Pink and Purple

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Easter is tomorrow, and this little bunny is wishing a happy one to all who celebrate.

I'm not sure how bunnies got associated with Easter (I've read a couple of theories--something to do with spring?) but they are definitely part of the holiday, especially for kids.

Spring is here, even in Wisconsin!  The grass is getting greener, and the daylight lasts a little longer.  Still cold, though.  I had to wear my coat when taking this photo, and the wind just wouldn't quilt.

This is the last of the pink quilts I started during February, which was pink month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  The blocks are Uneven Nine Patches aka Puss in the Corner, and were made from four 5 in. squares each.  (Click HERE for those directions.)

Four fabrics in the quilt are bunny prints!  So it was appropriate to finish it in time for Easter.

These bunnies are hopping all around.  This was an Easter print years ago from That Chain Fabric Store.

Here's the fabric the little bunny at the top of this post came from.  Cheeky, but a Nice Bun.

And then there's this Hoffman print, that one of my quilt group friends gave me literally yards of.

More on the back!  This little quilt measures about 40 in. x 48 in., and will be donated to a charity for kids (not sure which one yet).

So that's all the pink for at least a little while.  What about purple?

So far I haven't sewn much, but I got out this pile of Big Scraps to cut.

More bunnies, this time in purple.  And other novelty prints to make my little houses.  (Click HERE for my first post on this project.)

Isn't it amazing how many shades of purple there are?  I just love that Laurel Burch cat print.  I'm including it in the purples but in the wrong light it looks dark blue.  It won't matter in the quilt, of course.

Our cold and rainy weather lately made it a good time for some new puzzles.  Our little guy loves working them.  By the way he didn't put that whole puzzle together.  Grandpa had already finished it, and Little Guy takes apart one section and puts it back together again.  He has his own puzzles, but it's more fun to work with Grandpa.

We went antiquing recently, and I got a "new" cookbook.  It's that nice clean one on the right.  Not that new really, it was published in 1986!  But like new inside--no torn pages, and the sections still have their tabs.  My old cookbook has been with me since before I was married.  I got it with S & H green stamps in 1974 or 1975, while I was still in college.  I'm keeping the old one while I make sure my favorite recipes made it to the new edition.  If not, I'm writing them down.  I do use the internet to find recipes, but I'm old school--I prefer a book.  How about you?

I'm wishing a very happy Easter holiday to all those who celebrate, and happy quilting to everyone!

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

Something Old, Something New

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  It's the last Saturday of the month, and time for airing some quilts from my collection.

It's a pink parade for April, which has been pink month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I'm not really pink's biggest fan, so I don't make or buy a lot of pink quilts, but these called me to take them home.  Sadly I have no information on the original makers of any of these quilts.

Doll quilts always catch my eye.  If in perfect condition, they can cost a fortune.  But if it's in perfect condition, doesn't that mean a child never played with it?  Very sad.  The ones I buy are well loved.

This little one is kind of wonky.  Maybe a child made it?  Or a mama in a hurry?  All the work is by machine, including the quilting and binding.  It's hard to date quilts with only solid color fabrics, but I'm guessing around 1900, give or take 10 years in either direction.

Next up, a quilt that's both old and new.  I bought the blocks in an antique mall, and set them together with plain white and reproduction fabrics.

Even though pink is not my favorite color, these little blocks just insisted on coming home with me.  My guess on an age for them is circa 1930. 

I was apparently too lazy to make a label, but at least I wrote some information in the border.  Good heavens, I finished this 18 years ago this month!

Have you ever seen a quilt like this before?  Hundreds of quilts were made from this pattern, published in newspapers in the 1930s.  It's called The Alphabet Quilt, and the designer was Florence La Ganke Harris, who wrote under the pseudonym of Nancy Page.  

This is the announcement of the series from the newspaper.  Some of the papers ran contests for completed series quilts.

The Nancy Page column published a quilt block each week in the late 1920s through the 1930s, with the fictional Nancy advising her quilt club on how to make that particular block.  For the series quilts, Ms. La Ganke sometimes changed the format.  The Alphabet Quilt is being made by "Aunt Mary" for her young niece Joan, and Mary is sharing her progress with her friends.

Here is one of the newspaper patterns.  Quilters often cut them out and saved them, maybe planning to make the quilt someday.  (I can definitely relate to that!)

