Peppered Cottons

Peppered Cotton Fabric Bundle

New to Grandma's Attic this week are Peppered Cottons. By Pepper Cory of Studio e Fabrics, this new line of fabrics features 100% shot cotton fabrics that look like a solid color. The warp (lengthwise threads) and the weft (side to side threads) are different colors, so the resulting shades are muted and variable combinations of color. Viewed from different angles, the fabrics produce different visual effects.

All of the threads used are dyed before weaving so they have a nice tactile hand-woven quality. There is no wrong or right side to them. After weaving, they go through a finishing process where they are washed, dried and calendared--which means they have been through a heat-plus-pressing process to give them a subtle sheen and soft hand.

Peppered Cottons have a higher thread count than most shot cottons so they can be used with other regular weight quilting fabrics. Pepper Cory has prepared an article on how to work with these shot cottons. Click here to see what she has to say and to learn about a Peppered Cotton contest that is being sponsored by Studio e.

12 Days of Christmas - Day 12

Samples of Gourmet Tea

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas at Grandma's Attic! Every day from now until Christmas we will feature a different item from our quilt shop. You'll want to check the posts each day from now through the 24th to see what Grandma has for you this holiday season!

On the 12th Day of the 12 Days of Christmas there are Twelve Lords a-Leaping about. If the hub-bub of the holidays has you completed exhausted and tired of the gathering noise and chaos, you might want to sit down for a moment and enjoy a relaxing cup of tea and a good book. It's something that Grandma Rachel herself likes to do when she has a moment.

Grandma's Attic also includes a teabag in our mail order packages. If you've ever longed to try a sampling of all our our teas, this is your opportunity to relax, sit back, and enjoy a refreshing cup of gourmet tea! By popular demand, we've put together a sample packet of our gourmet teas. Each packet contains 17 flavor sealed, foil wrapped tea bags--one each of the delicious flavors of tea we carry at Grandma's Attic Teabags included are: Blueberry, Camomile, Canadian Icewine, Cranberry, Darjeeling, Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Green, Mango, Maple, Monk's Blend, Orange Pekoe, Peach Apricot, Pure Peppermint, Rooibos, Strawberry and Vanilla.

Twelve Days of Christmas Fun Fact: If you've been keeping track of how much the Twelve gifts your true love sends to you will cost, hiring twelve acrobatic Lords a-Leaping will cost $524.34 each, for a total of $6,292.08. Total cost for the entire Twelve Days of Christmas, if you were to give the gifts just once per verse, is $29,102.55. Now if only you knew what to do with all those birds, musicians, and dancers!

It is interesting to note that the historical observance of Twelve Days of Christmas is almost a forgotten tradition in the United States. Among the varied reasons why this might be the case is that the celebration of New Year's Eve, with all of the attendant parties and traditions of its own, has gained so much popularity. While most of us might have "dropped the ball" (so to speak) on the Twelve Days of Christmas, many people both here and abroad still keep the Twelve Days of Christmas warm in their hearts. And we here at the shop, earnestly hope that all of us together can keep the spirit of joy, fellowship and good cheer going long after the Christmas season has ended.

Twelve Days of Christmas Quote:  "Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart...filled it, too, with melody that would last forever." < Bess Streeter Aldrich, American Author, 1881-1954>


Our 12 Days of Christmas pattern is taken from our 12 Days of Christmas Block of the Month Club. You can also order the pattern by itself.
 

12 Days of Christmas - Day 11

Batik Butterflies

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas at Grandma's Attic! Every day from now until Christmas we will feature a different item from our quilt shop. You'll want to check the posts each day from now through the 24th to see what Grandma has for you this holiday season!

Day 11 of the12 Days of Christmas finds Eleven Ladies Dancing. Such a beautiful and lyrical image in our classic Christmas song brought to our mind the gracefulness and beauty of the butterfly. With that in mind, we thought about how you might like to create a beautiful butterfly quilt to bring them dancing into your sewing room as they come to life under your machine. Batik Butterflies, designed by Roxy Burgard of Calico Hills Farm, consists of 12 butterfly blocks, each based on a real butterfly. Set on point, each is surrounded by wonderful batik fabrics. You will have a lowly 48" x 60" quilt when you've completed the project.

