Vintage Home and Farm

Handmade quilts add a cozy feeling of warmth to a room, especially when the backdrop is a knotty pine wall.  A few days ago, we were blessed to receive from my father-in-law, Richard, three vintage quilts that had been passed down in the family. He included with the gift two beautiful quilt racks that he had built.  (Thank you, Dad!!)  Each of the quilts is about 80 years old and has been preserved lovingly all that time. We decided to place the quilts where we would see them regularly, and so we put them in areas of the house that we use every day.  One quilt rack went into our living room and the other is placed at the top of the stairs near our bedrooms. Before placing the quilts on the racks, I spread each one out on the bed in the master bedroom so that I could take a few photos to share.  One of the quilts was signed in embroidery by the woman who made it; its quilt blocks feature the letters of the alphabet. Two of my favorite blocks in the alphabet quilt...

During the chilly winter months when there were fewer outdoor projects, we spent more time indoors doing creative activities like sewing.  One of the sewing projects we enjoyed was making envelope-style pillow covers for our living room using flannel fabric that I bought on sale from Jo-Ann Fabric.  The material was only $2.99 a yard!  We bought enough fabric to make curtains for two bedroom windows as well.  It was fun choosing from among the hundreds of different prints in their flannel fabric department. Envelope-style pillow covers for toss pillows have an opening in the back that you use to slide your pillow form through.  The cover easily removes so that it can be washed.  You can see from the image above why it's necessary for us to wash the toss pillow covers on our couch fairly regularly. Mojo is such a spoiled doggy. Many websites offer instructions for how to make envelope-style pillow covers.  Here are the instructions I followed from the ...