating a quilt in summer is challenging in the heat.  Thankfully I have handwork again.  Have you gotten a lot done?

The last few days were cooler and less humid and I did accomplish a lot on the Paula quilt.  The top should be done by Wednesday.  I'd like to get my brother's quilt top done soon so I can get these to Lizzie (the machine quilter).  I only need a few baby quilts yet and then I will be caught up.

What are you doing this week?

Have a safe and happy day!

Flower Friday: July 8, 2025

 

Happy Flower Friday!

Today we have some wonderful selections from Sue:

False Sunflower:

Phlox:

Morning Glory:

Hummingbird Moth on Butterfly Bush:

Sue does note that the Hummingbird Moth is from the Tomato Horn Worm but as she wrote, they are fascinating to watch!

Thank you so much Sue!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Milkweed

 

Are any of your neighbors growing Milkweed?  I'm not but am considering planting some on the side of the house.  A lot of my neighbors have a few plants in their garden.  

We know a couple who planted a whole butterfly garden while they were trying to get pregnant.  I think it was really healing for them and the amount of butterflies they saw was really remarkable.  

Tomorrow is Flower Friday and if you have anything to share, please email me at allentownquilter@gmail.com.

Thanks and have a great day!

Wayback Machine: Spool Pets

 

Like most kids of my generation, my brother and I were adept and using discarded things to create all kinds of things for our playtime.  I'll bet you were too!  

So anytime I see things that are upcycled for another purpose, it gives me a thrill.  Recently, I've been keeping thread spools for when my great niece visits again.  I'm hoping to make some spool pets with her.  There are a lot of vintage patterns for these that kids would have likely because it was (of course) a promotion to sell threads.  

This is the kind of thing that my brother and I would have loved and would have used alongside our animal cracker box wagon.

****

So what's a spool pet?

  

There's a variety of spool pet patterns on pinterest.

These were popular in the first half of the 1930s.  Many articles cite that children made spool pets in school and even used the spool pets as party favors.  There were a variety of ads also published promoting the spool pets and thread:

1931

 

1930

1932

Beth told me that the one designer brought this idea back years ago.  Oliver + S had a postcard with a spool dog that they included in sales.  You can read their blog post about this (and the history) here.  The Singer Featherweight Shop offers 5 bunny postcards to make a spool pet.  The cards cost $9.95 for the bundle of five.  You can look at it here.

Have you seen these before?

I wonder if you would have loved making and playing with these as a child?

Have a safe and happy day!

Tuesday's This and That: July 5, 2025

 

If you want some inspiration, I know of a few videos that may help.  Over at the "From Small Things" channel on youtube, Sue gives a tour of the "Oceans" exhibit that I discussed a few weeks ago.  You can watch it here.  

The biggest quilt festival in Europe is "The Festival Of Quilts" in Birmingham, England.  Here are some videos that you might appreciate:  

Emma of Vintage Sewing Box here.

Rachel of Stitch with Rachel here.

I like watching these things when it is too hot to be doing much.  Hope you get a chance to seem some of these outstanding quilts!

Have a great day!

Christmas in July Follow-Up

 

I didn't get as much done in July as I had hoped.  Still, I did get some projects done.  I made more of these table rounds.  Some of them are Christmas presents, some are for my guild's craft show.

These have been so fun to make.  I hand sew them while we have the Phillies on. 

It's a great project for leftover fabrics and scraps.

I'm not a big fan of Halloween so I'm happy to use up this fabric:

I sure have seen a lot of blog posts about people who got done a lot of work for Christmas in July.  Di at "Quilting Is Blissful" completed a number of quilts.  Check out her work here.

This is going to be a great week to work in the garden so I'm not sure how much I will post this week.  Definately doing Flower Friday though!

Have a safe and happy day!