Two Tops and Three Blocks

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

Hello, fellow quilters!  How was your week?  Mine was a bit crazy.  I'm reorganizing all my quilt stuff and IT'S A LOT!  The top above was in the Quilt Tops in Pieces bin.  Instead of sighing and putting it away (AGAIN) I spent about an hour sewing the final five seams.  Progress!

The pattern is called Beachside Bungalow, and is from the book Scrap Basket Beauties by Kim Brackett.  It's been in the UFO pile for at least 10 years.

Here's the quilt from the book.  I made my background pieces light instead of dark.  Most of the scraps in the quilt came from a bag of batik scraps I bought at a quilt show.

The sewing was easy, but on-point settings sometimes make me feel off-kilter.  I'm so glad I finished the top even if it did take years.  My version is the same size as the one in the book:  57 in. x 68 in. It will be quilted by a volunteer, and donated to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee.

But Wait, There's More!

The pieces for this top were in the same bin as the one above.  This is my Jane Austen quilt.  Back in 2014, quilt historian Barbara Brackman ran a block of the week called Austen Family Album on her blog.  Every week for 39 weeks she featured a 12 in. block to make, and told us more about Ms. Austen's life with family and friends.

I got to use my collection of early 1800s reproduction fabrics to make the blocks.  It was great fun opening the blog on Sunday mornings to read the article and start on the new block.  I wrote about it on Treadlestitches in May of 2014 when I made the first five blocks.  (Click HERE to view that post.)

Good news!  The Austen Family Album posts are still up!  All you have to do is click HERE for the first block post.  To get to the other posts:  Scroll all the way to the bottom of the first post (it's a long post) until you see the Blog Archive list on the left.  Starting with April, click on each month to find the blocks. 

I had originally planned to machine quilt this top myself. (What was I thinking?  Far beyond my talents!)  I was doing a lot of quilt as you go then, and had assembled the blocks in three sections, including the borders.  When I pulled it out of the bin this week I realized it only needed two seams to become a complete top.  So I sat right down in the messy room and sewed them!

While it's bigger than I usually make anymore, it's really just a twin size at 75 in. x 90 in.  One of the wonderful long-arm volunteers will quilt it, and it will be donated locally.

Whew!  Two UFOs off my list!

I am loving all the orange blocks on Angela's blog!  So many people are finding such cute orange prints.

This week my orange blocks are the Dawn Chorus pattern from Pam and Nicky Lintott.  I only make 3 of them, so I'm showing them all.  This one has a Kaffe scrap and some funky happy flowers.

Halloween cat print in this one, plus dog bones.

And lastly, bats, eyeballs, and batik.

In Progress

The center of the little Friendship Star quilt is sewn, but the borders still need to be attached before I can quilt it.  Maybe I'll have more time this week to work on it.

Look, it's Benjamin Franklin!  He's being portrayed here by Buddy.  He and his classmates learned all about someone in history, created a display board will facts and illustrations, and gave a speech to the class.  Yesterday the school gym was set up as a "wax museum", and the students told us about "themselves".  

Adults were welcome to come, so my daughter (Buddy's mom) and I went.  Buddy did a great job.  I also enjoyed learning some new facts about people like Milton Hershey, Amelia Earhart, Rachel Carson, and Isaac Newton.  Although the student portraying Isaac Newton thought perhaps Newton's father died in a car wreck.  In 1642.

Today is a special day for Hubby and me.  Fifty years ago today, on May 15, 1976, we were married.  He is everything I ever wanted in a husband, and we are so lucky to still be here together.  (OMG we are so impossibly young in this photo!)

The weather is beautiful today, sunny and 70s, my favorite.  I hope it's nice where you live, too.  Have a lovely week!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

A Happy New Year

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Happy New Year!

The hardest thing about blogging for me is coming up with titles for my posts!  This week it was easy:  I took the title from this postcard.

One hundred and thirteen years ago, in 1911, my great grandmother sent this New Years card to her mother and father, my great great grandparents.  Here's the text of it:

Dear parents:  Thought I would send you a card telling you the mine buildings partly burned last night.  How is Pearl's foot?  Will and Richard aren't well.  

Bessie

Bessie turned 21 years old on December 28, the day before the card was posted.  She and her husband Will Risley had been married for 2 1/2 years, and their son Richard (my grandfather) was about 18 months old.  Pearl was Bessie's younger sister, 15 years old at the time.

Communication in rural Indiana was so different then than it is now.  It's unlikely that either family had a telephone, so letters and postcards were very important for sharing local news and family concerns.

Bessie was a quilter, and I am lucky enough to have some of her quilts.  I wonder if she sewed to keep her worries over Will and Richard and Pearl in check, or if she even had time with a sick toddler and husband to look after.

We had a lovely Christmas celebration this week, with food and presents and games.  And of course, the obligatory group photo.

