Wrapping Up the Quilts for Hands 2 Help 2022

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

After months of happily sewing, Hands 2 Help for this year is coming to an end.  I have been amazed and delighted to see the quilts on Mari's blog, and look forward to seeing more today.  It's like an online quilt show!

This year I made 8 baby quilts for Little Lambs.  The one above is the last one, and it finally got quilted this week.  I really like to have a deadline.  It gives me that push to get it done.

I was inspired by Mari's hollow nine patch.  It's a great way to use colorful squares.  That's the backing with those white circles on dark pink, folded over the front.

To make the back wide enough, I added a row of charm squares in fun colors and prints.

All the rest of these little quilts have been posted on the blog as I made them, but here they are again.  You can click on the quilt's name to go to the post about it, for more photos, etc.

  Two Step Baby Quilt, designed by Amanda Jean Nyberg, from the book Scrap School.

Yellow and Blue Four Patch, With Cats

 Little Bricks

Pink and Blue Four Patch with Zoo Animals

Little Bricks and Ladders

I Spy Pink

 

Sparkling Gemstones, from the book Jelly Roll Quilts, by Pam and Nicki Lintott.

And that's it for this year.  It's been a lot of fun, sewing these little scraps into quilts for children.  

Thanks so much to Mari, for having taken this on, and to Sarah for all her efforts in other years.  It is wonderful what can be done when we work together.

Linking up with Mari at The Academic Quilter for the final linky party.

Antique Quilts Week: Red and Green Applique

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  It's the last week of the month, so that means time for antique quilts from my collection.  This month's theme is red and green applique.

Both of these quilts date from 1850-1875.  They are hand pieced and hand quilted, with no evidence of machine sewing on them anywhere.  These are the only two quilts I have ever had documented, and some of the photos I'm using came from the documentations, which is why they have a number pinned to them.  To be clear, I took the photos myself.

Here's the first quilt, a Peony variation.  That word, variation, is very useful when identifying (or trying to identify) antique quilts, especially appliqued ones.  Quilters then were like quilters now, changing patterns to suit themselves.

By the way, the photo above shows the entire quilt.  It's not folded, this is just all there is.  Blocks at the top and on the sides are simply cut off.

There are borders on two sides only, and an unusual small wreath in one corner.  I bought this quilt from an Ebay seller many years ago.

 

Sometimes when a quilt has only two borders, it may have been meant to cover a bed in a corner, as above.  (Why add two borders that no one will see?)  The vine in the borders is a sort of blue, rather than green which we would expect, and there is staining all around the vine.  I believe this vine fabric might have originally been dyed a shade of green, and faded and/or bled.  But I can't tell for sure.

The flower and leaf shapes are simple and graceful, and there is lots of lovely hand quilting, at 8 to 9 stitches per inch.

There are feathered wreaths in the alternate blocks, and hearts quilted in the corners.  I know it's hard to see here, sorry.

The seller had no information about the maker of the quilt, but knew it was made in Kentucky.  This embroidered letter "L" might be from the maker's or the owner's name.  I'm sure the family that originally had the quilt knew who L was, but now no one does.  Just a reminder to us all to label our quilts!

The second quilt is a Cherry Wreath.  There are 9 large wreath blocks (13.5-14 inches square) and vine borders on all four sides.  Quilt teachers encourage us now to make our borders turn the corners, but this quiltmaker had apparently never heard of them.  Her borders were obviously made separately.  They might not win prizes at a quilt show, but I like the less formal look of it.

The sheer amount of work in these blocks is astounding.  There are 52 tiny appliqued cherries in each wreath.  Plus 18 leaves, and the wreath circle itself! 

Here's a dime next to the cherries, for comparison.  Also, you can see the embroidery better here.  Each cherry has an embroidered stem connecting it to the wreath or the border vines.  Most of the embroidery thread in the blocks has faded from green to white.

In addition to feathered circles quilted in the alternate blocks, there are lots of other motifs.  The quilting here is 9-10 stitches per inch.  

The border is quilted with a double hanging diamonds pattern.  Green solid fabric with this characteristic yellowish hue usually indicates a date prior to the Civil War.  

Both of these quilts are around 150 years old.    Neither one is in perfect condition, which is why they were affordable. I have loved studying them, and it is an honor to own them. 

Back in this century, I have discovered I am a bandwagon jumper.  (Who knew?)  I have jumped on the Switch Plate block bandwagon, and am happily cutting and sewing these little 3" x 5" finished blocks.   Of course I'm doing the green ones first, for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  Click HERE for Cynthia B.'s first post on them, from back in April.

Plus, this!  When cutting pieces from 3.5 in. strips, it was easy to cut these Little Bricks also, and sew up 8 patch blocks.  This time I'm copying Cathy from Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting.  Click HERE for a recent post with the 8 patch blocks, plus lots of other scrappy goodness.

And now here's a happy first for today.

My Little Guy went to the library for the very first time.  He loved it!  Except for the part where you have to let go of the book you've chosen so the lady can check it out for you and hand it back. 

He was born in March of 2020, and Covid kept us away until now.  I always took his brothers to story time and other library events, and I've felt bad that he missed those activities, which were cancelled because of the pandemic.  The virus may not be over, but we are cautiously venturing out, and doing these very important things.