Most of the blocks in the quilt are simple applique, meant to be familiar to a child.  The last block is very unusual.  Ms. La Ganke gave quilters a choice.  They could either embroider X Y Z to finish the alphabet or they could do as this quilter did, and embroider the word YOU to make it a signature square.  (Either way, they would have 24 squares instead of 26, and could put it together 4 blocks by 6 blocks.)

This is the reason I bought these blocks on Ebay many years ago.  The maker has embroidered the name of the intended recipient, Billy Shannon, on the left, plus Mama and 1931.  In pencil she has written the word "from" just before Mama.  I felt like this project needed to be completed.

When this came to me, it was a UFO from at least 70 years ago.  All the blocks were done, and the pink frames had been added.  (Pink was not considered an exclusively girl color in the past.) 

I'm sorry that Billy Shannon never got his quilt.  I finished the blocks with vintage fabric, including the backing and binding, and did some simple quilting.  If I had any idea who the family was, I would pass it on to them.

Florence La Ganke designed many other series quilts, among them the Magic Vine, which was redone by Eleanor Burns a few years ago.  Patterns for these quilts and/or copies of the originals can be obtained from online sellers.  Check out this article on Nancy Page (Click HERE) by Wilene Smith for more information on Ms. La Ganke herself.

And now for something completely different.

I love to catch my young grandsons playing together peacefully.  It's not always like this! But they really do love each other.

In the week ahead, I'm wishing you peace and love.  And happy quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Cynthia at Oh Scrap 

 

This is IT! I Spy Pink

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Did you ever see a quilt someplace, in a book or a quilt store or on the internet, and realize this pattern was exactly what you didn't even know you were looking for?  I saw a puss in the corner quilt on the Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting blog, and it made me gasp and then say, "This is IT!  This is what I want to do with my pink scraps!" 

I've made quilts in this pattern before, but hadn't thought about alternating the colors.  Block A has a dark center and dark corners, and Block B has a light center and light corners.  Suddenly I had a use for both light and dark (pink) novelty squares.  (Thanks, Cathy at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting!)

It just so happens that several of my pink fabrics have bunnies on them, and this is Easter weekend.  I'm not exactly sure why or when we started linking bunnies with the holiday, but I like bunnies all the time anyway.  The little flannel ones were made by someone in my quilt group, and the grandkids love them.

More Easter decorations, and another bunny print.  I've had the duck for a while, and got the bunny recently at an antique mall.  The ceramic eggs were painted by my youngest daughter (the one the duckie is holding) and her then-six year old son (the one with the bunny).  I don't have a lot of Easter decorations, but I like these little things.

I've had the Nice Buns fabric for a long time.  I hope it's not inappropriate for a kid's quilt.  Those do look like nice bunnies, with such sweet smiles.  You can see the wild print border in this photo.

The backing is this adorable older Hoffman print.  There were several yards of it in the basket my generous quilt group friends gave me several weeks ago (Click HERE  Scroll down) and it just seemed perfect for this quilt.  As you can tell, I used the serpentine stitch on my Pfaff to quilt a 2 in. grid.  I really do use it a lot, and maybe I should try other ways to quilt, but hey, it works!

Like the quilt that inspired it, this one will be donated.  It will go to the Little Lambs Foundation, as part of this years Hands 2 Help drive.  Every center square is different, and there are lots of fun prints, so I hope it will keep a youngster entertained.  Some details:  the blocks are 8 in. square, there are 25 of them set 5 x 5, with a 2 in. finished border, which brings the quilt up to 44 in. square.

Speaking of I Spy, my kindergarten buddy has been very excited about these I Spy books lately.  We had the Spooky Night book here already, and I got the first I Spy book at the library.  He has really sharp eyes, but there are some things we still haven't found.

This morning the boys had another book, the kind that plays music when you push the buttons.  As the songs played, they ran around the living room laughing.  I tried to take pictures, but they're all just blurs.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate, and a very happy weekend to everyone.

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Pink and Purple Trip

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

No outside pictures today, as we're having a gentle spring rain.  Birds are venturing out, however, and I can hear their songs and calls.  I saw our first robin this week, just one so far, but they'll soon be here in flocks.

I made this little Trip Around the World quilt on International Quilting Day last week, and it will be sent to Little Lambs Foundation as part of this year's Hands2Help Challenge.  (Click HERE for more information on how you can help!)  The donated quilts will go to babies entering foster care.

I have not been a lifelong fan of pink (understatement!).  Yet somehow I have lots of pink scraps.  In January, when it was pink month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I sorted some of the scraps, added in purple, and cut out the squares for this quilt.

The back is a soft flannel.  Simple quilting with a serpentine stitch and a purple print binding finish it up.

Plus, bunnies!  Just in time for Easter.  Want to make one?  It's super easy.  Recipe below.

Trip Around the World Baby Quilt

Here's the recipe for this 36 in. x 36 in. quilt.

I used six fabrics in the Trip Around the World part, which I labeled A through F.  All squares were cut 4.5 in.  Here's how many to cut.

A:  5 (center and four corners)

B:  4

C:  8 

D:  12

E:  12

F:  8

Instructions:

Lay out the squares in rows, 7 squares across and 7 squares down, following the layout from the photo.  An A square goes in the center, B squares surround it, etc.  Sew the squares into rows, and the rows together.

Borders: 

Inner border:  Cut 4 strips of a light fabric, 1.5 in. x width of fabric.  Measure the center and add the borders.

Outer border:  Cut 4 strips 3.5 in. x width of fabric.  Measure the quilt and add the borders.

 

In other news, it's the last Saturday in March, which means the end of green month for the RSC.  I thought I had all my blocks finished last week, but I forgot about the Happy Blocks.  Oops!

These don't look very green, do they?  The center squares are green, but the frames are just whatever color I had that goes with the novelty prints in the middle.  For some reason a lot of them looked good with orange.

 

Paddington Bear, tractors, cows, and those cheeky monkeys!  I love novelty prints!

Guess what else I love!

Sorry about the blurry picture.  Baby Buddy doesn't hold still much.  He got a new tooth this week!

Little Buddy was excited to show us the little Easter basket/box he made at preschool.  He's wearing one of his favorite dinosaur shirts.  I should apologize for this photo, too.   I didn't notice all the reflections in the glass of the bookcase.

A Trip Around the World quilt is as close as we're getting to traveling for spring break, but we don't mind at all.  Until we're fully vaccinated, we'll stay close to home and enjoy spending time with the family.

Have a good week, and Happy Passover and/or Palm Sunday to all who celebrate.

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Here's a great way to travel the quilt world--just click on a linky party!

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop, home of the Hands2Help Challenge

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

 

Pink Plus

I've never been a big fan of the color pink.  Growing up, I wasn't a girly girl, just a nerdy girl that loved to read.  As soon as they would let us wear pants at school (high school years), I ditched my dresses and skirts and never looked back.
But I LOVE double pink reproduction fabric.  So it was fun to make the blocks for my reproduction quilts from my repro scraps in pink, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  Above is Eileen Trestain's book Dating Fabrics:  A Color Guide, 1800-1960, open to the 1880-1910 pink pages.  It's a great book for anyone making reproduction quilts, or collecting antique quilts and blocks.

These are my Mary's Basket blocks for this month, posing with an antique Willcox and Gibbs treadle sewing machine.  So far there are only four, but I might add to their number.

My second RSC quilt is made from these Wagon Trail blocks.  Again, only four so far.

If I had to pick a favorite, this one on the right is it!

When it comes to my third RSC quilt (THREE RSC quilts?  Yes, I know, I have a problem!), I chose a different path.
I make lots of children's quilts for charity.  If you put pink fabric into a child's charity quilt, that automatically makes it a girl's quilt.  In my experience, boys and their parents will not choose a quilt with pink in it.  Several charities I give to have said they get many more "girl" quilts than "boy" quilts.
Because of that, I generally make quilts with bright colors and leave out the pink.  A girl can choose a bright colored quilt, and so can a boy.
So I'm not adding any pink to my third RSC quilt, Fly Away Home, since it's eventual destination is as yet unclear.
But I still have lots of pink scraps.  So...

I made a pink baby quilt.  The blocks are 6 in. finished nine patches, with the colors arranged like a plus sign and a purple square in the middle of each one.

The large fabric squares between the nine patches is printed with what looks like models of atoms, that we used in science class back in the days before computers.  I love the idea of a little girl scientist sleeping under this quilt.

The blocks are a mish mash of all sorts of fabrics with any claim to pink.  There are bunnies, fish, flamingos, giraffes, frogs, turtles, bugs, castles, rain boots, hearts, flowers, dots, and so on.  Oh, and don't forget Dora the Explorer.

The back is a dotted print.
So that's a lot of pink!  My pink scraps are seriously diminished.
Thank goodness for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.
I hope you're "in the pink" this week, and every week.
Cheers for reading this,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
Links to Busy Hands Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts, and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.