Our oldest daughter made us some new picture ornaments for our tree.  The top two are her children, Mr. H and Miss E.  (Mr. H has since decided to cut his hair and looks much older.)  Somehow we didn't have an ornament with Little Guy's photo, so my daughter made one for him too.  Picture ornaments are always my favorites, even if they become tattered.

In spite of all the festivities, I actually finished a quilt!  That's because all I had to do was bind it lol, and I did that completely by machine.

The quilt was a Block of the Month by Barbara Brackman called Antebellum Album, which celebrated signature quilts made in the 1840s and 1850s by school girls, North and South.  It is free, and is still available online (Click HERE).

This was the first block, called Wandering Lover.  I started the quilt in late January 2018.  

It's not meant to be a Christmas quilt.  Red and green were very fashionable colors for quilts in this time period, and I had lots of the reproduction prints in my stash.

My friend Joey Mahieu quilted this one for me recently.  The main blocks have these wonderful feathered circles quilted on them, which were placed perfectly, as you can see in this block.  Ms. Brackman encouraged participants to write and draw in permanent ink on our blocks.  On this one, I wrote May the Circle Be Unbroken.

You can see more of Joey's beautiful quilting in the feathered border.  I love running my hands over it.

The backing is a wide back from Connecting Threads.  The binding is a green print that is also in the top.

I'm keeping this one, and I'll probably bring it out at Christmas just because of the colors.

Are you thinking about the upcoming New Year?  I'm trying to decide what to make for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  

This is a problem I need to tackle.  It's my "Big Scraps" basket.  I define Big Scraps as those at least 6 in. wide but smaller than a fat quarter.  As I get big scraps, I bundle them up by color and stuff them into this bushel basket until needed.  I'm sure you tell it's getting out of hand.

This year I'm going to concentrate on using these big scraps to make RSC quilts.  I wonder how many quilts I can get out of this basket?

Now for something completely silly.

I bought a little waffle maker!  It was an impulse buy, for sure.  I was walking by it in the store.  It was adorable, and made cute little 4 in. waffles.  Not even expensive.  And they had purple ones!  It practically hopped in the cart.

Following the directions carefully, I made little waffles this morning, and they came out great!  The young grandsons will be here several days next week.  We'll see if they like waffles.

This year is coming to a close in just a few days.  As always, 2024 was a mix of good and bad times, joy and heartache.  Next year will probably be the same.  The joys make it worthwhile and help us weather the bad times.

I'm wishing joy for you in the coming week, and all next year.  Happy New Year!

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

  

A Little Green, A New Kit, and Back from the Quilter Part 3

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Here's where I'm going to be for the rest of the day, happily sewing at the treadle.  I have errands to run, but I'm going to have to wait, because of this:

We're getting an old fashioned snow storm this morning.  It's been snowing all night, and the weather people are predicting 4 to 6 inches.  No plows have been in our neighborhood yet, which tells me they're working hard clearing the main roads.

Even though the world outside looks more like midwinter than spring, it is the last Saturday in March, and this is my last set of blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  These were originally going to be 4 patches, but I changed my mind and sewed them into 16 patch blocks instead.

I think that alien is trying to get out!

Here's what I'm working on today.  The free pattern is a pdf download from Quilted Twins, and is called Mosaic.  (Click HERE for their free patterns page, and scroll down.  It's on the left.)

Look what happens when you put two blocks together! The original used white solid for the chaining pieces, but this turquoise print stands out as well, especially with the pastel scraps.

And this is my kind of kit, too, the kind that's already cut!  

When I get the top made, this quilt will go to the Mennonite Central Committee comforter project, which is part of this year's Hands to Help Comfort Quilt Challenge 2023, organized by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

The kit came in this box.  Isn't it fun to get an unexpected package on your doorstep?  Especially when it's chock full of quilty stuff!  And of course it was sent by a friend, the very generous Joey Mahieu, who cut the quilt kit herself.

I was working on pink stuff when she was here, and might have mentioned not having a lot of pink scraps.  Not a problem any more!

She also sent me orange scraps, which I never have enough of, and even some yummy browns.  What's better than a box of scraps? 

As I have mentioned before on this blog, Joey is an outstanding professional quilter, and recently did three quilts for me.  Today I'm showing you the third one.

Back From the Quilter, Part Three

Snicklefritz the cat wanted to try this one out while I was taking photos.  Like all cats, he appreciates quilts.

This is another Barbara Brackman series from her Civil War Quilts blog.  It was called Antebellum Album, and highlighted girls from both the North and the South who attended girls' boarding schools, where they often made lifelong friendships.  (Click HERE for the first post--the series is still up.)  I chose red and green for the colors because many album quilts were made of that combination in that time period.  I started the blocks in 2018.

