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

UFO Alert, and Purple Rainbow Kitties

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

This week I finished a UFO, used up 16 orphan blocks, and did some fancier (for me) quilting--all in the same little quilt! (I promise it's not crooked, the angle is just weird here, sorry!)

This is the block.  I made a lot of these using bright colored batik scraps I got at a quilt show many years ago.  I didn't have the vast stash of brights then that I have now, so everything possible just got thrown in.  And then I bought some more!  

Here's the back, leftover from another quilt.  I bound it in solid orange, just for fun.

The pattern comes from this book, Scrap-Basket Beauties, by Kim Brackett.  There are so many great quilts in here!  Kim Brackett is a genius.

This is the pattern, and I'm sure you can tell I changed it a little.  There are two kind of blocks in the pattern, an A block and a B block.  I used only the B blocks for my little quilt.

When I first saw it, the design reminded me of a Double Wedding Ring, with way less work.  Which was perfect, because I wanted to make a quilt for a wedding.  I got all the blocks done, but the wedding never happened.  (No tragedy or anything, they're still together, just not married.)  I could still have given them the quilt, but by now I had hit the roadblock of How Am I Going to Quilt This.

I always knew I wanted some fancier quilting where the blocks come together, but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it.  I don't do free motion quilting (yet?), I quilt with a walking foot.  A large quilt with all these spaces just seemed daunting.  I put it away, and the years just kept flying by.

Two years ago, I dragged out the blocks and remodeled the setting to a twin size.  These blocks, plus a couple more, were left over from the remodel, and got made into a small top.  This week I finally pulled up my big girl pants and quilted the little top.  It wasn't easy, but not too horrible either.  So is there hope for the bigger quilt?  Well, maybe.

In other news, purple cats!  Purple is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  When I found out yesterday evening, I ran up to the sewing room and made these.  March will be a fun month.  Purple is my favorite color.

I had just finished making these green cats for January, so I'm caught up on Rainbow Kitties now.  BTW, the one in the lower left corner really is a light green, not aqua as I'm seeing on the computer monitor.

Last Tuesday was a wonderfully warm day (60 degrees F!).  Little Guy and I went to the playground and played in the backyard too.  And well, it did snow again on Wednesday, but only a little that has already melted off.  Maybe spring is coming early to Wisconsin?  I would love it, but I'm not going to count on it.

Guess who has a birthday!  It's Little Guy!  He'll be 4 years old this week.  We're going to his party today, so I better get a move on.  I've got presents to wrap and cupcakes to frost.  There may even be sprinkles.

Have a wonderful week, no matter what the weather is.

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

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Signed, Sealed, and (Soon to Be) Delivered

The Star Blossoms quilt is done!  It's pieced, quilted, bound, and ready for its new home.

My version is bigger than the pattern in the book.  The original had 12 blocks.  I made 20.  The quilting was done quilt-as-you-go style.

Orange is my oldest grandson's favorite color.  It's becoming one of my favorite colors, too.  I used lots of orange prints in the blocks, and the binding is a mottled orange.

This is an easy pattern, and I would recommend it, even though I changed a few things, like the size, plus I used my Easy Angle ruler to make the half square triangles.  The blocks finish at 18 in. square, and they use up lots of scraps.  What looks like sashing here is actually part of the block.  There are 14 rectangles surrounding the center section.  It's a great pattern for using up a wide variety of scraps.
Here's the book the pattern came from:  Scrap-Basket Beauties, by Kim Brackett.

This quilt will be mailed to my sister in Florida.  She has had some health concerns in the last several years.  I hope the quilt will be a cheerful reminder that we care about her.

Here's why I didn't post last week:

I went on a quilt history retreat!  It was absolutely wonderful.  Our special guest/teacher was Sue Reich, author of many great books on quilt history.
The ladies above are examining a new find by one of our members.  From left to right, they are Maribeth, Bonnie, Laurie, Carol, Pat, and Nancy.
Sue Reich shared her quilts with us, not only in slides but "in person".

Here's an amazing quilt from the early 20th century.  It's hard to tell from the photo, but this quilt was quilted by machine, most probably a treadle.

Here's another different way to make a signature quilt;  an embroidered wreath of leaves.

This is Sue's book on signature quilts.  The title is Quiltings, Frolicks & Bees:  100 Years of Signature Quilts.  Many of the quilts in the books are in Sue's personal collection, and she has researched several of them to find where the quilts were made and what the lives of the individual signers were.  It's an absolutely wonderful book, full of glorious color photos.

Through my volunteer work with quilt documentation, I know the importance of signing and dating my quilts.  But I can't say I always follow through! Being at this retreat reminded me to label my quilts.

So here's the label for my sister's quilt.  It's a commercial label I've had for years, with details added with a Pigma pen.  I'll sew it on (by hand), and then get the quilt ready to mail.

We also learned about World War I and World War II quilts at the retreat.  I'll write more about that in the coming weeks.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom this week at Finish It Up Friday.

I wish good and happy sewing for you this week!