Taking Comfort

 Welcome to Treadlestitches

 Last Sunday, I had planned to blog about my Positivity quilt, and join the last link up, but things turned out otherwise.  My lovely 39 year old niece died suddenly from a burst aneurysm, and I needed to get ready to go to out of town for the funeral.  It has been such a terrible shock for all of the family.

Since the link up is still open, I'll be connecting with it today.  

I had thought of giving this quilt to my sister and brother-in-law, but I think I will make another one especially for them in remembrance of their daughter.

It has of course been a very sad week.   I will be mailing this quilt out soon, to help another family dealing with loss.  I know a quilt from a stranger is a small thing, but even small expressions of sympathy and care have been appreciated by my niece's parents and brother. 

Earlier last week, I had been sewing up a storm, going through the aqua scraps, making my blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  It was fun to include Spongebob, Scooby-Doo, owls, frogs, minions, etc.

More Scooby in the log cabins, plus Daniel Tiger, fish, and even giraffes.

The heart blocks are always fun to make.  One of them has a big piece of Cat in the Hat fabric.

So all my aqua blocks are done for August.

 Here's what I'm working on now, a red, white, and blue rail fence quilt for a veteran.

On my way back from the funeral, I learned of the devastating terrorist attack in Afghanistan.  I had this kit at home, cut out by our charity committee to help a local group that gives quilts to veterans as a recognition of their service to our country.  This is the only thing I want to sew right now.

Sewing, especially making things for others, is a pleasure when times are good, and comforts me at least a little when things are bad.

These little guys, my youngest grandsons, are a great comfort to me also!  I love to see them playing together.  Little Buddy has one of the Paw Patrol dogs.  Baby Buddy is playing with Godzilla and making monster noises.  They had better watch out, I might hug the stuffing out of them.

I hope for a better week ahead for all of us.  I hope for healing for all who are hurting, even if it's just a little bit at a time.

Thank you for reading this.  Hug the people you love!

Sincerely,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches  

Linking up with:

Bernie at Positivity Quilts Final Link-Up

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

Ice Cream in August

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

August is an ice cream kind of month.  Even here in Wisconsin, it's usually hot and muggy, which makes the cool sweet taste of ice cream that much better.  

These ice cream quilt blocks won't cool you off, but they won't drip on you, either.  They're part of my blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, in the color of the month--aqua.  I had a hard time finding flavors for aqua, got any ideas?

When it comes to flavors, make mine chocolate frozen custard!  I indulged in this on our way home from our vacation.

My little buddies just happened to wear a little aqua today.  Here's Little Buddy with a tiny chocolate cone, and Baby Buddy just finishing his tiny vanilla one.  Fun, easy for even babies to eat, and not too messy.  I got a package of the little cones at the grocery store, and put about two tablespoons of ice cream in each cone.  Little Buddy may have had more than one.

 By the way, these are the cones I'm talking about.  Aren't they cute?

I've been treadling madly since I got home, making aqua blocks.  These are my 20 half square triangles for the month.

I also finished my Positivity Quilt, which I will post more about on Sunday.  It will be going to Mercy Hospital in Sacramento, CA as soon as I can get it in the mail.

 

 More aqua--this classic Chevy at the Henry Ford Museum.

I'm a Ford girl all the way, but this beauty is something special.

Little Buddy starts kindergarten next week, and the following week all the rest of the grandkids are back to school.  Baby Buddy will be our only playmate during the day.  It will be very different around here without Little Buddy, (much quieter for one thing!) but we'll still see him after school and on days off.

For now, we'll enjoy the rest of these summer days together.

Have a lovely week!

 

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Check out these fabulous linky parties!  I'm linking up with:

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy  

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Back in Time

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I recently returned from a trip back to the 1800s in American history, courtesy of museums in the Midwest.  Above is a photo of Firestone Farm, transplanted from Columbiana County, Ohio to the Henry Ford living history museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

As I made my reproduction quilt blocks this week, I gave some thought to what life was like a hundred or so years ago.  These blocks were technically last month's, when dark blue and/or dark neutral was the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

My blocks were made on a treadle, but I've never used one as old as this one, from the collection of the Cincinnati History Museum.  This is an early Wheeler and Wilson.  Check out the foot-shaped pedals!  (My everyday treadle is much newer, dating from 1909.)

I did get around to making my aqua repro blocks.  The block is called Poinsettia, and I use the color of the month for the "petals".  The dark squares are just any color that goes with the petal fabric.  The pattern is by Bonnie Hunter, and is part of her Carolina Christmas quilt, in her book Scraps and Shirttails II.

Aqua is a tough color to find in 1800s reproduction fabrics, but I had enough of three prints at least.

