Bordering on Insanity

It's been a little less crazy around here lately.  My daughter has gone back to working part time, so I'm babysitting only two to three days a week, at least for now.  It's a good time to try to do some catching up.  I've had a lot of help from our resident quilt inspectors.

There are some side benefits of writing a blog.  In years past, I'd always start a journal/diary in January, thinking I'd finally get the hang of remembering to write in in every day.  I never did.  I have lots of old diaries that are blank after February.  Now that I have a blog, I can actually look up what I was working on in the past.  That can be helpful.  Or embarrassing.  Or both.

This basket quilt first appeared on my blog in January of 2013.  It was nearly done, but I only had enough of the blue print fabric for the top and bottom borders.  My brilliant idea was to leave the side borders off and finish it that way.  Seriously.  I was actually going to do that.

I think even if my brain was frozen from the January Wisconsin cold, I should have known better than that.  Maybe some quilts would look all right that way, but not this one.  I dug it out of the basket the other day, and finally added the side borders.  They're a different indigo blue print, and that's okay with me.

NOW, it's ready for quilting.
Want to see what else was in the basket?

This is a signature quilt, made by members of Treadle On, an online group for those of us who sew on people-powered machines (treadles and hand cranks).  We exchanged these blocks in online swaps in 2002 and 2004.

Participants wrote on the blocks in permanent ink, giving their names, where they lived, and what kind of machine they sewed on.  Reading these is fascinating.  My favorite quote is "Laugh Lots, Sew Much".

Most of the fabrics were bright colors, and I made more blocks to make the quilt bigger.  I got stuck on the border, and put the top away.

When I got it out again, purple just seemed like the right color.  I happened to have a big piece of this fabric.

Another flimsy finished, ready to quilt.  More memories preserved.

Does this look familiar?  It's the same pattern as the quilt above, in a smaller size and different set.  Sometimes this pattern is called Shaded 4 Patch.  Click here to see a tutorial on how to make them in a 3 in. finished size.  My Treadle On quilt blocks are 6 in. finished, and the blocks above are 4 in. finished.  I started out making them like in the tutorial, but ended up just cutting triangles with the Easy Angle ruler.  (I hate techniques that involve drawing lines.)

The strong diagonal element in the block makes it suitable for log cabin style layouts.
Once again, I had set a quilt aside because I was dithering about what to do on the border.

This time, I made more blocks to increase the size before I added the border.  I needed 80 more of these little blocks.  They were easy and fun to sew.

The border is a blue print I've been hoarding for a long time.

It was fun sewing these long bobbin-busting seams, and finally getting these quilts out of limbo.

New motto for 2017--stop dithering about borders and just get it done!

Stay warm, and keep quilting!
Cheers,
Sylvia

I'm linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts  and Myra at Busy Hands Quilts today.

The Captain's Butterfly

A long time ago, I belonged to a wonderful online group called Treadle On.  The moderator for that group is Captain Dick, a generous, helpful man with a quirky sense of humor.  He helped all of us fix up our old machines, and was a great inspiration with his quilting.

In 2002, the Captain started a block of the month.  He showed everyone how to make quilt blocks that would be interesting and fun to make, but not too difficult for those just starting to quilt.  One of the blocks was a pieced butterfly.

This is a block I made from the Captain's instructions.  I loved making the pieced butterflies.  They became a tied comforter for my youngest daughter in a time when we both needed some comfort.

In recent years, I've drifted away from Treadle On, but I still have the bumper sticker on my car (Treadle On:  Saving Our Sewing Heritage) and lots of warm memories of people I met because of Treadle On, both online and in person.

I thought of this block recently when I was making a few Christmas presents.  I try not to make very many things for Christmas, because I tend to get carried away and then stressed out when things don't get finished on time. I always think I'll work on presents all year long, but so far it hasn't happened.  Maybe this year?

I scaled down the Captain's pattern from 12 in. to 8 in. square, and made these pot holders for my Mom.  It helped that I had lots of bright colored scraps, especially some batiks I bought in a scrap bag at a quilt show.