Ms. Brackman encouraged us to add ink drawings and words to our blocks.  I am NOT any kind of artist, sadly, but I gave it a try.  The lovely feather circle quilting shows up well on this block. (Thanks, Joey!)

It was so interesting to read about the lives of these women and their families, and how they weathered our terrible Civil War.  I made most of the blocks given, although one or two gave me a hard time so I substituted other traditional blocks, plus I added three blocks to make a total of 15.  The setting with alternate blocks was one Ms. Brackman suggested.

Here's the back, a Windham print by Nancy Gere.  I love wide backs!  I plan to bind it with one of the green prints from the top.

 I am so happy to have all 3 of these quilts finished so beautifully!  I could not have done this myself, and they might have remained UFOs forever.  The labels I will put on each of them will tell their story, and will include both my name and Joey's.

If you'd like to contact the Marvelous Mrs. Mahieu about quilting your UFOs, click HERE for her Facebook page, and HERE for information about the shop.  [No affiliation, just a friend and a satisfied customer.]

It's still snowing, so I'm going to get back to the treadle. Stay warm, and happy quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

Green Blocks, Pink Quilts, & Back From the Quilter, Part 1

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I'm having fun with green scraps this week.  These are my Big Scrappy Bricks blocks, inspired by a pattern at Maryquilts.com called Forest Bricks (click HERE).  I've got a real thing for brick quilts right now, in all sizes.  These blocks are great for some fun novelty prints.

I am not a fan of snakes, but this print doesn't even creep me out.  Much. (My grand kids tease me about this.  They actually LIKE snakes. <shudder>)

Moving on from reptiles, I finished the little pink quilts I was working on last week.

The flannel rail fence quilt, shown here wrapped around my Little Guy's stuffed dog, will go to Jack's Basket to celebrate a baby with Down's Syndrome.

Here's the back, two adorable dogs in a heart, that says Puppy Love.  Another second-hand flannel find.

More pink!  I have never made this many pink quilts at one time before.  And there's one more still in the works!  This little nine patch was easy and fun to make, and uses some cute prints.

The fabric in the alternate plain blocks is a print I call Flying Donuts.  I had it left over from another baby quilt.  All that's left now are small scraps.

The back is this nostalgic baby toys print, also bought second-hand.  The quilt will be donated, but I'm not sure where yet.

So that's what I've been sewing this week. 

Last week, I showed you a pile of quilts (folded inside out)  I just got back from my friend Joey Mayhieu, who is a fabulous long arm quilter.  I quilt most of my quilts myself, especially the baby quilts that are easy to do on a domestic machine.   I also do simple grid quilting on larger quilts and quilt-as-you-go.  But sometimes there are special tops that just need professional quilting, and that's when I turn to Joey.

I was over the moon when she brought me three quilts I had given her to work on in October, and I can't wait to show them to you.  But I think each quilt needs its own write-up, so I'll do one this week, one next week, and one the week after. 

Back From the Quilter, Part 1:  Star Medallion

In January 2015, quilt historian Barbara Brackman started a series on her Civil War Quilts blog called Stars in A Time Warp.  Each Wednesday, she discussed a different kind of fabric or print from the past (like shirting prints, Prussian Blue, etc.).  Participants could follow along and make 6 in. star blocks from reproduction fabrics.  (It's still up!  Click HERE for the first week.)

It was so much fun to learn about all kinds of fabrics, and hunt through my reproductions to make the stars.  I could hardly wait for Wednesday each week.  Eventually I made enough blocks for two quilts.  Joey quilted the first quilt for me in 2017.  (Click HERE to see it.)

This is the top I made in Feb. 2016.  The first quilt contained the blocks with reproduction fabrics from the last half of the 1800s.  This quilt has repros from the first half, 1800-1850.  I set it in a medallion, a classic style from that time period.  Joey and I together decided on the quilting, to have it in keeping with what was done in this era.  (Joey is very knowledgeable about antique quilts BTW.)

The center is this bird, a copy of a Hewson print.  Joey quilted it with a cross hatch.

Each "round" of the medallion has separate quilting.  I absolutely love this organic form in the inner star round.

Here you can see part of the spirals in the last round of stars, and the graceful feather turning the corner on the border.

The back is this green pillar print--classical columns printed lengthwise on the fabric.  I had just barely enough of this fabric, but Joey made it work. (I used some for an inner border before I knew I wanted it for the back!  Oops!)

If you have your quilts quilted by others, you know a good long-armer is worth her/his weight in gold!  This quilt turned out even better than I imagined, and I know I could not have done it myself.  So many thanks again to Joey for her talents and time!

Next week, a basket quilt.

Somebody had a birthday!  And of course it was all about trains.  Big brother was a good helper.

Snicklefritz is really growing.  Do you think I need to get him a bigger bed?

Have a good week, everyone!

Cheers,

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