The August Give Away & More from the Sewing Room

It's August, and The Feast is very much on my mind. Seems only right that this month's give away is associated with it.

Vintage beadwork done by my sister, Leslie.

She beaded these in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

Model to show scale and not part of the give away.

I know very little about beadwork but I believe the patterns on these two sets are from western tribes. The back is the same as the front so you can flip them and use either side as you wish. 

There will be two winners. The first winner gets their choice of the sets, and the second winner will get the other one. I do have more beaded pieces so if you don't win this month, there will be at least one more opportunity coming up.

Rules to enter: Comment on any blog post beginning with this one and ending Tuesday, August 20 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. So, if I post 5 blog entries during that time, you could comment once on every single one of them. Winners will be drawn Wednesday or Thursday. Good luck!

Speaking of the Feast, things continue to be happening in the sewing room. 

I ran up to Leslie's farm this past week and went through her fabric inventory to choose new block prints. I badly needed to do that - I've sewn so much for Feast, I only had one block print left.

Look at the elephants marching on this piece! Can you see the indicators of hand blocking? (Check the middle elephant.) Elephants and camels were common motifs during the 18th century which makes sense since the cotton fabric and hand blocked printing came almost exclusively from India during that time period.

I think I gasped out loud when I saw this green fabric. Block prints come in two sizes and this one only comes in the smaller size. I already have a piece of the green, but here is not enough fabric to make a shirt or a bed gown from it.

I have used my green piece as advertising, but I've been wanting to make myself a bedgown from the green for years.  Now that I have a second piece of the fabric, I can! 

Another men's shirt that I completed this week. This one has bone buttons rather than ones made from horn. You can see it on the sleeve on the right.

Don't forget - if you'd like a chance to win one of the beaded sets, make a comment below.