I'm glad we don't have to weave our own fabrics in this day and age, but it was very interesting to see the antique looms at the Henry Ford.  Upstairs (where we couldn't go this time due to COVID) is a jacquard loom operated by hundreds of punch cards.  The technology was invented in 1804, and the reproduction loom was built by a curator in the 1930s.  (Click HERE for an article on the loom, plus photos.) 

I'm also glad we have more choices in fabric for quilts and for clothing in modern times.  According to the Cincinnati History Museum, the "average yearly budget for clothing in the mid-1800s was about $25 per person". Wages and costs were lower, of course, but that is still a very small amount.  People had dramatically fewer clothes than we have, and made them last longer.

This is a lovely collection of textile fibers, ready for carding, spinning, plying, dyeing, weaving or knitting.  There is a lot of work between shearing the sheep and knitting the socks or sweaters.

I really loved visiting these museums and seeing how people lived long ago.  But I'm under no illusions about the back-breaking work and hardships that were commonplace in the 1800s.

Here's the weirdest sewing-related thing I saw on this trip.  It was in the main museum building at the Henry Ford.

This diagram shows a contraption called "The Backus Water Motor".  I hope you can see the drive belt between the water motor and the flywheel on the treadle.

Here's a closeup.  Basically, the user would hook up the water motor to the kitchen pipe, connect the belt to the treadle, and turn on the water.  The water would drive the treadle and supply the power.  This is a completely insane way to run a sewing machine.  What an enormous waste of water!  Mr. Backus got a sewing machine related patent in 1874, at a time when some homes had running water but none had electricity.  What a difference a few years makes.

This week, in my air conditioned home, complete with running water AND electricity, I made a few more aqua blocks, like these 4 patch stars.

I'm re-reading this lovely book by Fons and Porter that features quilts from the Henry Ford's collection,

and my little grandsons are "reading" a Sesame Street book together.

We did take time out to make (and eat!) these big dinosaur cookies.

I hope you can take time out this week to do special things with people you love.  

Life is short!  Eat dessert first!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap 

 

 

 

 

 

August is Aqua

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Isn't it fun to start the month with a new color?  August is aqua (aka aquamarine, turquoise, teal, blue-green, cyan, etc.) for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

 I was excited to see what the new color was, especially since I found out when we were on our way home from a traveling vacation.  I couldn't wait to get started, having been away from my treadle for 10 whole days.

Our trip was sort of unusual.  My husband is very interested in (okay, obsessed with) fossils, especially of early mammals, and wanted to see the collections in some of our Midwestern museums.  I was happy to go along with that, especially when we threw in a living history museum (The Henry Ford, in the photo above), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, plus antique malls and quilt stores along the way.

I took along this UFO to sew by hand in the evenings.  It's an English paper piecing project from at least 20 years ago.

On the back, you can see the "papers" I used.  They are mostly those cards that fall out of magazines.  I'm removing the papers once a hexagon is surrounded by other hexagons.

 Don't expect to see this finished soon!  It takes a long time to hand sew these rows together.  I'm hoping this will be the center of a quilt, but it could turn out to be a table runner.

This is the only actual quilt I saw in any of the museums.  It's a Lone Star, made by a Native American woman for a family member.  These quilts are traditional gifts for graduations, weddings, etc.

It was hand quilted, in a Baptist Fan pattern.  I would never think to quilt a Lone Star this way, but it was absolutely beautiful.

There were several quilts for sale in the antique malls, but I resisted.  Love this scrappy 1940s/1950s Bowtie.

The price was right on this late 1800s/early 1900s star quilt, but the poor thing has been loved to death.  Still inspiring to see, though.

 I bought this little group of second hand fabric at the antique malls...

and this gorgeous collection of new fabric at a quilt shop called Seams So Easy in Fairfield, Ohio.  Check out the cat print in the center!

This is the logo painted on the outside of the shop.  I can vouch for their friendly helpful service.

It's great to get away for a little while, especially after last year.  But it did show us that the pandemic is not entirely over, and things are not quite back to normal.  Rules kept changing about buying museum tickets ahead (or not) and wearing masks (or not), and some restaurants and shops were still closed or only available online.  It's going to take time, especially with cases on the rise again.  We just took everything as it came, and did the best we could to keep ourselves and others safe.

It feels good to be home again.  I was so happy to get back to babysitting my little guys!  Little Buddy and I were making art projects and playing with dinosaurs here.

And Baby Buddy is getting a little too brave on the slide at the playground!

I hope you're enjoying going through your aqua scraps.  I know I am!  I almost forgot about this Reluctant Dragon print.

 

Have a lovely week!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap