Many times I’ve been asked how I get the ideas for my books, patterns or fabric lines? And the short answer is lots of places. My passion for seeking out vintage sewing treasures and collecting sewing books and ephemera has lead to many of my projects over the years. The Sew-it Book, Buttonware, Hankie Style and Vintage Notions are just a few of the books that I have created based on inspiring vintage items I’ve found and collected.
Through my travels, I always seek out antique malls, galleries or flea markets to rummage through. Often, I see something beautiful that catches my eye colors, fabric textures, the shear artistry of a piece or the details in the stitching. It may just be an old book filled with gorgeous illustrations.
Many times this stirs my creative juices and I combine the inspiration with current trends in the market to come up with a new book or pattern idea. Other times, I find a vintage piece and realize the concept or creation would be interesting to today’s consumer and feel the need to rescue it from obscurity.
One example is my latest embroidery book, A Stitch in Time with Mother Goose. This book of vintage embroidery designs, along with my coordinating fabric line from Red Rooster Fabrics of the same name, was inspired by a darling baby blanket I found during my travels. The quilt was created from an old Butterick transfers pattern circa 1920’s. I’ve also discovered in my collection the original magazine ad featuring the pattern for sale. Below are a few shots of the original blanket.
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I was toying already with the idea of creating a new embroidery book with a vintage feel and had some wonderful Mother Goose line art that I wanted to use, but the project had not yet come to fruition. I happened upon this hand embroidered baby blanket in bluework, along with the original vintage transfers and the entire project took shape.
Embroidery is really making a come back. The book includes 25 designs to be transferred to fabric and instructions for 7 different projects including two quilts. Here are just a few projects included in this book:
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Another method of embroidery can be done with just the Mother Goose fabric itself. Two of the fabric line coordinates are cheater blocks. These two panels one in red and one in blue have the Mother Goose line art already printed directly on the fabric. All one has to do it thread your needle and following the lines. No transfers needed.
Enter to win A Stitch in Time with Mother Goose fabric bundle and book
For a chance to win a bundle of A Stitch in Time with Mother Goose fabric (one yard of many coordinate plus one each of the two embroidery cheater block panels – please note that only 19 of the 24 coordinates are available in this giveaway) AND a copy of A Stitch in Time with Mother Goose, you have five ways to enter the drawing.
1. Post a comment to this blog post only letting me know what you would create with this collection.
2.Like my Facebook page at facebook.com/amybarickmanstudios
3. Sign up for my twitter account at twitter.com/amybarickman
4. Repost this blog entry on your blog. Email me at amyb@amybarickman.com with the link to your post.
5. Post this blog entry on your Facebook page. Email me at amyb@amybarickman.com with the link to your FB page.
A winner will be drawn at random from all entries. Entries will be accepted until Tuesday, February 1st at midnight and a winner announced on Thursday, February 3rd.
Good luck!!
