Last Yellow Blocks, Museum Stuff, and the One Dollar Quilts

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

 The last Saturday of August is here already.  Summer fun has been taking up more of my time, but at least the yellow blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge are done.  Above are the 16 patch blocks.

This one is my favorite!  

I figured out why I started making 5 every month.  If I make 5 of 8 colors (leaving out pink, I made a whole baby quilt of the pink ones), I'll have 40 blocks at the end of the year.  That could make 2 baby quilts of 20 blocks each, or I could just make 2 more blocks and have 42 for a bigger quilt. 

I'm making 12 each of these Uneven Nine Patch/Puss in the Corner blocks each month.  I have absolutely no idea how many quilts or what size I'll be making.  Just winging it!

The big annual sale at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts was a great place to find cool scraps.  I got several small pieces of Dr. Seuss character prints.  I've always loved Dr. Seuss.  His wacky stories have delighted readers for generations.

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish!

This was the last week of summer vacation for our youngest grandkids.  Buddy earned a free Milwaukee Public Museum admission through the library's summer reading program, so we took both boys and went there on Wednesday.  They're posing here in front of a pretend street car.  We all had a great day.

My husband and I love going to museums, especially when on vacation in far away places.  While walking through the Pitt River Museum in Oxford, I spotted this bit of patchwork in one of the cases.  It's a pieced Parcheesi board, hand made from cotton fabric, that folds up for storage.  This museum does cases by theme, this one is games of the world.

I enjoy seeing and learning about all sorts of things in a museum, but "quilty" objects always catch my eye.  This is a female mummy in the Ashmolean Museum (also in Oxford) with traditional cloth wrappings that might look to us like log cabin patchwork.  The portrait of her face is original and was painted on linen.  It has been painstakingly restored.  (Click HERE for more information.)

What would you think if you saw this price tag on a quilt?  Would you grab it, pay, and run home?  That's what my eldest daughter did when she found not one but TWO quilts priced $1.00 each at a rummage sale.  And then she gave them to me!

Here's the first one.  Barbara Brackman identifies this pattern as Baby Bunting, and it was available from the Ladies Art Company from the 1890s through 1926.  I estimate the quilt to be from this period as well, judging from the fabrics.

It's hand pieced and hand quilted.  Can you imagine cutting out all those tiny little triangles?  It must have been a labor of love.  I believe the triangles were once a brighter red that has faded (very common for turn of the century non-Turkey red).  I'm a little confused about the tannish brown, which is not a usual color for the time period.  Has it also faded, possibly from green?

But, the quilting thread is brown.  The only damage besides the fading is the narrow binding, which is also brown.  Maybe it was red and brown all along?  Hm, it's a mystery.  

Less mysterious is this sweet old Double Nine Patch from the 1930s.  The nine patches are set with yellow, which makes it on theme for the RSC today, and the alternate blocks are a lovely lavender.

The blocks are about 8 in. square, or less, and the tiny squares are an inch or under.  The fabrics are scraps typical of the time period.  It's hand pieced, except for the borders which were added by machine, and is hand quilted.

The quilting has helped to keep the quilt together despite heavy use.  There is lots of fading and damage to the fabrics, especially in the lavender alternate squares and the border.  It has been rebound in recent years.

Neither of these quilts are museum pieces, but I think they're worth more than a dollar!  Many thanks to my thoughtful sharp-eyed daughter.

Lastly, here's something I've been working on instead of quilting!  Hubby and I really like jigsaw puzzles.  We leave them out on the kitchen table and add pieces as we walk by or after the kids go home.  I bought this one in an Oxford bookstore, it came in the cloth pouch to the right.  Only 500 pieces, but it was tough with all those colors, and it was possible to fit pieces in the wrong place!  When it was done we felt a real sense of accomplishment.

I hope you feel that way this week, even about something as silly as a puzzle!  Happy quilting!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

1930s Irish Chain and Boston Commons: Hubby for the Win

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  It's the last Saturday of the month, so time for a show and share of some antique quilts from my collection.

Some background information:  My husband and I don't like all the same things.  I love quilts and fabric and yarn, and he reads math books for fun.  (Seriously, he really does.  Can you imagine?)

We both like going to flea markets and antique malls, and along the way I have shamelessly bent his ear about antique quilts.  I didn't really think he was listening (I mean, am I listening when he talks math?), but apparently he was.

One day several years ago when I was busy, he went to an estate sale, and came back with this Irish Chain quilt.  He seemed a little worried about it, that maybe it wasn't something I'd want, but I soon cleared up that confusion!  It's a lovely 1930s quilt, hand quilted, in perfect shape.  It looks as though it's never been used.

He didn't get the maker's name, unfortunately, but we know the quilt was made right here in the town we live in.  There are only 4 fabrics in the quilt:  the print on the front, the print on the back, and two slightly different blue solids for the piecing and the binding.

