Sweet Laundry Bag

Do you remember Grandma's old-fashioned outdoor clothesline? Laundry bags such as this one were filled with clothespins and hung on the line so they would be in a convenient position when you began to hang up clothes to dry. 

This adorably cute little Doggie Laundry Bag is not from those days gone by, but straight out of 2016! Our classroom instlructor, Cheryl Libby, made it using a brand new book called Vintage Stitching. Filled with more than 400 authentic embroidery designs, this is a treasure chest of patterns you will want to make! There are projects to complete, plus hundreds of retro-cool art embroidery patterns from classic catalogs and magazines.

Vintage Stitching Treasury

There are also projects for making quilts, aprons, tea towels, and potholders. How-to pages and tips are also included, as well as a color gallery where you can see many different embroidery projects from the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Each of the popular embroidery stitches are illustrated so you can remind yourself how to create those stitches you may have learned long ago. You'll find a page on tinting with crayons and another on caring for vintage linens.

If you love embroidery, you will love this book!

1st American Cookie Lady Cookbook

Grandma's Attic carries cookbooks that are guaranteed to be filled with scrumptious recipes and other fun tidbits of folklore, fun and information.

The 1st American Cookie Lady is one of our favorites!  In 1917, Anna "Cookie" Covington set out to record all of her favorite cookie recipes as a gift to her daughter because no published cookie recipe books existed at the time. Strangely, her 76 page handwritten personal cooking diary was never delivered to her daughter as planned. 88 years later, the unused diary fell into the hands of food historian Barbara Swell, who recognized it as perhaps the earliest collection of American cookie recipes, dating from the mid-1880s through World War I. 

The book includes 221 recipes recorded from 1917-1920 along with adaptations for modern kitchens, vintage graphics and photos, World War I food shortage recipes, plus curiosities of cookie baking history. To order a copy for yourself, click here

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 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 >

Primitive Quilts Magazine

Have you discovered this magazine yet? Although the magazine has only been in production a short while, the contents are amazing. If you like primitive quilts, rug hooking and stitchery, you will love perusing these magazines.

As a Quilt Historian, I am attracted to "old-timey" traditional quilts. Each issue is chock full of quilt and stitching projects inspired by traditional quilts. The Winter edition includes a pattern called Chocolate Mousse, a quilt featuring old autograph blocks in brown and beige. There's also an churn dash quilt made from plaids. Tons of other patterns for bags, pincushions and mug rugs can also be found. I thought the sewing bird pincushion was delightful.

The Fall 2011 edition of this magazine includes 15 different projects, including a quilt called Country Spools made from the old spools block. A penny rug, a stitchery pillow, and a quilt pattern called Goldenrod are featured. Goldenrod is a small version of an old applique quilt and I liked it very much.

We can't wait for the Spring Edition 2012 of this magazine to be published. But in the mean time, if you are interested in purchasing either of these two issues, we carry them at Grandma's Attic. To order Primitive Quilts, Winter 2011 click here. To order Primitive Quilts, Fall 2011 click here.

New Block of the Month Club!

Beginning January 1st, we're going To Grandma's House! You know, as in "over the river and through the wood." It's going to be a grand adventure packed with fun-filled facts, quilt blocks, and stories.

Set in the 1920s, this program is organized around the lives of 12 children—six boys and six girls. Each child has a favorite classic children’s book, one that has been popular since the late 19th and early 20th century. You learn about the child and the book, including why that child likes a particular story. With books like Little Women and Treasure Island, this program has already become a tremendous hit with our in-store quilt club members.

Each month during the program, you receive a themed block pattern and fabrics in your choice of four color schemes: 1930s, 19th Century, Batiks or Red/White/Black—you know, as in what is black and white and read all over?

You also receive a newly designed magazine booklet featuring a different children’s book and author each month. The booklet is filled with tips and hints, a recipe, an overview of the featured book, notes about each author, and two patterns from a popular 1920s era crib quilt.

A $10 start-up fee gets you registered. Club cost is $12.99 per month for 12 months, which includes all shipping and handling charges. If you're ready to join in on the fun, click here.

Remodeling Again!

As you probably know, we're always changing things around here at Grandma's Attic. Whether it's redecorating our front windows after the holidays, or featuring the latest and greatest products received from suppliers, we really keep hopping. What with trying to figure out where to put the product and how best to display it so that you have room to shop, it's a fact that I get my daily exercise. And as long as I am not absolutely killing my knees trying to do too much, I enjoy the opportunity to get up close and personal with the merchandise.

From the picture above, you can see that we totally remodeled the Books and Notions area of the shop. We've made it easier for you to browse through the books, find the Leanin' Tree cards, and purchase notions. Seana helpfully posed with a book to show off our new arrangement. Not only is there more room to look through our selections, but to be honest with you, the real reason I decided that this had to be done was that it is going to be a lot easier to set up for registration check-in during Quilt Club sessions. I move one Deacon's bench, haul in a table, and we're there. (Okay, so I don't actually move it myself, but I sure am good at directing someone else to do it.) The upside of this new arrangement for you is that there's more space to move around and there's better lighting.