Twelve Days of Christmas Fun Fact: If your true love hires a troupe of dancers to dance for you at Christmas time, it will cost $839.20 per dancer. Therefore, eleven ladies dancing will cost a total of $ 9,231.20.

Although the Twelve Days of Christmas has been sun in English since the 1780s, many scholars thing that the song may have French origins. In an 1855 French songbook, there is a folk song that has a tremendous similarity to the Twelve Days of Christmas. On the eleventh day in this particular folk song, instead of eleven ladies dancing, the singer gives his love eleven silver plates.

Christmas Quote: "At Christmas play and make good cheer for Christmas comes but once a year." < Thomas Tusser, English Poet, 1524-1580 >

12 Days of Christmas - Day 10

Homeland Army Block of the Month

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas at Grandma's Attic! Every day from now until Christmas we will feature a different item from our quilt shop. You'll want to check the posts each day from now through the 24th to see what Grandma has for you this holiday season!

Day 10 of the12 Days of Christmas features 10 Pipers Piping. Pipers puts us in a Patriotic Mood--and what could be more patriotic than the Homeland Army Block of the Month Club. Members of this Block of the Month Club discover how World War I changed everything for women, and that life is different today because of the contributions made by heroic men and women during this time period. In this club, you discover how world events nearly 100 years ago continue to shape our lives today. Each month, you receive the fabric you need to create a 12" quilt block, plus an informational magazine and omnibus booklet. This is one information-packed club!

Twelve Days of Christmas Fun Fact: In the Middle Ages, the Twelve Days of Christmas was a period of continuous feasting and merrymaking. Traditional Roles were relaxed so that masters waited on their servants, men dressed as women, and women were allowed to dress as men!

To hire Ten Pipers Piping will cost you $239.56 each, for a total of $2,395.60. (We want to know why it's only $72.80 for one hour of maids milking, but drummers and pipers cost you so much more!)

Christmas Quote: "Never worry about the size of your Christmas Tree. In the eyes of children, they are all thirty feet tall." < Larry Wilde, Author & Humorist, 1928- >

12 Days of Christmas - Day 9

Earlene Fowler Mysteries

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas at Grandma's Attic! Every day from now until Christmas we will feature a different item from our quilt shop. You'll want to check the posts each day from now through the 24th to see what Grandma has for you this holiday season!

Day 9 of the12 Days of Christmas is about drummers. If the nine drummers drumming are giving you a headache, you might be able to take your mind off of them by immersing yourself in an Earlene Fowler Mystery. Named after quilt block patterns, the books in this series feature Benni Harper, a spirited ex-cowgirl, quilter and folk art expert. She's staking out her own corner of the contemporary American West. With an eye for murderous designs and talent for piecing together crimes you'll love reading her novels. 

Twelve Days of Christmas Fun Fact: There are many different variations of the songs in which the gifts are arranged in a different order. (For example, they might have twelve lords a-leaping rather than eleven, or ten drummers drumming instead of nine.)

The version of the song that we use is the same one used in the Aunt Martha Twelve Days of Christmas embroidery patterns. This is also why you sometimes see the last part of the song in a different order than one in which you might be more familiar. If your true love hired nine drummers to drum for you, it would cost $237.88 for each musician, for a grand total of $2,140.92.

Christmas Quote: "Mankind is a great, an immense family. This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas." < Pope John XXIII, 1881-1963 >

12 Days of Christmas - Day 8

Grandpa's Farm Block of Month

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas at Grandma's Attic! Every day from now until Christmas we will feature a different item from our quilt shop. You'll want to check the posts each day from now through the 24th to see what Grandma has for you this holiday season!

Day 8 is all about Eight Maids a Milking.The maids may be missing and there's only one cow on our Grandpa's Farm Block of the Month quilt, but we think you will enjoy it all the same. Created by Roxy Burgard of Calico Hills Farm, the quilt contains 14 individual 12" blocks depicting a variety of farm scenes surrounding a large center panel featuring the barn. Each kit contains the fabric you need to create a block or panel.

