Happy Halloween

 As the sign on my house says...

Welcome to Treadlestitches, Halloween Edition!

I didn't make any Halloween quilts this year, but there are little bits of orange and black in both tops finished this week.

This top has lots of black prints.  I started working on it two weeks ago, when I got the center (the six blocks and their tan sashing) from the charity committee to quilt.  Well, I couldn't leave well enough alone, and decided to make it big enough to fit a cot in the men's shelter.  I added the polka dot border (from my stash), and then made and added the piano keys outer border.

You never know what's going to come in handy.  Several years ago I bought a scrap bag at a flea market with lots of Route 66 fabric pieces, mostly squares and short strips.  It was fun to include them in this border.

I don't use a lot of black fabrics in my quilts for children, so I was glad I had these on hand.  There are also greens and grays, to go with the center squares.

Now it's ready for quilting.  I'm going to look around here and see if I can find enough flannel to back it with, so it's warm and cozy on our cold Wisconsin nights.

Does this ever happen to you?  Last month I needed a leader and ender project (read about what that is HERE), so I just grabbed some reproduction fabric squares and started sewing these 16-patch blocks.  Then, they took over!

When I got the blocks done, I had just about decided to put them together with an unpieced square of shirting fabric, but that seemed kind of ho-hum.  I had always liked a quilt made by Harriet Hargrave with this set, so that was the inspiration. 

Can you see which of the hourglass blocks is different?  I make my scrap quilts the way my foremothers did.  If I run out of one fabric, I add another similar one and keep going.

It's hard to see from the photo, but the border is a blue plaid.  It's a Marti Michel print from the 1990s, another flea market find.  How old does a fabric have to be before it's vintage?  

We're going to keep this one.  After I get it quilted, we'll use it on this twin bed, or curl up with it on the couch.  I'd like flannel backing for it too.  (Can you tell it's getting colder here?)

With those out of the way, I need a new piecing project.  Luckily, I have several (ahem! Understatement!) UFOs to choose from.  These blocks were finished in August 2020 and need to be set into a top.  I pieced most of them as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  

What about setting them with a pieced block?  It seems to be a theme with me lately.
 

How about this block?  It's number 2314 in Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.  It has several names.  I like Windmill best. Both blocks are 6 in. finished, so I'll need a lot of them.

Here's a preview of what it will look like.  Do you see the mistake I made?  Middle row, far right.

If it is possible to make a piecing mistake, I will make it.  This time, it was a cutting mistake.  The big pieces are not symmetrical, so they all have to be cut with the same side up.  I didn't always do that, so some of my blocks have a right twist and some have a left twist.  I'm not worried about it.

We have too much to do around here to worry about anything.  Baby Buddy and Little Buddy helped me cut out pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies.  The little guy was surprisingly good at it, all I had to do was keep him from eating the dough.

Don't be too frightened, but Little Buddy made this Haunted House for us from all the scariest toys and decorations he could find.  Some pretend dinosaur skulls got added in for extra creepiness.

Happy Halloween to all who celebrate, and thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Safe at Home

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It's finished!  Safe at Home is my name for my house quilt, one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects for 2020.

Last week, it was a roadblock.  This week, it's done and the way ahead is clear.

The pattern I used is called Home Made, was designed by Monique Jacobs, and was published in American Patchwork and Quilting magazine, issue # 162.  I used the house pattern, but made more blocks and set them differently than the original.  

When I started making the blocks in January of 2020, I had no idea what the year would bring.  I was just having fun using scraps of vintage fabrics, feedsacks, and 1930s reproductions in the color of the month.  

In March, the illness and death of the pandemic hit New York hard, and it was suddenly terribly real to all of us all over the country.  Home was more important than ever, as millions of kids (including our grandchildren) started virtual school, and millions of adults either worked from home or were unemployed.  

This quilt will always represent 2020 to me: the worry and fear we all felt every time we sneezed or coughed, the hilarious zoom fails of virtual preschool, the mask making, the dreaded toilet paper shortage, and the uncertainty still hanging over everything.

As I've mentioned on this blog before, I used a quilt-as-you-go method on this quilt.  (After all this time, I must admit I am REALLY tired of this backing fabric.)  I will be posting more on the way I do this in the near future.

 The border is a vintage 1930s-1940s print fabric, probably meant for dresses or blouses.  I only had just over a yard of it, so that determined how wide it would be.  I quilted simple diagonal lines in the border, and bound the quilt with a green solid, also vintage, from my basement "collection".

