Showing posts with label Mathematical Genius. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mathematical Genius. Show all posts

Saturday, November 23, 2024

Thankful

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

 

This coming Thursday is Thanksgiving, an appropriate time to express our gratitude for all the blessings we receive daily and throughout the year.  I have to say I am well and truly thankful for so many things.

A minor injury has had me sidelined from machine sewing recently, but it was a good time to clean out the sewing room closet.  I am thankful for all the treasures I found.

Like this little quilt above.  The turkey block above is part of a doll quilt top I made years ago from antique redwork blocks bought at a flea market.  For literally years I have been trying to decide how to quilt it--hand or machine?  At the moment I'm leaning towards quilting it by hand.  The blocks are cute and I'm glad to have this little bit of history.

I also found this finished quilt in the closet, in the To Be Mended pile.  It's a friendship quilt I made in 1986.  Instead of binding, I brought the backing around to the front and stitched it down, and some of it had come loose.

Prior to 1986, I was a self taught quilter and honestly not a very good one.  My first class was at the Village Sewing Shoppe in Lebanon, Ohio, with Nedra Whittington, who signed the greenish block above.  Nedra was seriously old school.  We cut scraps with templates and scissors, pieced by hand, and quilted by hand.  I learned so much!  It took me three years to finish the class quilt, but I ran this little wall hanging up by machine in the meantime, and got my quilt club friends to sign it. 

Amy, my eldest child, wanted to sign a block too, so of course my son and youngest daughter also wanted their names on the little quilt.  Amy, at age 7, signed their names as well as her own, since the younger ones were 4 and 2.  I love that I have all their names in Amy's handwriting on the blocks.

A few quick stitches fixed the edge, and now the quilt can be displayed again.  This quilt reminds me how thankful I am for my first quilt teacher, my quilt club friends who were always encouraging, and my sweet children who went with me to quilt meetings and shops (sometimes willingly!).


A few days ago, I tried machine quilting, and found that it didn't hurt anymore!   My pinky toe is healing up, and I am beyond grateful to be almost totally back to normal.  It's still a bit swollen, which makes wearing shoes somewhat uncomfortable, but doable.  The top was basted and ready to go, finished quickly with a diagonal grid.

This is the second time I've made a quilt in this pattern, Mathematical Genius by Judy Gauthier, from her book, Quilts for Scrap Lovers.  I included a lot of my favorite novelty prints, like the "raining cats and dogs" on the light blue background.  The batting is a soft poly which was a dream to quilt.  (Thanks, Joey!)  The quilt will be donated locally.

Here's the back, a fun print from That Fabric Store. 
I'm so thankful I can machine sew again!  I'm also thankful for quilt designers who do all the math for us (I am so NOT a math person!).

 Buddy and Little Guy, our youngest grandchildren, were here all day Friday (no school--conferences) and really got into coloring Pokemon characters.

The boys and Grandpa had a blast with Grandpa's drums.  Buddy's drumsticks here are just blurs.

I am beyond grateful for all my children and grandchildren, and so happy that we all live within an hour's drive of each other.  I know how lucky I am!

Here's someone to be grateful for!  Snicklefritz the cat is a very welcome companion on a snowy afternoon.  A cup of tea, a library book, a warm quilt, and a cuddly cat--what could be better?

Happy Thanksgiving this week to all who celebrate.  And thanks for reading!  I'm thankful for YOU!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:


Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap













Saturday, February 20, 2021

Math Genius???

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  

Guess what's in this box--that's right, it's a quilt!

 

 Sometimes, when I'm cleaning up scraps, I cut up pieces for a baby quilt and stash them away in a box, waiting for when I have time to sew.  It's like a little present for myself.

Quilts for Scrap Lovers: 16 Projects • Start with Simple Squares 

The pattern for the quilt in the box came from this book:  Quilts for Scrap Lovers, by Judy Gauthier.  There are LOTS of good patterns in this book.  The one I chose is called Mathematical Genius.  If you've read my blog before, that might strike you as ironic.  My struggles with math are not a secret!

One recent Sunday, I just couldn't wait to start this any longer.  I shooed away the dog and cat, turned on All Creatures Great and Small on PBS, and started laying the quilt out on the floor.  The pattern is kind of like a Plus quilt, but all the pluses have to fit together.

Without the book, I would have been lost.  It doesn't seem complicated until you start actually placing the squares.  (Did you notice the yellow parrot fabric?  I keep using it everywhere this year!)  I must admit, I lost track of the TV show, and had to rewind and watch it later.

This quilt pattern turned out to be a good place to use multi-colored fabric, like the Pete the Cat and Snoopy/Joe Cool prints above.

Keeping everything straight when moving from the "design floor" to the sewing room required a little thinking.  First, I took a photo of the layout on my phone.  Then I pinned the squares into rows and stacked them back in the box.  As I sewed, I would take a pinned row out of the box, sew all the squares together (checking the photo on my phone as needed), and then drape that row over the ironing board as shown above.  If any squares were in the wrong place, it would be easy to tell.

Now it's a top!  Adding the bright red border made it a slightly large baby quilt at 40 in. x 48 in.  Today's job will be basting and quilting it, to get it ready to be donated.

In other news, more yellow!

Four patch stars, and log cabins.

 

 More half square triangles, that I still have no specific plan for.

My favorite blocks this week are the Happy Blocks.  I used a yellow square in the center of each one, and surrounded it with a color picked up from the square.

So, lots of piecing but not much actual quilting.  Piecing for 20-30 minutes a day gives me a good start to the weekday morning, before my Baby Buddy gets here.

Speaking of Baby Buddy, here he is, in the middle of getting into everything.  He is so fast!  We have to batten down the hatches when he arrives.

This was the only picture I got of my Little Buddy this week where he WASN'T growling like a T. Rex.  Here he's watching a video on my phone about (of course) dinosaurs.

 My heart goes out to all the people in Texas and Oklahoma (including my family members) who have been hit by the disastrous weather.  It's so easy to take infrastructure like water and electricity for granted, and so tough to manage without it.  I'm hoping warmer weather will help start getting things back on track.

My guess is when things get a little more settled, there will be a need for quilts to help people who have lost so much.  The quilting community always responds to disasters, and I know we will do so again.  In the meantime, click HERE for a list from CNN of places to donate money to help people in Texas.  If I find a similar list for Oklahoma, I will post it.

Good luck to everyone in the week ahead.  Stay warm, stay safe, and let's keep sewing!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy
Cynthia at Oh Scrap