Sunday, June 26, 2022

Positivity 2022 Progress #1

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

 Today we're showing our progress on the Positivity 2022 Quilt Along.  The goal was to have 40 blocks made by today.

Good news!  I made it!  Miracles do happen.  With everything going on this summer with the grandkids, I wasn't sure I'd get these done, but the blocks are so easy and fun to sew (thanks, Preeti!) and that made this much progress possible.

I'm making mine with scraps and strips scoured from bins and boxes all over the house.

Here are a few hints that have helped me, for what it's worth.

1.  You can get all the pieces you need from a 5 in. strip if it has at least 19 in. of usable fabric.  Cut one 5 in. square, 2 rectangles 2.5 x 5, and one large rectangle 5 x 9.  Slice the large rectangle LENGTHWISE to get the last 2 rectangles, which will measure 2.5 x 9 each.

2.  When making the first part (the "Happy Blocks"), press all the seams out from the center.  Everybody else probably knows this, for some reason I was trying to press towards the dark.  (Sound of hand hitting forehead).

3.  I was having trouble sewing the longer rectangles on, and having everything lined up.  Throwing a pin in at the end really helped.  This is probably just another "me" problem, but it really made a difference.

Again, thanks so much to Preeti for designing and leading this Quilt Along, and to Bernie for hosting the Link ups.

We need all the positivity we can get!

Linking up with Bernie at Needle and Foot



Saturday, June 25, 2022

Centennial Prints, and Last Week for Dark Blue

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Red, white and blue are on my mind this week, partly because July 4th is coming up soon, and also because dark blue is our color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

As usual, I am sharing an antique quilt or two with you for the last Saturday of the month.  

These quilt tops both contain special fabrics printed to celebrate the 100th birthday of the United States of America. 

First is a simple nine patch, on point with alternate blocks.  I bought it in an antique store many years ago, more or less as a fabric study.

There are some nice madder reds here (madder being a plant dye that can make a variety of colors like brownish red, warm browns, orange, and even purple), and in the center of this block is an example of a Prussian blue print.  This color was popular in the 1840s and 1850s, and often appears as an ombre print.  These are some of the things that drew me to this top.

Above is a closeup of the alternate fabric between the blocks.  Several years ago, when I was considering becoming a quilt appraiser, I took this quilt top with me to an appraisal class at Paducah.  The teacher recognized this fabric as being a centennial print, meaning it was printed and sold to celebrate our country's birthday in 1876.  I had absolutely no idea.  I had focused only on the blocks and ignored the setting fabric.

The fabrics in the blocks, however, are much older, dating to the 1830s and 1840s.  Quite probably the old blocks were put together into a top with the Centennial fabric sometime after 1876.  (Maybe by a daughter or granddaughter?)  All the sewing is by hand.  As usual, I wonder why it was never quilted.  I won't be quilting it myself, of course, since it is so old and somewhat fragile.

Having this quilt top made me look into centennial prints.  I was surprised to find out how many there were, in lots of different patterns.  Click HERE for a short article by Barbara Brackman on the subject. 

When I found this next top wadded up in a box in an antique mall, I already loved it for all the wonderful brown fabrics cut in tiny squares.

But then I saw this!  I could hardly breathe!  (Sorry, old fabric does this to me, I can't help it.)

This particular Centennial fabric has a banner with the word Centennial, a star, and a red liberty cap.  The liberty cap was a tradition during the American Revolution that has since died out and frankly seems kind of odd to us now, but it found its place on many of these fabrics.

I've looked and looked, but only ever found about 10 pieces of this fabric in the quilt.  But the rest of the fabrics are great, too--lots of madder reds, great light prints, even a small amount of yellow and green.  So much fun for a fabric nut like me.

The pattern is a little unusual.  The pieced sections appear to be elongated hexagons made up of squares, with triangles on the long sides.  They are set together with squares on point.  If the squares in the elongated hexagons were half square triangles, I'd call this an Ocean Wave.

This was the closest pattern to it that I could find in Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.  My quilt is obviously a more complicated variation.  Or a different pattern altogether.  If you know of a better fit, please tell me.

I haven't done the math (well, of course not!  I run screaming from math!) but there must be hundreds and hundreds of these tiny squares, shown here with a bobbin for comparison.  All stitches in the quilt top are by hand, no machine stitching even to attach the border.  

At some point, the top was a tied comforter.  After I bought it, I kept finding small pieces of black wool yarn that had been used to tie the top to a batting and backing.  This also explains the wear on it, as the comforter must have been used.

Because of the Centennial print and all the other browns, etc., I am sure this top was pieced prior to 1900.

I was inspired by the old tops to get out my reproduction Centennial prints. 

Many of them are very faithful to the originals.

I kept noticing the word "Peace" on these prints.

Then I remembered the time period.  Our Civil War ended only 11 years before the Centennial.  All adults living then would definitely remember the war, and all the suffering it brought.

It probably helped to think back to the country's founding and shared heritage, including George Washington.

In other news,my prizes for Hands 2 Help participation arrived!

My buddy and I liked the colorful chicken charm squares best.  Thanks, Mari and sponsors!

I finished my dark blue crayon.  Lots of crazy novelty prints as usual, like kites and apples and dog bones and sail boats.  Oh, and dinosaurs.  Always dinosaurs.

This is nearly all the sewing I got done this week, except for some Positivity 2022 blocks, which I will show tomorrow.  Summer is such a busy time of year.

What if you could play in soapy water outside, with lots of bathtub toys, but not in the bathtub?  The little guys had fun with this on a hot day.

