Happy Scrappy Orange

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Isn't this shirt a hoot?  It just shouts 1960s hippy culture, doesn't it.  It was worn by John Lennon back then, and now hangs in Cleveland at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

The diamond shapes in the flowers and the graceful leaves and stems make me think of antique quilts, but it was the orange color that really caught my eye.  Orange is on my mind and under my needle this month as I make blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

First, the Four Patch Stars.  To make these, I use 2.5 in. wide strips and my trusty Easy Angle and Companion Angle rulers.

I don't have a lot of novelty prints in orange, but I did find a little minion for one square.  Not sure if this is Bob or Kevin.  My grandkids tried to educate me on the minions' names, but the lesson didn't sink in. 

The log cabin blocks got done last night.  These have been lots of fun to sew.

Again, not a huge variety of orange fabrics.  I think I might need to go shopping!

Here are all the log cabin blocks I made this year.  I'm going to start putting them into small quilts soon.  I know we will have another month of green, but I've already used up most of my green scraps. 

 With all the blocks I've made this year, I will have LOTS of quilts for donations, so I need to get started piecing tops together and quilting.

Do you do this with your projects?  This year, because I had so many things going for the RSC, I started using a notebook.  Above is a chart I made for the different kinds of blocks (there are more on the back!).  I also wrote down the cutting directions for each block, etc.  It has saved me a lot of time and aggravation.  The only problem was occasionally losing the notebook under a pile of fabric.

I have a favor to ask.  Has anybody made a pillow out of a latch hook piece?  Can you steer me to good directions?  My youngest daughter made this years ago, and it was stored in a box in the basement.  My excellent hubby has been cleaning things out (hurray!) and I volunteered to finish this adorable Lion King design into a pillow.  Should I line it before finishing?  Any help will be appreciated.

Baby Buddy and I found the first orange maple leaf in the park this week.  (I took it out of his mouth as soon as I took the picture!)  Everything is still a lovely green, but fall is definitely coming.  

When I was younger, I always looked ahead, wanting the year to hurry along.  Now I drag my feet a bit, trying to just take each day as it comes.  They fly by pretty fast anyway.

Have a good week, everyone.  Let's take time to remember September 11, 2001, and all the caring people who helped others that day.

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy (home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge)

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Back in Time

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I recently returned from a trip back to the 1800s in American history, courtesy of museums in the Midwest.  Above is a photo of Firestone Farm, transplanted from Columbiana County, Ohio to the Henry Ford living history museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

As I made my reproduction quilt blocks this week, I gave some thought to what life was like a hundred or so years ago.  These blocks were technically last month's, when dark blue and/or dark neutral was the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

My blocks were made on a treadle, but I've never used one as old as this one, from the collection of the Cincinnati History Museum.  This is an early Wheeler and Wilson.  Check out the foot-shaped pedals!  (My everyday treadle is much newer, dating from 1909.)

I did get around to making my aqua repro blocks.  The block is called Poinsettia, and I use the color of the month for the "petals".  The dark squares are just any color that goes with the petal fabric.  The pattern is by Bonnie Hunter, and is part of her Carolina Christmas quilt, in her book Scraps and Shirttails II.

Aqua is a tough color to find in 1800s reproduction fabrics, but I had enough of three prints at least.

I'm glad we don't have to weave our own fabrics in this day and age, but it was very interesting to see the antique looms at the Henry Ford.  Upstairs (where we couldn't go this time due to COVID) is a jacquard loom operated by hundreds of punch cards.  The technology was invented in 1804, and the reproduction loom was built by a curator in the 1930s.  (Click HERE for an article on the loom, plus photos.) 

I'm also glad we have more choices in fabric for quilts and for clothing in modern times.  According to the Cincinnati History Museum, the "average yearly budget for clothing in the mid-1800s was about $25 per person". Wages and costs were lower, of course, but that is still a very small amount.  People had dramatically fewer clothes than we have, and made them last longer.

This is a lovely collection of textile fibers, ready for carding, spinning, plying, dyeing, weaving or knitting.  There is a lot of work between shearing the sheep and knitting the socks or sweaters.