When we revamped, the batting rack migrated over to the hall area between the front of the shop and the classroom. It's easier to see everything there too. Not to worry about those empty spots on the rack. They'll be full in no time because I just placed a big batting order now that I can see what we're missing!

In order to make more room, I had to get real about the number of books that we are carrying in the shop. I know for a fact that even after we purge some of the books by putting them on sale to you at fabulous prices, we will continue to have more books in the shop than you can imagine. (Don't forget, the book area is just one place we have our books. There's books in Batiks, 1930s, Redwork, 19th Century, Baby, Kitchen items, and the top of all the shelves. It's crazy. What can I say? There's so many good ones out there. It's a win-win situation for you though. I put over 125 book titles on sale 50% off and I moved them all to the classroom area so that you could shop them easily.



This is the book close-out area. Everything is 50% off. And yes, I know there's a gigantic pole in the middle of that space. It's not very attractive, but it's holding up one of those gigantic satellite dishes. My landlord used to own Oregon Cable TV and this was part of the office. The dish is still there and so is the pole which is just fine with me. I have the best landlord on the face of the earth and a little pole in the middle of a display is nothing I can't work around.

Come see our changes for yourself. And while you're at it, bring some of these books home with you. You'll love learning new techniques and discovering new ideas.

Bonnie Leman of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine

Somewhere in the hubbub of the holiday season, I missed hearing the sad news that Bonnie Leman, founder of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, passed away on September 4, 2010.

According to The Denver Post, Bonnie "found her calling in the publishing business, when, in 1969, she founded Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. Through her magazine she helped revive and foster an appreciation of quilts as a great American art form that continues to this day. Bonnie grew her magazine readership to more than 200,000 subscribers in over 100 countries, as well as writing and publishing numerous books and other publications on quiltmaking. She traveled much of the world in the course of her career, made hundreds of friends, and contributed to the growth of the quiltmaking art in many countries."

When Bonnie began publishing her magazine, it was the only magazine on the market devoted solely to quilting. Before very long at all, Quilter's Newsletter Magazine was the magazine you had to have if you were to consider yourself a "real" quilter. And, indeed, I have managed over the years to collect every single issue from that first one in 1969, until the present day. My favorites are the ones in the 100 series (the 1970s and early 1980s). There is so much good information packed into the pages of those issues that they are hard to put down once picked up. Here's a copy of what the very first magazine looked like:



Bonnie typed those first magazine issues at the kitchen table using a manual typewriter. And, on the day that very first issue was published, she was at the hospital giving birth to her seventh child. Her staff back then consisted of her children. There is no way she could have fathomed the tremendous impact she would have on quilters all over the world. From that tiny seed, she grew a giant oak of a publication. Forty-two years later, here is a copy of what the latest issue looks like:



Clearly, both the magazine and the quilting industry have come a very long way since Bonnie pounded out that first issue at her kitchen table. Quilt Historian Barbara Brackman has composed a lovely tribute to Bonnie, whom she credits as giving her a start as a published author. You can read it by visiting her blog, Material Culture. Bonnie was inducted into the Quilter's Hall of Fame in 1982. You can read their tribute to Bonnie on the Quilter's Hall of Fame blog.

New Arrivals

During the past month or so, we've received some great products that we just have to tell you about. We're always on the look out for great new stuff, most of which you can see on our Newest Additions page. We love to look at all the neat stuff that comes through our door, and sometimes we feel that certain products deserve a special mention. For example, look at these three fabulous items:


MODA SHADOWS. This is the most gorgeous group of blender fabrics I’ve seen in a long time. By Moda, these tone on tone prints are drenched in color. They’re quite like marbles, only instead of the marbled appearance, they have the subtle print of cotton bolls in the design. In fact, I loved the way they looked so much, we brought in the entire line. Click HERE to order.


PEAS AND CARROTS. Who can resist these adorable fabrics featuring life on the farm? Can’t you almost smell the hay while you envision taking a ride on a rope swing? Designed by American Jane for Moda, the Hole in the Barn Door Quilt kit contains the fabric and pattern that you need to make a good sized quilt (76” x 84”). Plus, the kit comes in the most adorable lunch box sized collectible tin reflecting the theme of the fabric. This is just cute, cute, cute!! American Jane has also designed an entire line of Peas and Carrots fabrics. We love them! Click HERE to order.


MAGIC VINE QUILT. If you had been quilting in the 1930s, you probably would have known about the Nancy Page newspaper column that appeared during that time. Nancy Page was the pen name of a woman named Florence LaGanke Harris. She produced a variety of quilt patterns that ladies of the day liked to cut out and save to use in quilt making. Her Magic Vine quilt appeared during this time and was very popular! Eleanor Burns’ new book shows you how to make your own Magic Vine Quilt. Eleanor shows you here different settings, two appliqué techniques for creating the flowers, and sets out options for finishing methods. Full-color instructions are also included. Click HERE to order this wonderful book.