 My youngest grandson, whom I call Baby Buddy, was not really in a posing mood yesterday.  He's sort of ho-hum about the whole thing.

In other news, I got a few more half square triangles done for this year's RSC.  These are loose on my design wall, not yet sewn into groups of four, but this may end up being what I do with them.

And the blue ice cream cones!  I looked up some blue colored ice cream flavors on Wikipedia, and was surprised to find out about Blue Moon ice cream, invented in Milwaukee!  So I'm saying the cone on the bottom left is Blue Moon.  Above it is Blue Heaven, a blue colored Australian ice cream flavored with vanilla and raspberry (mine has little candies), next to a Blueberry ice cream with raspberry ripple and tiny sprinkles.  Lastly, we have a truly original imaginary flavor, blueberry with Victoria sponge cake, strawberries and cherries.  All this, and no calories.

Outside, the rhubarb is getting taller and looking very healthy.  Little Buddy hoped it might be ready to cut.  I made him some rhubarb cake from last year's canned rhubarb, so he's content to wait a little longer.

Leaves are appearing on the black raspberry canes, an encouraging sign.

Spring is progressing as it always does here, two steps forward and one step back.  There was frost on the grass this morning, but sunshine the rest of the day.

I'm wishing sunshine for you this week, and blue skies.

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Quilts, 2020

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It's the very last Saturday of 2020 (thank goodness!), and Angela has asked us to share our RSC projects for the year.  This is my little stack above.  The only one finished is my Shoofly quilt, made in 1800s reproduction fabrics. 

I have three basic categories of scraps:  1800s repros, 1930s repros plus vintage fabrics/feedsacks, and bright colored newer fabrics, which includes lots of novelty prints.  For the last few years, I have tried to make three RSC quilts, one in each scrap category.  I say "tried" because other projects always seem to invite themselves along for the ride.

This year was no different.  I started out with 3 quilt ideas--the Shoofly, a 1930s house quilt, and a bright colored quilt from a Kim Brackett pattern called Text Me A Quilt.

I put the borders on the Text Me A Quilt top yesterday.  It's a large quilt (for me), 76 in. x 86 in., seen here on a queen sized bed.

The border is a print I've used lots of times on kids' quilts.  The prints is butterflies, appropriate for this year since butterflies stand for hope.  This will be a donation quilt.

The 1930s house quilt is in progress.  I'm quilting it by the block (tutorial to follow, hopefully soon).  The first two rows are quilted, and ready to be joined together.  It's actually fun to quilt this way.

The last RSC quilt for 2020 didn't get started until the year was half over.  My daughter's maternity leave was extended due to the pandemic, and since she didn't need me to babysit I spent some time cleaning up old projects in the basement.  I came across this partial top I had bought at a flea market years ago.

It looked like a rainbow!  How could I not include it?  

There was no way to match the old sashing, so I took it apart and changed the layout.

And that's my last RSC quilt for this year, a double nine patch set with a green solid.  I will quilt this one myself, and we will probably keep it.

 

Of course I'm thinking ahead to next year.  How about you?

 

I just want to say "Thank you!" to Angela for hosting the RSC and keeping things going, with her busy teaching schedule and the pandemic besides!  Making colorful quilt blocks and sharing them has been a mood lifter through this whole year, and I really look forward to Saturdays, when I can see what everyone else has been up to.

 

And now for a little Christmas cheer.

Here's Little Buddy, showing off a paper airplane he and Grandpa made.

  

And here are all 3 of my buddies, wearing the hats I knit for them.  

We had a little celebration Christmas Eve with the people in our bubble, and a quiet Christmas at home yesterday.  In the morning, I took a virtual trip to Jane Austen's house in England HERE.

I especially enjoyed section entitled The Twelve Days of Christmas, which has short readings from Ms. Austen's books and letters, plus recipes and Christmas traditions.  

Have a lovely weekend, and stay safe!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 

and Cynthia at Oh Scrap.

 

Inch by Inch, Row by Row

 Welcomed to Treadlestitches!

How are you doing in this crazy busy season?  Before the Christmas tsunami hit, I got a good start on quilting the house blocks, my current quilt as you go project.  I made these as one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts for 2020.  I didn't know when I started how appropriate houses would be as a symbol of this year, when we spent more time at home than ever.

I'm working on a tutorial for the quilting, taking pictures of each step.  I hope to post that the first of the year.  My method combines ideas from lots of ways I've tried, with a couple of tricks of my own.

Meanwhile, there's shopping, wrapping, decorating, baking, etc.  I have had some good helpers.  Hubby and I finished up shopping for the grandkids, Little Buddy and Big Buddy were my Christmas ornament hanging team, and my older daughter and her kids made the delicious cookies above.  (There were more in there before Little Buddy had a snack!)