Twelve Days of Christmas Fun Fact: Did you know that the Twelve Days of Christmas was originally a memory and forfeit game? To play, a circle of players were gathered and each person took turns to say the first line of each rhyme. When the turn circled back to the first player, that player includes the second line of the version to the song and around it goes again. Sounds easy, but having heard the song so many times over the years, we would probably have a huge advantage over the players who first played this game hundreds of years ago when it was new.

Assuming that you are only using temporarily donated cows, and not purchasing them, hiring the "Eight Maids a Milking" for an hour at the standard rate of $9.10 per hour (minimum wage here in Oregon), the Eighth Day of Christmas will cost you $72.80.

Christmas Quote:  "Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas."

12 Days of Christmas - Day 7

Flour Sack Dishtowels

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas at Grandma's Attic! Every day from now until Christmas we will feature a different item from our quilt shop. You'll want to check the posts each day from now through the 24th to see what Grandma has for you this holiday season!

Day 7 of the 12 Days of Christmas features Seven Swans a Swimming. And while swans may not swimming in the kitchen sink, you can be mopping up the mess with these big and thirsty Flour Sack Dishtowels. In fact, you can have a towel for every day of the week! These old-fashioned flour sack towels are NEW and IMPROVED. They are pre-washed, bleached, hemmed on all four sides, and made from 130 thread count 100% cotton. Perfect for embroidering or applique, they are just like the ones Grandma used to "get the job done" whether it was drying the dishes, proofing the bread dough, burping the baby, or mopping up spills. These lint-free, fast drying towels are approximately 30" square. Each bundle contains seven towels.

Twelve Days of Christmas Fun Fact: Over the years, there have been many parodies of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Some are funny, some are naughty, and some are so completely in bad taste as to not be believed. We think that the parodies are the result of the massive popularity of the song and a reflection of how many people throughout the world know this song. Among the parodies that we know of, we have heard ones sung by Alvin and the Chipmunks, Jeff Foxworthy's "Redneck", the Muppets and Alan Sherman. 

Seven swans cost $1,000 each, for a whopping total of $7,000. That's quite a jump in price, isn't it? If you're counting, the total cost for the items listed for the first seven days of Christmas is $8,969.95.

Christmas Quote: "Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, and the genial flame of charity in the heart." < Washington Irving, American Author, 1783-1859 >

12 Days of Christmas - Day 6

Fabulous Fabric Packs

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas at Grandma's Attic! Every day from now until Christmas we will feature a different item from our quilt shop. You'll want to check the posts each day from now through the 24th to see what Grandma has for you this holiday season!

Day 6 of the 12 Days of Christmas is all about those Six Geese A-Laying. Six geese, while lovely to look at, would probably ruin your backyard in no time flat. Instead, we've got bundles of six fun fat quarters at Super Holiday Savings. Our Fabulous Fabric Packs are great for stocking up your stash. All fabrics are 100%, high quality cotton. If you order more than one fabric packet in the same colorway, we'll make sure you get packets containing different prints. These are definitely a fun treat for yourself or a gift for your favorite quilter, fabric artist, or crafter! To order, click here.

12 Days of Christmas Fun Fact:  One way to interpret the lyrics of this song is that on each new day, all of the gifts that were previously given by "my true love" are given again! This would make the total number of gifts (counting 12 partridges, 22 turtle doves, etc.) equal to 364 gifts in all, one fewer than the number of days in a full year. However, there are 376 gifts total if you count the pear tree as a separate gift aside from the partridge itself. It is interesting to note that 184 of the gifts are birds.

Six geese a-laying, according to the 2013 PNC Christmas index, will cost you $35 each, for a total of $210 in all.

Christmas Quote:  "My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?" < Bob Hope, Comedian/Entertainer, 1903-2003 > 

12 Days of Christmas - Day 5

Love Rings

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas at Grandma's Attic! Every day from now until Christmas we will feature a different item from our quilt shop. You'll want to check the posts each day from now through the 24th to see what Grandma has for you this holiday season!

