kmelkight

Ladies’ League

My Ladies’ League print, the hero print of Lucky Strikes, is actually a mashup of three different vintage prints. The original names print had groups of 5-7 names, but I rearranged them into teams of 4-5 players to fit the bowling theme. I took names from the original, but I only had a few little squares, so I had to make up the rest. Since I had decided that my fictional bowling league was in 1972, I drew from the Social Security Top Baby Names By Decade lists from the 1920s-50s, and also included some of my own relatives’ names and the C+S designers’ grandmothers’ names. These names have made a comeback so I’m delighted to hear when you or someone you love is on one of the teams. Here’s a list of all the names I included, for easy reference: Alice Anita Ann Arlene Barbara Betty Beverly Blanche Brenda […]

play
pause

Cotton + Steel Spring 2015 Collection

See all of Cotton + Steel’s beautiful and awesome new collections for Spring 2015 in this new video from the C+S crew and Gregory Miller.

Introducing Lucky Strikes!

I have formative memories of watching Bowling for Dollars from our sunken den in 1970s suburban Ohio. My parents were both on bowling leagues. My mom made eight strikes in a row while super pregnant with me! So bowling is kind of in my blood. For Lucky Strikes, I thought of a fictional ladies’ league from the 60s-70s. It is a working-class league, maybe in Cincinnati or Milwaukee, including women of all ages, in the heyday of women’s lib. Like they would wear “To Hell With Housework, I’m Going Bowling” T-shirts. They’d go bowl on Tuesday night, and après bowling they would sit in the cafe drinking coffee and smoking Tareytons and Virginia Slims (sorry!). There are 18 quilting cottons in two loose colorways. A print called Nine Pin is in two colorways on cotton lawn, and the Lucky print is printed at a slightly larger scale in two colorways […]

More Lucky Strikes Inspiration

This is the Spring Branch Bowling Club, halfway between Austin and San Antonio going “the back way” through the Hill Country. There are quite a few old small-town, nine-pin bowling clubs throughout Texas that remain gathering spots for the locals. Nine-pin lanes are not automated, so the pins are set and the balls are returned by hand, usually by local youth. I have also had the pleasure to visit the Blanco Bowling Club. Their cafe is very popular in the community and features classic American food alongside Tex-Mex plates. You pretty much have to go outside of Austin for original bowling alley action — sadly-but-understandably all of the alleys in Austin have been remodeled.

Lucky Strikes Inspiration

Vintage bowling provides an endless supply of inspiration and (dangerously) stuff to collect. Here is just some of the ephemera I collected before and during working on Lucky Strikes. See lots more Lucky Strikes inspiration on my Pinterest board – including The Jesus.

New Website and Blog

Hello, I’m back! It’s been almost two years since I officially shut down True Up, and the break from blogging was much needed. Reportedly the blog format has died since then, but I’m going to go ahead anyway, because I’m anachronistic like that. This blog will be a mellow undertaking though, just to have a place to talk about my fabric collections and the awesome things that inspire me. Maybe some sewing and vintage fabric content too. I’ve shut down True Up for good and redirected traffic here, because why not. If you’re looking for something in particular from the old site, let me know and I might be able to dredge it up from the depths. Thank you, have a look around, and enjoy!

All posts by: kmelkight