Loose Ends and Layouts

Welcome to my blog.  I hope you are having a lovely weekend.   I know I am--I'm sewing!

All my blocks are done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, so I'm starting to put them together into tops.  This is rows 1-3 of the Mary Ann's Baskets quilt, made from reproduction fabric scraps.  Surprise, I'm not following the layout in the book exactly.  I want a rectangular rather than a square quilt.  (The book is Classic & Heirloom Quilts, by Betsy Chutchian).
Even though I've been quilting for over 40 years, I haven't made very many diagonal sets, at least not recently.  So I'm having to lay it all out and work on it carefully so as not to mess it up.

I'm not sure why I decided to make three Rainbow Scrap quilts this year.  Maybe I just couldn't make up my mind?? (That would not be unusual.)  So I'm also working on this top.

The pattern for this quilt is in the same book.  Ms. Chutchian calls her quilt White Rock Creek, but another book calls these blocks Wagon Trail. They're also made from repro scraps, that I've been sewing all year.  I did add in some brown and black scraps (colors not on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge list this year), which would be appropriate to this time period.
Surprise again, I'm doing a slightly different set.  I'm setting it together in two sections.  Then I'll add borders (not sure what color yet), and quilt each section.  I want to quilt something pretty in the open spaces, and that will be easier if the quilt is in two pieces.

So these quilt tops have been on my to-do list for a while, and I'm glad to be at least starting to get them together.
But--squirrel!

I couldn't help it, I started these blocks last week, and just kept going until I had enough for a child's quilt.  The block is called King's Crown, and the centers are crumb blocks made from the snippets in my scrap basket.  There might be a bit too much red and blue in it, but you work with what you have.  No hurry on this one, it will be a charity quilt sometime in the new year.

I did actually finish a little wall quilt this week, but it was more than half done last week.  Now it's been bound, washed, and hung on the wall, ready for Thanksgiving.

Did it snow where you live this week?  We got a little dusting here Thursday night and Friday morning.  Little Buddy and I made this:

It's his first snowman!  He was so excited about it, even though it's not even as tall as he is.  He couldn't wait to show it to his big brother and mom.

Do we have lots of fun around here?  You betcha!

I hope you had fun this week, too.

Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up this week with:
Angela at soscrappy
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I Get A Whoop Whoop)
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework (Oh Scrap)

Todays and Yesterdays

It's the last red week for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and my Mary's Basket blocks are done. ( I looked back at the pattern the other day, and realized the name in the book was Mary Ann's Basket, so I've been calling it the wrong name all along.  Ack!)

The blocks are pictured here with this little album.  I found it in an antique shop in Milwaukee several years ago.  It's not a photograph album, rather, a sort of autograph book.  The red velvet cover is in sad shape.  Most of the entries were made in the late 1890s, with a few earlier. The album's owner was a schoolgirl named Helen Emeline Zastrow, whose name in written on the front and back inside covers. 

It was a fad in the 19th century (and even later) for girls to get their friends and relatives to sign their books.  Many of the signers wrote little poems or quoted sayings.  One of my favorites of these is this:
"Our to-days and yesterdays are the blocks with which we build."
Very sincerely,
Clara Spies
Sept. 21, 1891.

Of course, having this made me want to know more about Helen Zastrow's life.  As amazing as it might seem, there were lots of Helen Zastrows living in Milwaukee in the relevant time period.  I believe the book's owner to have been born in 1883, the daughter of William (Wilhelm) Zastrow and his wife Albertine Penn Zastrow.  William's parents were German immigrants, but he was born in Milwaukee, like his daughter.
Unfortunately, Helen died in 1907 at age 23.  She was unmarried.  I have no idea how she died.  She is buried in the same cemetery with her parents and grandparents.

So that's a yesterday.  Here's another.

Last Saturday was the July meeting of the Wisconsin Quilt Study Group.  The topic for our meeting this time was antique sewing machines (I gave the talk) but we always have antique quilt show and tell.  This distressed quilt from the 1930s has red print sashing, and cute little 8 pointed stars for cornerstones.  Sadly anonymous, maker unknown, but a fun piece to look at.

What about today?

Good news!  Mrs. Pfaff is back, and back in action!  We're quilting a UFO, and making real progress.

My daughter brought me this mega zucchini (thanks to Google, I now know how to spell it!).  It was hiding in her garden.  I'm picturing lots of zucchini bread in our future.

I'm not sure what else the future will bring, but these are the blocks I'm building with--quilt blocks!

I'm wishing sunshine and quilt blocks for you this week, too.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
Linking up and Whooping Up at Confessions of a Fabric Addict 
Busy Hands Quilts
So Scrappy (home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge)
Oh Scrap

Oh Scraps!

Have you seen this book yet?  Of course I'm talking about  Oh, Scrap, by Lissa Alexander.  I just can't get over how much I love it.  I mean, it's scraps!  Colorful, clever projects made of scraps!  So of course I want to make quilts from some (all!) of the patterns in the book.

The first quilt in the book is a plus quilt, which is great fun.  Each block is made of one color and a light background, with a blue square in the center.  All nine squares in the block are different.  I actually followed the directions, which is rare for me, and here is what the top looked like on my flannel wall.

But then this jungle fabric called me from the closet shelf.  So instead of just adding a blue binding, I added a border of hippos, tigers, zebras, alligators, and their friends, and bound with green.

Here's the final result, ready to give away to a child.  Scrap busting fun with a purpose.

And of course the back is a rainbow of paw prints.

Speaking of rainbows, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for June is aqua or teal, which can be a challenge for reproduction 1800s fabrics.  I'm making two repro quilts this year, so when sorting through the fabrics I dragged out anything aqua, teal, turquoise, aquamarine, or greenish-blue.

I ended up with 6 of the Mary's Basket blocks, shown here with my 1890s Minnesota A treadle.

Several of the fabrics are sort of "aqua-ish", but I like them.

This one has Lewis and Clark fabric in the center.

This one's center is from the Dargate book collection, bought years ago from reproductionfabrics.com.

In other news, I cut the rhubarb, made a pie, and canned a few jars for winter.

And look what came in the mail! 

I won these fat quarters for participating in the Hands2Help charity quilt drive!  Classic blue and white, couldn't be better.  The little card is a thank you from Little Lambs Foundation, where my baby quilts went.
Thanks to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for starting and continuing this great work, and for rounding up all sorts of nice prizes for us. 
I'm wishing sunshine and happy surprises in the mail for you this week.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
I'm linking up today with So Scrappy, Busy Hands Quilts, and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Pink Plus

I've never been a big fan of the color pink.  Growing up, I wasn't a girly girl, just a nerdy girl that loved to read.  As soon as they would let us wear pants at school (high school years), I ditched my dresses and skirts and never looked back.
But I LOVE double pink reproduction fabric.  So it was fun to make the blocks for my reproduction quilts from my repro scraps in pink, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  Above is Eileen Trestain's book Dating Fabrics:  A Color Guide, 1800-1960, open to the 1880-1910 pink pages.  It's a great book for anyone making reproduction quilts, or collecting antique quilts and blocks.

These are my Mary's Basket blocks for this month, posing with an antique Willcox and Gibbs treadle sewing machine.  So far there are only four, but I might add to their number.

My second RSC quilt is made from these Wagon Trail blocks.  Again, only four so far.

If I had to pick a favorite, this one on the right is it!

When it comes to my third RSC quilt (THREE RSC quilts?  Yes, I know, I have a problem!), I chose a different path.
I make lots of children's quilts for charity.  If you put pink fabric into a child's charity quilt, that automatically makes it a girl's quilt.  In my experience, boys and their parents will not choose a quilt with pink in it.  Several charities I give to have said they get many more "girl" quilts than "boy" quilts.
Because of that, I generally make quilts with bright colors and leave out the pink.  A girl can choose a bright colored quilt, and so can a boy.
So I'm not adding any pink to my third RSC quilt, Fly Away Home, since it's eventual destination is as yet unclear.
But I still have lots of pink scraps.  So...

I made a pink baby quilt.  The blocks are 6 in. finished nine patches, with the colors arranged like a plus sign and a purple square in the middle of each one.