I was a little bit afraid to ask how much it cost, but inquiring minds want to know, so I did.  He paid $25.00!!!  I might have cracked the house foundation jumping up and down.

With that success under his belt, he next came home with this Boston Commons quilt.  (It's even got purple, for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month!)

In this photo, you can see how the corners were done.  Also, there are solid purple squares and solid green squares surrounding the random scrap squares, with white as a background.  The edge is sort of a try at a scalloped border.

The white squares, all eleventy-million of them, were cut and sewn individually.

The back is white also, and the quilt has been machine quilted.  It has a very thin batting, maybe even a flannel sheet, which was common in the 1930s.  The condition is good, but not perfect.  There are a couple of places where seams have popped or raveled out.

This time, hubby knew he'd done well.  He got it for the low low price of $40.00.  

Both of these quilts are in this book:  Warman's Vintage Quilts, Identification and Price Guide, by Maggi McCormick Gordon.  I knew Maggi through the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts.  She came out one day and went had a lovely time going through my quilts and tops.  Many of the quilts in the book came from Wisconsin collectors.

My Boston Commons quilt even made the back cover!

So many thanks to my dear hubby for finding these lovely ladies of the past.

I've often thought I'd like to make a Boston Commons quilt, but I'm not sure how difficult it would be.

I bought this classic book back when I was fairly new to quilting.  It's The Boston Commons Quilt, by Blanche and Helen Young, copyright 1983.  The cardboard templates kind of scared me off.  I kept the book anyway, hoping I'd figure it out someday.

Recently I saw a fun quilt in this book, Easy Layer-Cake Quilts 2, by Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobson of Me and My Sister Designs.

It's called Around the Block, and isn't exactly a Boston Commons, but it's similar, and made with scraps, which I love.  I might have to adjust it a little to get the look I want.

Here's the piecing diagram from the book.  Maybe it wouldn't be too complicated if I took it a row at a time?

With July coming quickly to an end, I had to get this purple crayon made to go with the other RSC blocks. 

There are so many different shades of purple!  These crayons have yummy names like Grape and Wild Berry.

In other news, we went camping in the Wisconsin Dells last weekend.  Whenever I go camping, it rains, and this was no exception.  We had a huge thunderstorm, but we were safe and dry in our cabins.  This is my favorite way to camp, no more tents for me!

All of our kids and grandkids were able to come, and we had such a good time.  This is only part of the family contingent.  The guy in the middle with the red shirt is my hubby, formerly Quilt Buyer Extraordinaire.  He's retired from that job now that I've stopped actively collecting, and is resting on his laurels.

If you go to the Dells, you are almost required to take a ride on a Duck boat, an amphibious vehicle that dates to World War II.  This is the view of the Wisconsin river, just before our driver drove us right into it.  We made a big splash, and the kids loved it.

How was your week?  I hope you had time for fun, family, and quilting.

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Just a note--I know I'm going to be too busy this coming week to get a blog written by the weekend.  So I'll be back on the blog Aug. 12-13.  In the meantime, Happy Quilting!

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy 

 

 

Priorities

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Little Buddy helped us decorate for Halloween this week.  He would like us to have more dramatic displays, like the blow up clowns and pumpkins at his house, but we are much more laid back than that.  Decorations have just never been a big priority.

 

I finally get to display this little one block wonder that I made back in February, during the Rainbow Scrap Challenge orange month.  It started as a mistake, a block that just didn't work in a Block of the Month quilt.  So it got its own tiny quilt instead.

Pumpkins and black cats!

Oops!  Somebody forgot to feed this guy!

How are you doing on your RSC projects?  I can't wait to see all the link ups today.  Above are my last 3 blocks for the Text Me A Quilt project. 

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge has helped me use all colors of scraps, and I love that.  But what about all those strange scraps that don't really have a definite color?  It's really hard to know what to do with some of these fabrics, even though I really like them.

So I added a few of these multicolored weirdos into the Text Me A Quilt blocks.  It's already a bright quilt, so I think it will work out.  No scraps left behind!

I think I'm getting into the swing of full time babysitting the grandkids again.  It doesn't leave me a lot of time for sewing, but that's okay.  I have all the baby cuddles I could want, Little Buddy sings me songs (his current favorite is Roger Miller's King of the Road), and my high school Buddy actually talks to me about stuff sometimes.

My goal for this week was to put the double nine patch quilt top together.  I got it finished just this morning.  This is the one I've been making from a vintage UFO I bought at a flea market and took apart.  Last week's yellow blocks were the final ones, and I had decided on this set when I first started working on it.

My poor dog is feeling neglected.  She would not leave me alone when I was laying out the top on the floor.  (Sorry, Bella!  I will make some time just for you this weekend!)

It's a good sized quilt, 78 in. x 93 in., shown here on a queen sized bed.