Day 5 of the 12 Days of Christmas is all about those Five Golden Rings. And though you won't exactly be able to wear these rings around your finger, you could create an incredibly beautiful quilt with them. Love Rings by Darlene Zimmerman is a great gift ideas for yourself or that quilter in your life!

12 Days of Christmas Fun Fact:  In the 16th century, European and Scandinavian cultures combined the Twelve Days of Christmas with other festivals celebrating the changing of the year. These festivals were usually associated with driving away evil spirits for the start of the New Year. It was during this time frame that the song itself is believed to have originated.

Five gold rings can set your budget back quite a bit. If you purchase a plain band at $150.00, you'll be out $750.00 overall. If you're totaling up all of the items from the song so far, everything through the fifth day will cost you $1,759.95.

Christmas Quote:  "The only real blind person at Christmastime is he who has not Christmas in his heart." < Helen Keller, Deafblind American Author, 1880-1968 >

12 Days of Christmas - Day 4

Dishtowel of the Month Club

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas at Grandma's Attic! Every day from now until Christmas we will feature a different item from our quilt shop. You'll want to check the posts each day from now through the 24th to see what Grandma has for you this holiday season!

Day 4 of the 12 Days of Christmas is about Four Colly Birds; however, you could embroider or applique the birds included in our Old-Fashioned Dishtowel of the Month Club instead! And you have to admit, these dishtowels are absolutely adorable! Whether you choose to keep them for yourself or use them as fun gifts, you'll love the diversity of patterns and fabric that this club provides. Inspired by vintage dishtowels from the 1930s and 40s, these tea towels are practical as well as decorative. Each month during this 12 month club, you will receive the supplies you need to create a hand-embroidered dishtowel, including the fabric, rick rack, embroidery floss, pattern and pre-washed, bleached, 100% cotton dishtowel. To join the club, click here.

12 Days of Christmas Fun Fact:  We bet you have been singing the words to the Twelve Days of Christmas as we have been going along with the Days in our blog. On the fourth day, most people have usually learned to sing the verse 'Four Calling Birds' But did you know that in one of the earliest written versions of the song, that particuilar verse is actually 'Four Colly Birds?'

Back in 1780, when one of the first recorded versions of the song had been written down, a 'colly' bird (or 'colle') was a blackbird. Presumably, the word 'colly' is an old form of the word coal, which meant the colly birds from the fourth day were black as coal. It was very common for blackbirds to be used for pies back then. (Remember the old nursery rhyme, 'Sing-a-Song-of-Sixpence?' One of the verses of that rhyme references 'four and twenty blackbirds based in a pie.')

In any event, a single blackbird will cost you $129.99 per bird, making the total for four of them $519.96.

Christmas Quote:  "It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air." < W.T. Ellis, 1826 - 1913 >

12 Days of Christmas - Day 3

Chickens in Redwork

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas at Grandma's Attic! Every day from now until Christmas we will feature a different item from our quilt shop. You'll want to check the posts each day from now through the 24th to see what Grandma has for you this holiday season!

Day 3 of the 12 Days of Christmas is supposed to be about Three French Hens. But since French Hens can be mighty difficult to find this time of year, we've substituted these adorable embroidered chickens instead. Chickens in Redwork features Hank the Rooster and Mama Hen with her chicks, both popular patterns in the 1890s. They can be embroidered on tea towels or used as quilt blocks for a cute little wall quilt. Stitch them up in traditional red or any other color you desire. To order, click here.

12 Days of Christmas Fun Fact:  If you are keeping track of expenses, at $55 per bird, the Three French Hens are going to cost your true love $165. Making the total cost in 2013 dollars for day three (one partridge, two doves, and the three hens) $489.99.

Christmas Quote:  "I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all year." < Charles Dickens, English Author, 1812-1870 >

12 Days of Christmas - Day 2

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas at Grandma's Attic! Every day from now until Christmas we will feature a different item from our quilt shop. You'll want to check the posts each day from now through the 24th to see what Grandma has for you this holiday season!