The large fabric squares between the nine patches is printed with what looks like models of atoms, that we used in science class back in the days before computers.  I love the idea of a little girl scientist sleeping under this quilt.

The blocks are a mish mash of all sorts of fabrics with any claim to pink.  There are bunnies, fish, flamingos, giraffes, frogs, turtles, bugs, castles, rain boots, hearts, flowers, dots, and so on.  Oh, and don't forget Dora the Explorer.

The back is a dotted print.
So that's a lot of pink!  My pink scraps are seriously diminished.
Thank goodness for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.
I hope you're "in the pink" this week, and every week.
Cheers for reading this,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
Links to Busy Hands Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts, and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Bright Yellow Sunshine

This was a good week for family times, but not so great for sewing.  My only finishes this week are my blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.
Yellow--what a good color for April!  It may not be warm here yet (high of 36 F today) but the sun is shining and my yellow/gold blocks are done for the month.
Above, Mr. Biddy checks out my piecing on my Wagon Trail blocks, which are using up the 1800s reproduction scraps.

I had some pretty good yellow fabrics this time, but it was hard to decide on the second print.  It needs to contrast with the yellow and the plain background, but seem harmonious.  Hmm.  I'll keep trying.

When it came to making the Mary's Basket blocks, I decided the yellows needed another color to play with.  Red and blue were naturals, and the golden brown worked out, too.

I admit it, I have a favorite!  The yellow center in the blue block above has been in my stash forever.  It can finally find a good home.

Now for the bright scraps!  I made 6 of the easy blocks and 5 of the flying geese ones for my Fly Away Home quilt.  Biddy is checking out the bug print block in case any of the bugs try to run away.

Nope, all the spiders and beetles are accounted for.
I have had a couple of quilts to lay out, but my usual space in my husband's office was taken.

Hubby set up all the train sets in there!  It was so much fun for the grand kids this week.  Big brother was home from school for spring break, and the cousins came on Tuesday.  Little brother (above) starts every day wanting to go see the choo choos.  I don't know if Grandpa is going to be able to take the trains down any time soon.
In the meantime, I'll lay out quilts on the bed or in the family room and count myself lucky to have such a wonderful family.
I hope it's warm and happy wherever you are.
Have a great week!
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts, So Scrappy,  and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Green Grow the Quilt Blocks

Hello and welcome!  This is my week for making Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks, in this month's color of green. 
The blocks I've been working on since January are Mary's Baskets and Wagon Trail, in 1800s reproduction fabrics.  I'm trying to make a dent in my repro scraps.  What a hope.
Here are the green Mary's Baskets:

and the Wagon Trail blocks:

Do you see the odd one in the lower right corner?  I found another purple strip, so I added it in.  You can never have enough purple.
This was all I was planning to do with the RSC this year.  Last year was so much fun.  I really looked forward to each new month.  And it did help tame down my scraps a little.
But last year I had two projects with two different kinds of scraps--1930s repros and bright colors.  I was really missing the bright colors this year.
So I started yet another quilt!

It's called Fly Away Home, by Kate Henderson, from her book Strip Savvy.

It's a cute book, with lots of good ideas.
Fly Away Home is a two block quilt.  Block A is this simple one:

Since I didn't start this quilt at the beginning of the year, I'm catching up on 3 months worth.  I've got January's light blue, February's purple, and March's green blocks done.
The alternate block is this one:

It's a cute little flying geese block, which gives the quilt its name.  I only put one block together, since I don't want to have all of the blocks with the same colors.  As the months go by, I'll make more flying geese and add them into blocks.
So much fun, so little time.
The only things I finished this week are two pillowcases.

My little buddy went with me to drop them off at the quilt shop, where volunteers were hard at work making lots of pillowcases for National Quilting Day.  (You can see photos of the ladies sewing and cutting as soon as I get them up on the Ties That Bind blog.)
This is my third year of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and for me it just keeps getting better.  I can't thank Angela enough for hosting it!
Have a wonderful rainbow-filled week.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
I'm linking up (late!) with So Scrappy, Busy Hands Quilts, and Can I Get A Whoop Whoop.