Clothesline Club 2011 - Sweet Pickins

In the 1940s, bright and cheery colors and fruit motifs were all the rage for decorating American kitchens. One popular trend during this time period was the use of red and white, blue and white, or green and yellow color palettes, with checkered or geometric patterns. Fruit designs included cherries, apples, strawberries, pears and grapes. Darlene Zimmerman has captured this look perfectly with her newest Clothesline Club fabric group, Sweet Pickins. Produced by Robert Kaufman, there are a total of 28 fun reproduction prints in green, red, yellow and blue. Fruit motifs, geometrics and checks are scattered throughout this collection.

These fabrics make fun projects, including aprons, curtains, hot pads, casserole covers, tea towels, oven mitts, bags, and many other fun sewing and quilting projects. In Darlene's Clothesline Club she has included patterns for aprons, a market bag and a tablecloth using this fabric line.

I'm pretty sure that these fabrics won't stay in the store for long. Last I checked, some of them have already been discontinued by the manufacturer. To view more of these prints or to order, click here.

American Flag Wall Quilt for Flag Day - June 14

Efforts to dedicate a day each year to the American Flag date all the way back to 1861, yet it wasn't until August 3, 1949, that an official Act of Congress, signed by President Harry S. Truman, officially declared June 14 to be Flag Day. During the 88 years between 1861 and 1949, Americans celebrated the American flag at different times of the year.

In an age before the telephone, sending postcards to celebrate special occasions was an inexpensive means of communicating with loved ones. During the Golden Age of Postcards (1898-1915), fine artwork in bright colors was featured on these postcards, many of which celebrated the American Flag. Today, these same postcards are very collectible and highly sought after. In fact, they're so popular that finding original postcards has become an intense hobby.

With no vintage postcards of our own to display, we discovered American Flags Set 1 by Olde America Antiques. We decided that these authentic images of vintage postcards, pre-printed on fabric, were just right for creating a small wall quilt. Olde America Antiques must have thought so too because, to our delight, a wall quilt pattern was included in the fabric packet.

The American Flags wall quilt, shown above, was constructed from a four pack set of images that were printed on 4"x6" panels of soft cotton sateen fabric. Because the company utilizes a new printing process called 8-color giclee, the panels are colorfast when hand washed in cold water. Making this 21" square wall quilt was easy to do, and we soon had our little quilt hanging up in the shop.

If you'd like to make your own American Flags wall quilt from these pre-printed fabric panels, click here. If you'd like to view our other pre-printed fabric panel selections, click here.

June - The Month of Roses

New to Grandma's Attic are beautiful fabric panels (4" x 6") of gorgeous flowers, printed on soft cotton sateen fabric, ready to sew and showcase on your wall. The panels come four to set and include a pattern for a small wall quilt. One of my favorites from our newest group is Flowers Set 3 - Roses by Olde America Antiques. The images are of the actual covers of vintage seed catalogs from 1893-1909.

During the Golden Age of Illustration (1880s until after WWI), seed catalogs featured covers of beautiful flowers that could be grown in one's garden. Catalogs from companies such as the Iowa Seed Company, Lippincott Seeds, John A. Salzer and John Lewis Childs were so bright and cheerful, people kept them on their parlor tables. And since roses have been cultivated for thousands of years, many of these covers featured paintings of roses.

Throughout history, many poets and authors have written about the rose. The Italian poet, Dante (1265-1321), writing in the 13th Century, declared, "The rose, wherein the word divine makes itself flesh."

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) refers to roses more than 50 times in his works. In Romeo and Juliet, he wrote, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet."

And the English Poet Robert Herrick (1591-1674) penned, "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying, And this same flower that smiles today, Tomorrow will be dying."

Since Victorian times, roses have been associated with deep love, passion, beauty and everlasting love. They have been grown and cultivated both for their foliage and their perfume. Even today, companies like Jackson & Perkins in Medford, Oregon offer a seemingly endless variety of roses for gardening enthusiasts. Their catalog showcases "the newest and most exciting roses available" and provides practically everything you need to grow gorgeous roses.

You can bring the beauty of the garden into your home with these gorgeous flower images. To view our entire pre-printed fabric panel collection, click here.