Last Sunday, we had a lovely socially distanced visit with our older daughter and our grandkids, Mr. H. and Miss E.  We took a walk in the park, and Bella the dog got to come, too.  (Bella was thrilled!)  With the virus so bad now and asthma in the family, we are being very careful.

Sometimes, you just have to get your sillies out!  It was Little Buddy's idea to get out all our silly hats one day after lunch.

Baby Buddy wasn't sure what the fuss was about, but he liked the tassel on this one.

Thursday morning this happened!  Little Buddy was so excited to give me a balloon for my birthday.

For many years, I just felt overwhelmed by Christmas.  There was so much to do, and my life was already so busy.  It's been much better since I retired, and since I gave up the idea of the "perfect" Christmas.  I'm also learning to break all the Christmas jobs into smaller parts, and just do them one at a time.  Quilters definitely know how to do that!  Inch by inch, row by row, we get there in the end.

This week, I'm wishing Happy Holidays to all who celebrate, and happy quilting to everyone.

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Adventures in Fan Quilting

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

This week, I tried to learn something new.

It's actually something old--fan quilting.  We mostly call it Baptist Fan now, but that term is relatively recent.  In the late 1800s, when the quilt above was probably made, they may have just called it fan quilting or shell quilting.  (Click HERE for a great article on fan quilting.)

Many years ago, I made a Churn Dash quilt and hand quilted the fans.  I used a string and a piece of chalk to mark the arcs just like they did the in old days, which sometimes turned out okay and sometimes was a mess.

This is the finished quilt.  I think it should be have been more closely quilted.

I have a friend who is very good at doing fan quilting, free-hand, on her long arm machine.  She quilted this star quilt for me.

I've often wondered if I could do this kind of quilting on my domestic machine.  I don't do free motion quilting (yet?), but it seemed like these would be easy curves I could sew with Mrs. Pfaff's built-in walking foot.

So I bought this template.

It's called Around the Block, by June Tailor.  It's a hard plastic template, which should hold up well, and I liked all the lines for positioning it.  I decided to try it on my Shoofly quilt, one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts for this year.  The blocks were already set with paisley squares, and divided into 3 sections of 3 rows each, spray basted to the batting and backing.

I was ready to get started, but I had one BIG problem.  If you use a template, you have to mark the quilt.  I dug out all my marking tools.

The chalk pounce worked fine, but the marks wore off as I was quilting.  The template's channels were too narrow and deep for my marking pencils.  Or chalk markers.  Or soap slivers.   They were obviously designed for those special quilt marking pens or markers.

I needed the marks to be visible on dark fabrics, light fabrics, and the paisley squares between the blocks.  The blue marker did okay on the light fabrics, but was invisible on the dark fabrics and blended in to the paisley.

I was tearing my hair out.  Did I need two markers, one light and one dark?  What if one kind needed to be removed by washing and the other by pressing with an iron?  It would be easy to mix that up and end up with permanent marks on the quilt.  I bought several markers, and kept trying (and failing).  Until I finally tried the purple disappearing marker.

Eureka!  It works!  I haven't used these kinds of markers in a long time, just for fear the marks wouldn't come out, but desperate times call for desperate measures.  The purple is visible even on the dark fabrics, and shows up very well on the paisley.  And so far, the purple is disappearing nicely after the quilting is done.  I will be sure to wash the quilt as soon as I get it finished.

Once I solved the marking problem, the quilting was actually easy.   One section is done, and I'm working on the second section.

Here's what it looks like on the back.

So that's what I'll be doing this weekend.

I dug out another of my home made kits to use as leaders and enders while I'm setting the Text Me A Quilt blocks into rows.  It's a double 4 patch, made from mostly reproduction 1800s scraps.  Once I get the small squares into 4 patches, I have to choose a pair of large squares to go with them to finish the block.  I found myself singing the Matchmaker song from Fiddler on the Roof as I did this.   (Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match ...!)  When I was a teenager, my entire family performed in a local production of the musical, and it was fun to remember it.

I'm setting the 4 patches so the light fabric chains across the block.

Little Buddy asked me to take his picture with his new "friends".  He's adopted these bears who have been living in our basement for years.  The little one belonged to his big brother, now a teenager, and the big one was his mother's.  He snuggles with them for his naps.

It's colder here this week.  Thank goodness we have quilts to keep us warm!  Have a lovely week, and stay safe.

Cheers for reading,

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