I really loved visiting these museums and seeing how people lived long ago.  But I'm under no illusions about the back-breaking work and hardships that were commonplace in the 1800s.

Here's the weirdest sewing-related thing I saw on this trip.  It was in the main museum building at the Henry Ford.

This diagram shows a contraption called "The Backus Water Motor".  I hope you can see the drive belt between the water motor and the flywheel on the treadle.

Here's a closeup.  Basically, the user would hook up the water motor to the kitchen pipe, connect the belt to the treadle, and turn on the water.  The water would drive the treadle and supply the power.  This is a completely insane way to run a sewing machine.  What an enormous waste of water!  Mr. Backus got a sewing machine related patent in 1874, at a time when some homes had running water but none had electricity.  What a difference a few years makes.

This week, in my air conditioned home, complete with running water AND electricity, I made a few more aqua blocks, like these 4 patch stars.

I'm re-reading this lovely book by Fons and Porter that features quilts from the Henry Ford's collection,

and my little grandsons are "reading" a Sesame Street book together.

We did take time out to make (and eat!) these big dinosaur cookies.

I hope you can take time out this week to do special things with people you love.  

Life is short!  Eat dessert first!

Cheers 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 

 

 

 

 

 

Pink!

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It's been a very strange start to 2021.  Thank goodness for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, to help us keep our hopes up and focus on something besides the horrors in the news.

I have often whined about not liking pink.  So where did all these pink scraps come from?  No matter, they have to get used up, and sewing these blocks is so much fun.

These are 6 in. finished blocks:  friendship star, plus blocks (aka ninepatch), and crumb hearts.  There is a temptation to call them "broken" hearts because of all the little pieces, but I'd rather think of them as Patchwork hearts, full of all kinds of things to love.

But wait, there's more!

These little blocks have a 2.5 in. cut square for the center and 2.5 x 4.5 in. rectangles around it.  The secret to making them like this is using a partial seam for the first seam.  Easy, and uses up 2.5 in. strips and squares.

Now for the 8 in. finished blocks!

I'm making Happy Blocks, with 4.5 in. cut centers and 2.5 in. cut strips around them.  (Click HERE for the tutorial.)  I'm cutting the centers from fun prints, mostly my favorite novelties.  The stars have 4 patch centers made from 2.5 in. squares, with the star points and backgrounds cut from 2.5 in. strips.

Also, this.

Ice cream cones!  I was inspired to make these by reading the Making a Lather blog, by Maggie Fellow.  (She makes so many great scrap quilts!) I looked at several patterns on the internet, and finally just decided to figure it out myself.  The cone part is cut with the Tri-Rex rulers, and the top is a 4.5 in. cut square with little background corners to sort of round out the ice cream.  The background is a dessert print, with cake and cupcakes and ice cream.  I will see how many blocks I can get out of it before I have to switch to another background.

Quilters, I know what you're thinking, and you're right.  This is a lot of projects!  But I do have a plan.  

One of my greatest joys is making quilts for babies and children.  They are donated to good causes, like kids in foster care or hospitals, or to families welcoming a child with Down's Syndrome.  This year, I'm making blocks for those quilts as I participate in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  When we come to the end of the year, I will have enough blocks to make a nice stack of quilts to give away.  (There won't be pink blocks in every quilt though, since many charities request gender-neutral quilts.)

And about pink--I'm finding that I actually like it!

I think I know where some of the pink scraps came from.  For years, it was my granddaughter's favorite color, and I made her a few things with it.  Miss E. is a joy, and it was so good to see her at our social distanced holiday party last weekend.  In the photo above, she's wearing a mask, and playing with slime she got for Christmas.  Little Buddy thinks slime is the greatest thing ever.  Little Buddy, who is 4, and Baby Buddy (now 10 months) were the only ones not wearing masks for the lunch-and-presents party.

I hope you're feeling "in the pink" today, and ready to take on the challenges of this new year. Let's keep planning, keep hoping, keep looking ahead to a better future.

And let's eat ice cream!

Cheers for reading this!

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday 

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap