Old and New

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

For many years, I actively collected antique quilts.  My favorites were scrap quilts (of course!) and tops or block sets.  I didn't mind if they weren't perfectly made or in perfect condition.  I learned so much from studying those old quilts.  I love to share them, in person, on the blog, and as home decoration.  This year, I plan to show you a few on the last Saturday of the month.

This month's quilts are small and red.  Check out the date on this square--January 29, 1916!  Exactly one hundred and six years ago today, someone embroidered this.  It's amazing to think how much has changed since then, and how much remains the same.

This one is not exactly an antique.  I bought these old redwork blocks for 50 cents each at a flea market many years ago, and in 2019 I finished them into a small hand-quilted quilt.  (You can read about it HERE, in February 2019's posts.)  It makes me happy to see all the farm animals, plus the jack-o-lantern, a witch on a broomstick, and a cat playing a fiddle.  If you click on the picture, you can see them a little better.

The second antique is a doll-sized tied quilt.  It's a little wonky, as doll quilts frequently are.  Many of them were the first quilting efforts made by a child.  From the fabrics, this quilt probably dates to the 1890s.

Do you see the horseshoe print?  There's also a riding crop (a whip) with it.  Mothers often dressed their little ones in these "conversation prints", as they were known.  I found this treasure in an antique mall in Oklahoma, when I was visiting my mom.  It's a reminder of a nice day together.

In other news, I just had to add one more red project for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Crayons!  I've wanted to make a crayon quilt for a long time.  I didn't need a pattern, just sewed 18 rectangles (2.5 in. x 4.5 in.) into a strip. I added a 4 in. finished point at the top made with the Tri Recs tools, the same way I  made ice cream cone blocks.  All the rectangles are different red prints.  Easy and fun.  Can't wait to make crayons in the rest of the colors!

The red string quilt is layered and basted, and getting quilted.  It takes a little longer than a baby quilt of course.  I'm working on this while I wait for the backing I ordered for my cross stitch quilt (you know, the one I've been working on since 1967!  It's not getting set aside ever again!).

This one is done.  Someone in my wonderful quilt group made the six center blocks and added the tan sashing.  I sewed on the two outer borders, and quilted and bound it.  

The back is this cozy black and green flannel.  It's not very big, less than twin sized, but it might work for a cot at the homeless shelter.  I will leave it to the charity committee at my group to decide where it ends up.

Speaking of our amazing quilt group, look at this!  Because I was the moderator for about half of last year (meaning I led the meetings), they gave me this wonderful gift--a handmade basket full of fabric!

Since they know how much I love making quilts for babies and children, they packed the basket full of fun novelty prints and even yardage for backing!  It was so kind of the ladies to do this.  I appreciate it very much.

I've started cutting up some of the pieces.  Fussy cutting these little squares is so much fun.

Here's some big fun--our little buddies working puzzles on a cold winter's day.  Baby Buddy has magnetic dinosaurs, and Little Buddy is putting together a U.S. map.  They work well together when they have separate projects!

I hope your projects are all coming together nicely, whether you work alone or in a group, or both!  Have a great week.

I'm looking forward to sitting down with a cup of tea and seeing what all the bloggers have been up to, thanks to the hostesses of these weekly linky parties.  Come join us!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

Small Finishes and Red Starts

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Our monster friend is sitting on top of my last 3 Rainbow Scrap Challenge baby quilts from 2021.

All year long, I made bright colored blocks, dozens every month, not really planning the quilts I would make, just using up the scraps.

It was so much fun!  But kind of crazy.  Starting in October, I put the blocks together into 20 baby quilts.  This is the second of two log cabin quilts.

This is the second ice cream cone quilt.

I'm pretending the blocks between the ice cream cones are stacks of fancy decorated cake slices.  I can picture this quilt as a poster on the wall of a bakery/ice cream shop.  In reality, it will go to a child in need through Project Linus.

The last quilt is yet another Friendship Star.  At the beginning of last year, I had a stack of 2.5 in. hsts.  They are finally used up!

The in-between blocks were cut from a Sesame Street fabric I got in an antique mall.  Sesame Street holds a special place in my heart.  My kids watched it growing up, and now Baby Buddy and I watch it every day.   I go around singing the songs, and even making some of the recipes Cookie Monster and his friend Gonger make in their food truck.  There are so many other kid shows to watch now, but most of them are frankly terrible, filled with product placement and good guys vs. bad guys themes, plus tons of commercials.  Sesame Street teaches good values.  And it's even funny sometimes.

So that's all 20 of the 2021 RSC baby quilts!  For a while there, I felt like a one-woman baby quilt factory.  It was an experiment, to make lots of blocks and then put them together at the end of the year, and I enjoyed the whole journey.  I'm going to drop off the last of the quilts today for Project Linus.

This year's RSC quilts will be a little more focused and a little less frantic.
 

Is there a baby quilt in this box?  Let's find out.  What can I make with 3.5 in. squares and corresponding triangles?

How about Split Ninepatch?  I had just enough red for four blocks.  All the light triangles and squares came from the box too, but I know I'll run out of them pretty soon.  So it will be like Stone Soup.  I'll use as much as I can from the box, and add in as needed.

I can't decide which block I like best, the one with the Grinch or the Read one.

Here's what I decided to do with my multicolored 2.5 in. strips--I'm pairing them with solid colors.  Whenever I make 16 patch blocks, I use the excellent tutorial by Cynthia of Quilting is More Fun Than Housework (click HERE).  It's part of her amazing (and free!) Scrap-a-palooza series, and it makes these blocks quickly and efficiently from strips.  (Thanks, Cynthia!)

But I forgot how many of my novelty fabrics are one-way designs that can look a little weird upside down.  I decided to leave this one as is,

and I modified the method slightly so these adorable children would all be right side up.

Speaking of adorable children, 

this little guy helped me make cookies yesterday.  He kept wanting to eat the batter, of course.

We're living the sweet life around here.

I hope your week ahead is filled with hugs and stitches.  Quilt stitches, of course!

I'm linking up with the following link parties.  Can't wait to see what everybody is making!

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

It's About Time

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It's red month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I have a top finished.  I've been working on it for 54 years!  Well, sort of.  It's a long story.  You might want to grab a beverage.

In 1967, my family would soon be moving to a neat old house.  My mom bought this kit, to make an embroidered quilt for my bed.  That fall, the women and girls in our household (my mother, my grandmother, my sister Steph, and I) started embroidering the blocks in the evenings.  This was the first time Steph and I had done embroidery, and it was kind of fun.  Each red stitch was supposed to cover an x printed on the cotton fabric.  When we got those done, we could do the lazy daisy stitches in green.

 After we moved, we were busy with new schools (Steph and brother Bryan to elementary, me to Junior High) and Mom and Dad were working full time as well as painting and scraping wall paper, etc.  The quilt project got set aside.

When I was in college many years later, I started doing needlework kits from Woolworths.  Mom and I got to talking about the quilt kit, and she gladly gave it to me.  Some pieces were missing, but I figured I could think of a way to fix it.

 From then on, the quilt was on my radar, but it kept getting set aside.  I got married, and had three children.  I got interested in pieced quilts (okay, obsessed) and loved making them by machine.  I often brought the old embroidery blocks with me on vacations (because everyone needs handwork on vacation!) and both my daughters learned to embroider the same way my sister and I had.  On one trip, Steph's step-daughter also put her first embroidery stitches in a block.

Eventually, the blocks I had were finished.  But there were not enough of them to even make a twin bed quilt.  I couldn't figure out how to set them that would use them all, and I refused to leave any blocks out.  Then one day, while looking for something else, I found the same kit offered on Ebay.  It was for a double bed, and had never been opened.  I was over the moon when I had the winning bid.

 Now I had everything I needed.  When the white blocks were done, I started on the red ones, which only have a few lazy daisy stitches.  Then I came to the borders.  I had two of the original borders, which I believe were done by my grandmother.  The borders from the "new" kit were longer of course, since they were for a double bed, so I had to cut them to make them fit.  I used four of the extra red blocks in the corners.  Just last week, I did the last of the embroidery and sewed on the last border.  It's not the same as the original layout, but I think it will do.

 I'm sure you can see the imperfections.  There is a large rust stain from a metal embroidery hoop, and a few other stains and marks that may or may not wash out.  Some of the blocks are done without separating the floss properly, which makes them appear darker.  There are lots of crooked stitches, made by little girls just learning to work a needle.  I love all of it.

After more than 50 years, this kit is finally a quilt top.  What's next?  Hand quilting, of course.  I can't wait.  It's about time.

Here's a reward for reading this long story.

My daughter sent this picture of my little buddies playing dress up.  They make me laugh every day.

I hope you can have a good laugh today about something silly.  Stay safe, and have a wonderful week.

Cheers for reading this,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy 

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Razzle Dazzle Red

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  I hope your new year is starting out great.

Mickey Mouse says welcome to my new Rainbow Scrap Challenge project.  Red is the perfect color for January here in the frozen north.   Outside, the world is cold and snow-covered, but inside it's warm and bright.

As of last week, I still didn't have any firm plans for this year's RSC quilts.  While cleaning the sewing room (yes, I did it!), I came across this Razzle Dazzle pattern.  It's from the November 1997 issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, and was made by Willa Dean Reynolds.  It's based on a traditional pattern called Thousand Pyramids, and all the pieces are equilateral triangles.

My quilt will be much simpler than Ms. Reynold's.  I cut the triangles from 3.5 in. strips, and sew 4 of them together to make a triangular block.  I put the ruler on it like this (with the tip of the ruler above the strip) so I have a blunt tip on one point.  This helps me know where the straight of grain is.