 If you're looking for Turtle Doves to celebrate Day Two of the Twelve Days of Christmas, Folkhearts and Flowers  by Calico Hills Farm is delightful. Designed by Roxy Burgard, the pattern features doves, tulips and hearts. Whether you or your gift recipient chooses to create it in contemporary colors, or the traditional styles of an earlier era, this wall quilt is a timeless classic for sentimental occasions. You can make it using traditional applique methods or try fusible web with buttonhole stitch by machine. To order, click here.

12 Days of Christmas Fun Fact:  According to the 2013 PNC Christmas Price Index, one partridge in a pear tree costs $199.99. Two Turtle Doves cost $125 ($62.50 per bird). The total cost for both days of gifts would be $324.99.

Christmas Quote:  "Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." < Norman Vincent Peale, 1898-1993 >

12 Days of Christmas - Day 1

Seasons Remembered 

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas at Grandma's Attic! Every day from now until Christmas we will feature a different item from our quilt shop. You'll want to check the posts each day from now through the 24th to see what Grandma has for you this holiday season!

Seasons Remembered. This beautiful quilt pattern, in the  traditional red and green colors of the 1840s-1860s, will have you humming along to your favorite holiday tunes.

Designed by Jane Davis, Seasons Remembered features the fine buttonhole stitch applique that 19th Century women used to showcase their needle skills. There are 12 stunning, traditional applique designs (suitable for 18" blocks) in this spectacular series of patterns, plus a stunning leaf border adapted from a beautiful Civil War era quilt. Full-sized patterns, plus instructions for both traditional and fusible applique are included. To order as a book, click here. To order as a block of the month program, click here.

12 Days of Christmas Fun Fact:  The song "The 12 Days of Christmas" is believed to have originated in the 16th century in European and Scandinavian culture; however, the song itself first showed up in English form in a children's book titled Mirth without Mischief in 1780 A.D.

Christmas Quote:  Christmas gift suggestions:  To your enemy, forgiveness; to an opponent tolerance; to a friend, you heart; to a customer, service; to all, charity; to every child, a good example; to yourself, respect." < Oren Arnold, Novelist and Journalist, 1900-1980 >

Ice-abella

A Bard Rock Chicken, like Ice-abella

It has been freezing cold  in our part of Oregon, with the temperature getting down to 5 degrees this past Sunday morning. Since the roads were icy that day, Stephen decided to take me to work. As we were driving down one of the streets in downtown Dallas, Oregon, we noticed a bard rock chicken huddled up close to a sidewalk. Clearly, it was way too cold for her to be out in the open, and she was definitely not where she needed to be.

Stephen stopped the car, hopped out and scooped the hen up. We looked around for houses in the area that might have coops in the backyard but she was right in the middle of town, with no houses in sight. The chicken sat in my lap until we could get her up to the hen house on our farm. Her feet were bleeding from the cold and she was very quiet.

Today, Ice-abella is sitting in a nice clean nest, lined with fresh straw, right under the heat lamp in our hen house. Now that she's warming up, her feet are healing, she's up and eating, and she's settling in with the rest of our chickens. Except for a tiny bit of frost bite on her comb, she seems none the worse for wear.

Believe me, it was very odd to find a chicken in the middle of the road in a downtown area. Thank God we found her before she froze to death.

Color of the Year 2014: Radiant Orchid

The Pantone Company has announced that Pantone 18-3224 Radiant Orchid is the Color of the Year for 2014. As the global color authority, this company develops, manufactures, markets and supports innovative color solutions that designers and a variety of industries, including printing, photography, graphic design, plastics, textiles and others, have come to rely on.

According to Pantone, Radiant Orchid "inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health. It is a captivating purple, one that draws you in with its beguiling charm." It is a combination of fuchsia, purple and pink. Use it as an accent with olive, deep hunter greens, turquoise, teal, and light yellow. It will also liven up neutrals such as gray, beige and taupe.

Below is Pantone's suggestions for a 2014 Spring Wardrobe for Women. Incorporating the Color of the Year, these colors would also make a beautiful palette for quilts or other sewing projects!