Green Blocks, Pink Quilts, & Back From the Quilter, Part 1

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I'm having fun with green scraps this week.  These are my Big Scrappy Bricks blocks, inspired by a pattern at Maryquilts.com called Forest Bricks (click HERE).  I've got a real thing for brick quilts right now, in all sizes.  These blocks are great for some fun novelty prints.

I am not a fan of snakes, but this print doesn't even creep me out.  Much. (My grand kids tease me about this.  They actually LIKE snakes. <shudder>)

Moving on from reptiles, I finished the little pink quilts I was working on last week.

The flannel rail fence quilt, shown here wrapped around my Little Guy's stuffed dog, will go to Jack's Basket to celebrate a baby with Down's Syndrome.

Here's the back, two adorable dogs in a heart, that says Puppy Love.  Another second-hand flannel find.

More pink!  I have never made this many pink quilts at one time before.  And there's one more still in the works!  This little nine patch was easy and fun to make, and uses some cute prints.

The fabric in the alternate plain blocks is a print I call Flying Donuts.  I had it left over from another baby quilt.  All that's left now are small scraps.

The back is this nostalgic baby toys print, also bought second-hand.  The quilt will be donated, but I'm not sure where yet.

So that's what I've been sewing this week. 

Last week, I showed you a pile of quilts (folded inside out)  I just got back from my friend Joey Mayhieu, who is a fabulous long arm quilter.  I quilt most of my quilts myself, especially the baby quilts that are easy to do on a domestic machine.   I also do simple grid quilting on larger quilts and quilt-as-you-go.  But sometimes there are special tops that just need professional quilting, and that's when I turn to Joey.

I was over the moon when she brought me three quilts I had given her to work on in October, and I can't wait to show them to you.  But I think each quilt needs its own write-up, so I'll do one this week, one next week, and one the week after. 

Back From the Quilter, Part 1:  Star Medallion

In January 2015, quilt historian Barbara Brackman started a series on her Civil War Quilts blog called Stars in A Time Warp.  Each Wednesday, she discussed a different kind of fabric or print from the past (like shirting prints, Prussian Blue, etc.).  Participants could follow along and make 6 in. star blocks from reproduction fabrics.  (It's still up!  Click HERE for the first week.)

It was so much fun to learn about all kinds of fabrics, and hunt through my reproductions to make the stars.  I could hardly wait for Wednesday each week.  Eventually I made enough blocks for two quilts.  Joey quilted the first quilt for me in 2017.  (Click HERE to see it.)

This is the top I made in Feb. 2016.  The first quilt contained the blocks with reproduction fabrics from the last half of the 1800s.  This quilt has repros from the first half, 1800-1850.  I set it in a medallion, a classic style from that time period.  Joey and I together decided on the quilting, to have it in keeping with what was done in this era.  (Joey is very knowledgeable about antique quilts BTW.)

The center is this bird, a copy of a Hewson print.  Joey quilted it with a cross hatch.

Each "round" of the medallion has separate quilting.  I absolutely love this organic form in the inner star round.

Here you can see part of the spirals in the last round of stars, and the graceful feather turning the corner on the border.

The back is this green pillar print--classical columns printed lengthwise on the fabric.  I had just barely enough of this fabric, but Joey made it work. (I used some for an inner border before I knew I wanted it for the back!  Oops!)

If you have your quilts quilted by others, you know a good long-armer is worth her/his weight in gold!  This quilt turned out even better than I imagined, and I know I could not have done it myself.  So many thanks again to Joey for her talents and time!

Next week, a basket quilt.

Somebody had a birthday!  And of course it was all about trains.  Big brother was a good helper.

Snicklefritz is really growing.  Do you think I need to get him a bigger bed?

Have a good week, everyone!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap