A Tale of Two Loves

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

When I say two loves, I'm talking about quilts, of course.  (My life may be crazy, but it's not a soap opera.)  I have two desperate all-consuming loves in my quilting life--antique quilts/reproductions and modern/bright colors.  I can't choose one or the other.  Thankfully, I don't have to.

It might seem weird, but I work on both kinds of quilts at once.  So this week I have a finished quilt and a top to show you.  The top celebrates the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month, red.

 In 2018, quilt historian and pattern researcher Barbara Brackman hosted a block of the month on her Civil War Quilts blog.  (Click HERE for the first post.  All the patterns are still online, for free.)  It was called Antebellum Album, and celebrated the friendships among Northern and Southern women and girls before the Civil War.

Each month Ms. Brackman wrote an interesting post about a real person, and provided us with a pattern for a 12 in. block.  The blocks had suggestions for inked inscriptions.

I am TERRIBLE at inked inscriptions, but I tried.  The one above says May the Circle Be Unbroken.

When I got the blocks done, I had to figure out how to set them.  Ms. Brackman's suggested set made a square quilt, but I wanted mine to be rectangular.  Eventually, I made 3 more blocks, and alternated them with the suggested pieced blocks.  

There were a couple of blocks I had trouble with, so I just substituted a different one.  (It's perfectly legal to do that, BTW).  I chose traditional red and green for my color scheme, but many of the other quilters used more modern fabrics, and they were great.

This is another one I'm going to have quilted by someone much more talented than me.

 

And on the other hand, I finished the little Pennants baby quilt.  I'm calling it Pennants, but I didn't have a pattern for it.

Here's the basic recipe if you'd like to make one.

First, get some 4.5 in. strips of colorful fabrics, and a few light strips in the same size.  Everything in this quilt is cut from 4.5 in. strips.

Next, get a triangle ruler that will help you cut 60 degree triangles.  I made 8 rows of triangles, alternating bright and light.  You need 5 light triangles and 4 bright triangles per row, plus 2 bright half triangles.  I mostly just used full triangles for the half triangles, and squared them off after they were sewn.

I added 4.5 in strips of light as the first border, cut from a print I've had for a while.

Isn't this fabric cute?  I got some pieces of it second hand.

This is the selvedge:  Tiny Town by Max & Nobie for Moda.

The outer border is made of forty 4.5 in. squares (4 in. finished).  Snoopy surfing is my favorite.

Here's the back, a Windham fabric, Colors and Count (I think), and the binding is orange.  I am really crushing on orange right now. 

Look who turns 6 months old today!  It's our Baby Buddy!

 

This week has been one of the crazier ones lately.  The kids get here earlier, since Big Buddy has to log into his virtual school before 7:30 every other day and Baby Buddy has to get dropped off before their Mama takes Little Buddy to preschool, where I pick him up at 11:00.  It is much harder for their Mama, getting 3 kids off to 2 or 3 destinations, all of them with whatever they need, plus getting herself off to work.  I'm sure we'll all get used to it, but it may take some time.

 

This is a weird year, and all we can really do is roll with it.  Sewing helps.  It really does.

 

Happy Labor Day weekend, Americans!  Stay safe.

 

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches 

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Cynthia at Oh Scrap