Then I made this little quilt for the gift exchange at our quilt group's Christmas dinner.  We call it a brown bag exchange, because we each put a fat quarter in a brown bag, mix them up, and all choose one.  Then we make something with the fat quarter for the original person, and give it to her at the dinner.  It's hard to see here, but the fat quarter I had was a shiny black cotton with silver dots.  I used it for the butterfly bodies and the cornerstones.

The 8 in. size worked well for this little quilt, too.  I left off the antennae on this one.
I quilted it on my electric Pfaff, bound it, and wrapped it.  Unfortunately, I didn't end up going to the dinner.  My cousin's wife died, and I went out of town to the funeral.  I mailed the quilt to its new owner, and I think she likes it.
I think this would be a nice pattern to use for a charity quilt, especially made up in bright colors.

Since the Captain so freely shared this pattern years ago, I don't think he would mind if I shared my 8 in. size pattern with you.

To make one block:
1.  Make 2 half square triangles that measure 4 in. square when finished.  Use your favorite method.  I used the Easy Angle ruler, and cut two purple and two white triangles from 4.5 in. strips, then sewed them together in pairs.
2.  Make 2 half square triangles that measure 2 in. square when finished.  Use your favorite method.  I used the Easy Angle ruler, and cut two green and two white triangles from 2.5 in. strips, then sewed them together in pairs.
3.  Cut 3 black squares 1.5 in. x 1.5 in.
4.  Cut 2 green squares, 1.5 in. x 1.5 in.
5.  From background fabric (in this case, white), cut 1 2.5 in. square, 1 rectangle 3.5 in. x 4.5 in., and 1 rectangle 1.5 in. x 3.5 in
To assemble:
Lower right section:
Make a 4 patch from 2 black and 2 green 1.5 in. squares.  Sew a half square triangle to the 4 patch as shown above.  Sew the white 2.5 in. square to the second half square triangle, as shown above.  Then sew the two rows together to make a square.
Upper left section:
Sew the black square to the 1.5 in. x 3.5 in. white rectangle.  Then sew the white 3.5 in. x 4.5 in rectangle to that section.
Now just assemble the block like a 4 patch, following the picture.
You can add antennae if you like, either by hand or machine.  On the potholders, I used a chain stitch machine to make the antennae.  I drew the lines I wanted on the wrong side of the block, and stitched them from the back.
I quilted the little blocks, and then brought the backing fabric to the front for a binding.

Now I want to make some pieced flowers to go with them.
Spring is such a long way off in January in Wisconsin.
Stay warm, and keep quilting.

Fall Harvest

In the fall of 2003, I participated in a Treadle On block exchange, which resulted in the quilt above.  The rules were a little unusual.  We made blocks in 3 different sizes--12 in., 9 in., and 6 in. finished.  We could use any leaf pattern we liked, with the leaves in fall colors.  The backgrounds were to be dark, like the forest floor.  And of course, all the blocks were to be sewn with treadle or hand crank sewing machines.
Waiting to get my "squishy" (technical term for the package of blocks) in the mail was like waiting for Christmas when I was six.  It was so worth it!  The variety of blocks and prints was wonderful.  It was fun laying them out on the floor and fitting them together.  I added a few blocks with light backgrounds to jazz it up a bit.   I made lots of flying geese for the border on my Minnesota A, looking out the dining room window. 
It's been 10 years now, and I can hardly believe it's passed so quickly.  My favorite time to work on this quilt was in the fall.  It was hard to make myself do the quilting any other time.  I just finally finished the quilting last year.
I'm including a few more pictures.  If you see a block you made, could you let me know?  I once had a list of all the participants, but I'm afraid it disappeared.  I know Windy Cindy made the pink batik blocks.

I'm finding that I really love the color orange!  Maybe it's just this time of year, but I'm seeing orange everywhere and really enjoying its mellow brightness.

These pumpkins are garden "volunteers".  Their seeds were in the compost, and the vines came up everywhere.  The big green one is slowly turning orange.  I bought the butternut squash at the farmers market.
I'm still working on the feedsack pinwheels, and I will post a tutorial shortly.  Even there, I'm finding bits of orange.
Here's hoping you are enjoying this season too.