Let's do important things this week.  Things like getting together with family and friends, either in person or virtually or by phone.  Things like remembering our loved ones who have died, and passing their stories on.  Things like helping others, sharing hugs, smiling at strangers, looking after our animal friends.  And sewing, as donations, gifts, or kindness to ourselves.  This stuff is important!

Have a safe and meaningful Memorial Day weekend, and a wonderful week ahead.

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

 

 

Green Frogs, Razzle Dazzle, and Rectangles

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Green scraps are still getting sewn up for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  I don't have the recommended forest or sage green, so I'm just using the greens I have.  And as you can see, most of my scraps are bright novelty prints.  (Does ZAB jump out at you from this photo?  It's part of an alphabet print.  Weird stuff happens when you cut up fabric!)

Here's the whole row, my version of Razzle Dazzle, one of my RSC projects.  (Click HERE for my first post on this pattern.)  It's actually two rows, but you need both to make the design work.

The yellow row from March was a help when I started putting the green row together.  I had kind of forgotten how I was arranging things, since I didn't make a pink row for April's color of the month.  I had to lay them out to preview what the quilt might look like.

The ends of the rows are just sliced off to make a straight edge.  No complicated math for me, thanks!

Check out this happy little frog!  He's in two of the triangles, one right side up and one upside down.  (I didn't mean to put them so close together, how did that happen?)  I have a real thing for happy frog prints.

No time for actual quilting this week, but I had a deadline for this little quilt, so at least the top got pieced.

And guess what showed up on the border!  Happy green frogs!  I'll show this quilt properly once it's quilted.

As always, when I'm piecing I need to have a leaders and enders project.  That's what the set on the left is, 72 little 4.5 in. finished blocks, clipped in sets of 10.  I sew these pieces in between the main project, which is really necessary with the Razzle Dazzle triangles.  But what do you do when you get all the leaders and enders blocks done?  

Start another project, of course!

Last Wednesday, quilt author Judy Gauthier gave a presentation at our guild.  I already had all her current books (there is a new one coming out soon!), and it really energized me to look through the books again, and put sticky notes on designs I want to try right away.

Why not try one right now, when I need a new leader and ender project?  And this block even uses the same size rectangles that were already at the machine. The quilt is called Rectangles Squared, and is in the book Rainbow Quilts for Scrap Lovers.  Very easy piecing, and looks good in bright colors.

So I'm set for piecing for a while, but Mrs. Pfaff and I really need to get busy on the quilting. 

I was out of town part of this week, and sort of discombobulated after we got back (what with laundry, etc.).  Somehow, I neglected to get any photos of the kids!  So here's one of all my grandchildren, at Easter.  (Yes, we had to wear winter coats for the Easter egg hunt, but it was worth it!)

We've put the coats away now, and should have warm spring weather the rest of the week.

I hope you have a lovely week, whatever the weather.

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Lions and Cows and Little Bricks, Oh My

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

More blocks in GREEN for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month!  These are my split nine patches, made up mostly from my 3.5 in. squares and triangles box.

I'm not sure who thought of creating a print with green lions, but he's kind of handsome.

This block has the usual chaos, like Lucy from Peanuts golfing, crayons, turtles, cars, and praying mantises.

Cows on a green background in the top row center.  I only bought a half yard of it, but it keeps ending up in everything.

Favorite block!  Such a happy green cow.  Plus a green tiger.  Not stuff you see every day.

I only had to cut two light triangles for these blocks, the rest came already cut from the box.  So I am using up some of my scraps!  Even though I'll definitely make more as I cut out other quilts.  That's the quilting life, isn't it?

So green blocks done, more little bricks fun.

Here's another quilt made with 2.5 in. x 3.5 in. rectangles, the ones I call little bricks.  It's going to Hands 2 Help.  (Click HERE for more on Hands 2 Help.)

As usual, it's a really simple block.  Back in January of 2013 (my first month of blogging, BTW), I made a quilt like this from a photo somewhere on the internet.  In my post I called it Jelly Roll Bricks and gave my directions for it.

A few years later, I bought this book at a used book store, and the pattern was in there.  (Now that I know where it came from, I will be taking my post down.)  The book is Jelly Roll Quilts, by Pam & Nicky Lintott.  I really love their books!  Lots of good ideas and clear directions.

Their version is called Sparkling Gemstones, and uses all Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  Theirs is strip pieced, but I prefer just cutting the pieces separately.  To each her own.

Either way you sew it, it's a great design to use up just about any color of bricks, including multi-color.

Check out the border!  It's Fischer Price fabric!  I got a large piece of it at the guild's silent auction earlier this year.  At one point, we had all the toys pictured in the print--the popper, the xylophone, the dog pull toy, the stacking rings (not seen in this photo) and the telephone.

The only one we still have is the telephone.

Our grand children have never used a dial phone.  I don't think they've ever even seen a real one.  We've told our Little Guy that this is a kid version of a telephone, but I'm not sure he believes us.  It doesn't look anything like his mommy's phone.  Phones have changed so much!  He still likes to play with it, maybe because it makes noise.

Nature is waking up from her winter nap all around us.  This tree is in the parking lot of the grocery store, sharing its beauty with everyone who passes by.

Little Guy is having so much fun picking dandelions and playing in the park.  The weather this week has been amazing.

I hope you've had an amazing week, whatever the weather.  Take care, and happy sewing!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap