Plugging Away

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month for June is pink, so I'm starting with my double pink reproduction quilt scraps.

I often complain about not liking pink.  But not when it comes to reproduction prints!  I absolutely LOVE these.

The Shoofly blocks I'm making are very simple, just what I need right now.

I usually make 3 Shoofly blocks per month, but I just couldn't stop with the pink, so there are 4.  The math will work out.  (Probably?)

This one is my favorite.  I don't have favorite children or grandchildren or pets, but I think it's okay if I have favorite quilt blocks.

I'm not worrying about directional prints for this quilt, and if you look at the pink fabric on the corners you can see what I mean.  When quilters long ago made scrap quilts, they mostly didn't worry about fussy cutting all the stripes and directional prints to make them line up.  I'm with them, scraps is scraps, let's just cut them and use them up.

More pink!  This is a salmon-pink nursery print from the 1930s or 40s.  Weirdly, there are only 3 kinds of animals on it--elephants, giraffes, and mountain goats.  (Mountain goats??)  It was part of a child's comforter with matted batting that I bought at a flea market and took apart.

The salmon pink backing is on the reverse of this little quilt.  I blogged about the quilt HERE when I finished the top.

I thought really hard about hand quilting it, I really did.  But I know myself.  If I set it aside to hand quilt, it might wait a long, long time.  Plus I'm starting to have some arthritis in my hands.  So I machine quilted the blocks very simply, did a cable in the border, and bound it.

Now it can hang on the wall, and I can enjoy it.  If I hadn't cleaned out my stuff in the basement, I never would have made this quilt, which saves those embroideries and the little swatches.

As long as I was finishing little quilts, I got this one done, too.  These are the 1930s four patch blocks left over from the bigger quilt, and also a basement project. 

Check out the back!  No, I didn't piece it, it's a cheater print!  This one dates from roughly 1940s-1960s.  It was in my stash of vintage fabric.

Surprisingly, "printed patchwork" was made as early as the 18th Century in Europe.  It was even called "cheater cloth" in a 1910 catalog.  (Click HERE to learn more from quilt historian Barbara Brackman.)

I don't make a lot of wall hangings anymore (maybe since I've already got lots?) but it is nice to have some new ones to display.  I'll keep the four patch up until I get out the July 4th quilts.

This is my first post with the new version of Blogger.  Sigh.  In real life, I like a certain amount of change, but not in computer stuff.  However, it isn't as bad as I thought it would be.  And that is probably the best thing I've ever said about a software "upgrade".  I'll keep plugging away.

And that's what I'm doing every day, just hanging in and plugging away.  We have two epidemics in this country--Covid19 and police brutality.  I am encouraged to see so many people stepping up and speaking out.  I know change is possible, if we respect each other, reject violence, speak clearly and calmly, and work together.

I am comforted by this quote from anthropologist Margaret Mead.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Cynthia at Oh Scrap