All the fabrics I used in it are vintage, including the white squares, the cornerstones, and the green sashing and border.  I chose the green to give it a 1930s feel, since many of the fabrics in the blocks were from that era.  Green was so widely used in the 30s that it almost seems like a neutral. The border is narrower than I would have liked, but I didn't have enough of the green to go wider.

I could add another border, maybe a print, but it's already pretty big.  I'm planning some simple grid quilting, and already have a backing I think will work.

The quilting will have to wait a bit, until I get this job done.  I went to the local orchard on Thursday, and brought home Ida Red apples for sauce, Cortlands for pie/crisp slices, and Honey Crisps for eating.  All of those were seconds, which is like the clearance rack for apples.  It just means they have an irregular or small shape, or maybe a blemish, which doesn't matter at all.  The pears were regular price, and since they're nice and firm I'll can them last.

If you do any canning, you'll know how hard it is to get jar lids this year, and how expensive they've become if you manage to find them.  I'm prioritizing this good fruit from the orchard with my time and supplies.

This difficult year has made a lot of us adjust our priorities, and has shown us what is really important.  Many things we took for granted are cancelled or unsafe.   The list of activities I miss just gets longer all the time.  But, I truly believe it will not be this way forever.  We can handle hardships.  Our long-ago ancestors' daily lives had far more hardship than most of us have ever seen.

Hang in there.  We're going to get through this.  Stay safe, and keep sewing!

Thanks 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

 

 

 

 

Purple Patches, Old and New

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for dropping by!

The demolition phase of remodeling this vintage quilt top is almost done.  Only 9 more blocks to go!  

Here's what it looked like when I bought it at a flea market.  The maker must have run out of the sashing fabric, and just given up.

I'm rescuing the blocks, and making Double Nine Patches with them.  This month, it's purple for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  These old fabrics are lots of fun.  Check out the one in the center of the lower right block, the one with the black background.  Not your usual sweet 1930s print!

Most of the fabrics in this project date to the 1930s and 1940s, but a few (like our friend on the left) are from the 1960s.  How can I tell?  The solid purple fabric in that block is a poly cotton, which didn't come into widespread use until the 1960s.  I am not a fan of poly cotton in my quilts.  It doesn't wear the same as 100% cotton, over time it "pills", and it doesn't shrink the way cotton does.  So this little 9 patch is sitting out.  I replaced it with the 9 patch in the center of this block, which I made with a feed sack print. 

On to the new stuff--more purple!

Isn't it amazing how one quilt just leads to another? 

 

 About a month ago I finished the quilt top above that used 1.5 in. strips of blue and neutral.  (Click HERE to see that post.)  There were scraps left over, of course.  Instead of just putting them away, I started making 4 patches, and then adding in other reproduction fabrics and colors, and before you know it, a new quilt was started.

Here's how much is done now.  I'm using these little 6 in. blocks for leaders and enders, except when I can't help myself and just have to make a few more.  They're as addictive as potato chips, but with way less calories.  I'm using clothespins to hold groups of ten blocks together.  This is my handy hint of the week.  You can see at a glance how many blocks you have finished, plus no more getting stuck by pins.  (Why didn't I ever think of this before?)

 Pretty quickly, I ran out of neutral 1.5 in. strips.  Cutting from yardage seemed like a hassle for such small pieces, and it would mean less variety.  Plus I was pretty sure there were some scraps around here somewhere.

What about these Accuquilt apple core pieces?  They were leftover from a quilt I made years ago.  I'm not planning to make another one, so let's cut them up!

If I cut carefully, I can get 8 squares from each apple core.

Oh, and yeah, I forgot I had this little box of small neutral scraps.

And if there's a small box of neutral scraps, there must be...

a larger box of repro print scraps.  Plus a basket of them.  Or maybe two. 

So now I'm sorting these scraps into colors.  Some of them I'll use for the new little blocks.  But I won't need all of these scraps for that project. What if I made some crumb blocks?  Oops! One thing leads to another again.

I once read a mystery novel, where one of the characters was a quilter.  Over many years, she made quilts from her scrap box.  At the end, the box was empty.  That's how I could tell the author was not a quilter.  Scrap boxes don't get empty!  Seriously?

No photos of the grandsons this week.  Baby Buddy was sick (nothing serious) and needed to be held almost all the time.  Hubby and I tag teamed with the other two kids.  By the end of the week, Baby Buddy was his happy self again.

There is such beauty all around us at this time of year.  I took this photo of wild flowers at the edge of the parking lot at Outpost Natural Foods in Mequon.  Mostly yellow and green, but there is a little purple!

Even in these hard times, there is so much to be grateful for--sunshine, gardens, baby smiles, children's laughter, and, of course, quilts.   I am very grateful to everyone who reads this blog!  Thank you, and have a good week.

Cheers,

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