It actually worked!  I was so excited about making these that I forgot to take pictures of the red ones before they were sewn together...

 Like this!  I made 12 red blocks and 12 light blocks, set them together in two rows, and sliced the ends off evenly, leaving a seam allowance.  It's about 38 in. wide.  My plan is to make two baby quilts.  Each will have four of these double rows in different RSC colors.  At least, that's what I'm thinking right now.

Maybe this will make a dent in the 3.5 in. strips?  And I can use lots of novelty prints.

In other red news, I finished this string top.

The string blocks came from our guild's silent auction, and were originally made by the wonderful Laverne D.  I cut them into rectangles and added the red.  (Click HERE for my post about these blocks.)  I sewed them into groups of 4, and then into the top.  The border used the few remaining string segments plus new ones I made from my vast collection of older fabric scraps.

The fabrics in the blocks were mostly older prints from the 90s, with newer ones thrown in.  (The sock monkey print is one of my favorites.)  In keeping with the make-do spirit there are 3 different red solids.  I think I might have enough of one of them for the binding. 

My favorite block in the quilt is the one with Lady Liberty.  This is the only piece of this print in the whole quilt.  There she is, lifting her lamp, reminding us what American values are and should be.

I think some simple quilting is in order.  But there are several other quilts in line first.

More red!  A little embroidery to finish, and then I'll have another red top done.  That's a story for next week.

Our Baby Buddy loves toy trains!  This week, Grandpa set up a nice long track, for hours of fun.  That's Bella the dog in the background, curled up in her bed.  She's not a train fan at all.  She keeps walking on the track and messing everything up.

Have a good week, everyone, and stay safe.

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Follow the Rainbow

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Happy New Year, everyone!  Can you believe it's 2022 already?

Like I always say, I love the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I got carried away this year making blocks from my kid-friendly scraps, but it's all for a good cause.  These small quilts will go to Project Linus to comfort children in tough situations.  It's a lot of work, but I regret nothing.

(Oops, too much sunlight!  That is usually not the problem around here, sorry!)  I made two baby quilt tops from the log cabin RSC blocks, and got this one quilted yesterday.

The blocks were made from 2 in. cut strips.  I used up most of these strips.  (That's the idea, right? Then why does it make me a little sad?)

I tried something different with the quilting on this one.  Using a stencil (remember those?) I drew lines on the front with a purple disappearing quilt marker and quilted right over the blocks.  As soon as I finished the quilting, I washed the quilt in cold water, and all the purple came out.
 

On the back is a cute carrot print I got at our guild's recent silent auction.  With these quilting lines, I can imagine a carrot field after the tractor went through.  I bound it with orange, of course.

Today I'm quilting the other log cabin.  This is a more pastel rainbow.  Carrots on the back here, too.

After these two are done, there are only two more, and they are layered and basted, ready to quilt.  That will make 20 baby quilts from Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.

So what are we going to sew for the RSC this year?

I have a lot of 3.5 in. squares, triangles, and strips in bright colors and novelty prints.  Not sure what I'll do yet, but these need a quilty home.

The RSC has helped me make lots of progress with most of my scraps, but these multi-color ones keep piling up.  I need to think of a project for them.

And back before Christmas, I bought some new Accuquilt dies.  I can't wait to try them out!

I don't do New Year's Resolutions, but I make an annual More or Less list for my quilting, which is kind of similar.  On it go 3 things I want to do More of, and 3 things I hope to do Less of.

More in 2022:

Cleaning the sewing room.  It's so easy to just sew when I have time off, but stuff piles up and the amount of thread on the floor is ridiculous.

Quilt As You Go.  Big quilts are often intimidating to quilt on my domestic machine, but QAYG works fine.  And I actually like doing it!

Organizing the stuff in the basement.  I tend to just pile stuff up there, too.  It's a horror show.  No pictures.

Less in 2022:

Buying fabric.  I know, everybody has this one on their list!  I have an insane amount of fabric.  I need to buy fabric for specific projects, not just because it's fun.  Exception:  second hand fabric.

Starting new projects just because I ran out of leaders and enders.  Have you ever heard of a sillier excuse for starting a new project?  I have lots of old projects that could get closer to being done if I used them for leaders and enders.

Watching TV without a handwork project. I actually like handwork, but you couldn't tell it by the quilts I finish.  This rule is suspended for suspenseful shows, but fully in force for baking shows and news.

So, Happy New Year!  It is a joy to look ahead and think about our hopes for this year, even given how difficult the last couple of years have been.  In the days and weeks ahead, we can look for ways to make things better for all of us.

Many, many thanks to Angela for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (a bright spot every week!) and to all the quilters and bloggers that make this corner of the internet such a friendly place to be.

Happy Holidays from our little Santa and his elf!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap