Vintage Quilt Books

I love picking up vintage crafting books at thrift stores and garage sales. But I do have to limit myself, because where I live you can find a lot of them (read my comment on this post for the location of my favorite Milwaukee thrift store). If I think the techniques and designs translate easily to today, I will often pick them up. And, for $1.20, I am easily convinced!

Here are two of my latest finds.

Quilts & Coverlets, A Contemporary Approach by Jean Ray Laury.

I love this book because in addition to wonderful examples of what she calls "contemporary" quilts (I think we now call these "modern"), there are also many pages of instruction.

Better Homes and Gardens Patchwork & Quilting, 1977, has a lot of fun and bright projects, with instruction, that stand the test of time (except for some of the fabric choices). Here are some of my favorites from the book:

The curtain above reminds me of this one posted on Design*Sponge recently.

Applique patterns are on grids for enlarging by hand. I remember learning how to enlarge logos using grids back in the day before copy machines :)