Let's all have fun this week, whatever the weather!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy














 




Saturday, June 18, 2022

Stash Enhancement Experience, Rummage Sale Style

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

First things first--a little progress on one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts.  I got the dark blue Razzle Dazzle row sewn last weekend.  And that was just about all the sewing I managed to do this crazy week.

Lots of old familiar prints are here!  The dinosaurs are in just about every quilt I've made in the last two years.

There's a little more variety in the light prints, thanks to the basket of fabulous scraps the ladies at the quilt group gave me.

Are you wondering what was behind the Razzle Dazzle row on the kitchen table?

This is just about HALF of the fabric I piled into my cart at the annual rummage sale put on by the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts.  I separated them out by color after I got home on Thursday.

Here's the other half.  I got lots of larger pieces for borders, some stuff for backing, and mostly brights for piecing, with some reproduction 1930s and 1880s thrown in, and even a few flannel scraps.  Woo hoo!  I'm busy running it all through the washer and dryer this morning.

I also bought this box for $2.  They call these "mystery boxes" because you can't look inside before you buy it.  Kind of like a grab bag.  The boxes are full of fabric.  I chose this one that says Mixed Prints on it.  

The ladies working at the sale were really trying to get us to buy these boxes.  I love the museum, and I haven't been able to volunteer in recent years, so I wanted to help out.  And I figured if I got ANYTHING useful out of it, I'd be coming out ahead.  

So what was in the box?  I'll show this in 3 parts.

First, some floral prints and stripes in quilting cotton.  Even though these are older fabrics, they will still be good for charity quilts.  Each piece was at least a yard long.  This batch total was just over 24 yards.

Next, Christmas prints!  Over 15 yards, plus scraps.  Most are good quality cottons also.  And Christmas never goes out of style, does it?

Lastly, here's this stack of heavier weight fabrics and others that are not really suitable for quilting.  The white thing is a polyester mesh tree skirt.  I kept the red and green denim pieces for possibly making more grocery bags, and put the rest in the Going to Goodwill box.  This batch was 14 yards all together.

All told, the mystery box held over 54 yards of fabric!  Not bad for $2, even if I do have to take some to Goodwill.  It does mean I'm going to be doing even more fabric washing this weekend, though.

In other news, we had some company on Friday!

Our oldest daughter and her kids, Miss E and Mr. H were here!  Our daughter brought a slip and slide and another sprinkler kind of thing, and we all spent the day outside.  First Grade Buddy and Miss E played together happily.

Mr. H was very kind to our Little Guy, who was kind of scared of all the water fun.

[Big Buddy, our high school grandson, declined to be photographed.] 

After such a great day, is it any wonder I fell asleep on the couch after supper? 

Have a wonderful week!  I hope you have time to do all the things you love to do.

Thanks for reading!

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Let's go to the linky parties, and see all the great eye candy!

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap


 













Saturday, June 11, 2022

Sailboats, Dinosaurs, and Flea Market Finds

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Now that Hands 2 Help is done for another year, I'm getting back to other projects.

Here's what I started with, a little quilt top.  It was made by Mary G., a nice lady who worked in a local post office.  When she passed away, her heirs contacted our quilt group and donated lots of fabric and unfinished objects.  This was one of those UFOs.

The top originally was long and narrow.  I had a border fabric in mind, but didn't have enough of it for a larger quilt.  So I took off one row of sailboats.

Don't worry, I didn't toss them!  I put them on the back, along with a sailboat print.

There was just enough of the wavy blue fabric to go on the border.  The binding is a solid navy blue scrap.  Can you see the ocean creatures and plants in the black print?  Mary G. had a good idea there.  And she even staggered the blocks, like I've been doing lately.  I'm sorry I didn't get to know her.

For quilting, I chose these curvy lines, like the wind blowing the sails or the waves in the water.  I used a stencil and a purple disappearing marker, which washed right out.  

So, lots of dark blue in this little quilt for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  I also got my 16 patch blocks done in dark blue.

I think this print looks like gumballs.

This one is like a rainbow brick wall.

Here's some Thomas the Tank Engine print.

And numbers.  Why is it if I only have a little scrap of something it becomes my favorite?

In other news, dinosaurs!

Dino skeletons invade the library lobby!  My little guys wore their dino shirts, and posed with their dino pals.  My Little Buddy made sure to tell me this tall one was a baryonyx.  He's going to be a first grader in the fall, so he knows these things.  Our Little Guy liked the dinosaurs, but really loved getting more train books.  We're all signed up for summer reading.

Hubby and I went to a flea market on Memorial Day weekend, and I got this little group of fabrics, all good prices.  There are 3 yards of the dog fabric, I just have to think of something good to do with it.  (Any ideas?) We also got some toys for the kids and more track for the toy trains.

I just couldn't resist stopping to look at this pretty treadle.  It's a Singer 66, with the decals collectors call Red Eye.  A very useful treadle, by the way, since it takes modern needles and you can still find bobbins for it sometimes in the chain fabric stores.  

This tag on the machine cabinet caught my eye.  The M.P.S. is probably Milwaukee Public Schools.  The machine dates to 1920.  I'm guessing it was used to teach sewing, either to high school students or adults in the Extension Dept.  Not much wear on the decals!  As electricity was coming in, treadles were going out of favor, so it may not have gotten much use.  Wonder where it's been all this time.   While looking at it, I met another sewing machine enthusiast who also uses her treadle.

And that's what I'm going to do today, use my treadle to stitch up some more blocks and tops.  Right after I get back from the Farmers Market.  And there will definitely be some time to read quilt blogs!  I am so grateful to the bloggers and to the gracious ladies who provide the link ups. Many thanks!

And thanks to you for reading this!

Sincerely,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap