Vintage Blocks Jackpot

I feel like I hit the vintage quilt block jackpot with these blocks! I went to a "digger style" estate sale a month or so ago and found 12 of these 17" blocks. This sale was advertised as a "digger" as it was necessary to get down on your knees and dig through tubs and boxes at your own risk. I wish I'd had some gloves, but being without didn't seem to stop me from diving in.

I think they are a version of the Star of Bethlehem block. The prints themselves are not pieced; that's all Y-seams!

They have some water stains on them, but I'm hesitant to wash them for fear of unraveling, distortion, and shrinkage. I guess I could just sew them into a top, quilt and finish it and then wash the whole thing.

Does anyone have any advice? The ivory background is muslin.

Ideas...
*Sash them with muslin or a Kona solid to match one of the solids in the blocks.
* Find enough of a vintage fabric that coordinates and use that for sashing.
* Sew them together as is and add a border with a coordinating solid or vintage print. Maybe a navy polka-dot? They are about 17" and I have 12, so if they finish at 16" (once I square them up), a 3 x 4 layout would make a top 48 x 64" before sashing or borders.

I really want to finish these into a useful quilt. I love the idea of seeing this through for whoever took the time to hand piece all these blocks.

Oh, and I paid $1 each for them. ☺

Handmade Journals

Let's just pretend that I haven't been absent from the blog for eight months.
Just where does the time go?

I've been making handmade journals lately.  I love that it combines two of my favorite things... paper and sewing. The first journal I made after taking Mary Ann Moss' Remains of the Day e-course was for my mother and I gave it to her for her birthday. BTW, Mary Ann's course is fantastic.

The second one I made is mine (below) and I've been using it on occasion to document my days. I uploaded some photos of it to Flickr today,
so I thought I might share them here also.

Closed journal.

The entire cover.

Inside the front cover.

Some pages I've journaled on.

And some of the blank pages in the back. It's not even half full yet.

I've probably made a dozen journals so far...

Collecting vintage papers, books, postcards, and ephemera from estate sales

has become a regular thing for me. I love the hunt!

The solid red one is a Midori-style leather journal.

I LOVED making it and can't wait to start using it. I bought some beautiful

pieces of leather, so there will be more Midori-style journals in my future.

The open book below I've been using for an inspiration notebook.

I even sold one in my Etsy shop!  I love the one I sold; I really hope
it's new owner enjoys filling it with her memories and treasures.

So, obviously, I'm hooked. I even dug all my papermaking bins and screens out of the basement so I could make some handmade paper to add to journals. I'm hoping to get some more listed in my Etsy shop soon. There's no way I can use all these myself, but I can't stop making them!

Sorry these photos are so small. I haven't used Flickr much since the new interface was rolled out and I guess I used preview images that were too small. I really don't like the new Flickr format; maybe I'm just resisting change.