Vintage Patterns & Prayer Shawls Made From Quilts

One of my favorite weekly emails is from Debbie Colgrove, a sewing whiz with a company which someday might rival Martha Stewart, if given the right opportunities.

Here is what Colgrove said today:

I have a gazillion patterns.... so many that it's usually easier to glance through pattern books and buy a new one than it is to try and find the pattern I want...

And who hasn't wanted to go back in time and retrieve that classic pattern used years ago?

There was one particular dress pattern my SIL Charlotte and I used until the pattern was worn thin: that of a long jumper dress.

So I went on a search through vintage patterns on the internet. There are many listed websites for vintage patterns, but the site where I purchased this pattern from was Old Patterns. This is the pattern I purchased:

My favorite is the jumper displayed in the middle of the photograph (it uses 4.5 yd. of 45" fabric).

Reading emails and others' blogs is dangerous to my personal economy, but I did pick up another thread of conversation from the Colgrove email that was a link to a book titled Prayer Shawl Quilts.

This book piqued my interest, so I went to my blog sidebar (see the little picture of the book with AMAZON printed on top of the box) and ordered the book. It should be here by next week.
Making prayer shawls through the knitting and crocheting method is a lovely sentiment; the time requirement is intensive. My daughter Julie (in a nursing home and due for another surgery on Nov. 18) is always cold, so using quilts, blankets, fleece and other warm materials to make washable shawls for her will be my answer to keeping her cozy while in bed.

And I can sew prayers for her comfort into the shawls, as well. Look for a report on the book Prayer Shawl Quilts from me soon.