Thankful

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

 

This coming Thursday is Thanksgiving, an appropriate time to express our gratitude for all the blessings we receive daily and throughout the year.  I have to say I am well and truly thankful for so many things.

A minor injury has had me sidelined from machine sewing recently, but it was a good time to clean out the sewing room closet.  I am thankful for all the treasures I found.

Like this little quilt above.  The turkey block above is part of a doll quilt top I made years ago from antique redwork blocks bought at a flea market.  For literally years I have been trying to decide how to quilt it--hand or machine?  At the moment I'm leaning towards quilting it by hand.  The blocks are cute and I'm glad to have this little bit of history.

I also found this finished quilt in the closet, in the To Be Mended pile.  It's a friendship quilt I made in 1986.  Instead of binding, I brought the backing around to the front and stitched it down, and some of it had come loose.

Prior to 1986, I was a self taught quilter and honestly not a very good one.  My first class was at the Village Sewing Shoppe in Lebanon, Ohio, with Nedra Whittington, who signed the greenish block above.  Nedra was seriously old school.  We cut scraps with templates and scissors, pieced by hand, and quilted by hand.  I learned so much!  It took me three years to finish the class quilt, but I ran this little wall hanging up by machine in the meantime, and got my quilt club friends to sign it. 

Amy, my eldest child, wanted to sign a block too, so of course my son and youngest daughter also wanted their names on the little quilt.  Amy, at age 7, signed their names as well as her own, since the younger ones were 4 and 2.  I love that I have all their names in Amy's handwriting on the blocks.

A few quick stitches fixed the edge, and now the quilt can be displayed again.  This quilt reminds me how thankful I am for my first quilt teacher, my quilt club friends who were always encouraging, and my sweet children who went with me to quilt meetings and shops (sometimes willingly!).

A few days ago, I tried machine quilting, and found that it didn't hurt anymore!   My pinky toe is healing up, and I am beyond grateful to be almost totally back to normal.  It's still a bit swollen, which makes wearing shoes somewhat uncomfortable, but doable.  The top was basted and ready to go, finished quickly with a diagonal grid.

This is the second time I've made a quilt in this pattern, Mathematical Genius by Judy Gauthier, from her book, Quilts for Scrap Lovers.  I included a lot of my favorite novelty prints, like the "raining cats and dogs" on the light blue background.  The batting is a soft poly which was a dream to quilt.  (Thanks, Joey!)  The quilt will be donated locally.

Here's the back, a fun print from That Fabric Store. 

I'm so thankful I can machine sew again!  I'm also thankful for quilt designers who do all the math for us (I am so NOT a math person!).

 Buddy and Little Guy, our youngest grandchildren, were here all day Friday (no school--conferences) and really got into coloring Pokemon characters.

The boys and Grandpa had a blast with Grandpa's drums.  Buddy's drumsticks here are just blurs.

I am beyond grateful for all my children and grandchildren, and so happy that we all live within an hour's drive of each other.  I know how lucky I am!

Here's someone to be grateful for!  Snicklefritz the cat is a very welcome companion on a snowy afternoon.  A cup of tea, a library book, a warm quilt, and a cuddly cat--what could be better?

Happy Thanksgiving this week to all who celebrate.  And thanks for reading!  I'm thankful for YOU!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Old and New

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

For many years, I actively collected antique quilts.  My favorites were scrap quilts (of course!) and tops or block sets.  I didn't mind if they weren't perfectly made or in perfect condition.  I learned so much from studying those old quilts.  I love to share them, in person, on the blog, and as home decoration.  This year, I plan to show you a few on the last Saturday of the month.

This month's quilts are small and red.  Check out the date on this square--January 29, 1916!  Exactly one hundred and six years ago today, someone embroidered this.  It's amazing to think how much has changed since then, and how much remains the same.

This one is not exactly an antique.  I bought these old redwork blocks for 50 cents each at a flea market many years ago, and in 2019 I finished them into a small hand-quilted quilt.  (You can read about it HERE, in February 2019's posts.)  It makes me happy to see all the farm animals, plus the jack-o-lantern, a witch on a broomstick, and a cat playing a fiddle.  If you click on the picture, you can see them a little better.

The second antique is a doll-sized tied quilt.  It's a little wonky, as doll quilts frequently are.  Many of them were the first quilting efforts made by a child.  From the fabrics, this quilt probably dates to the 1890s.

Do you see the horseshoe print?  There's also a riding crop (a whip) with it.  Mothers often dressed their little ones in these "conversation prints", as they were known.  I found this treasure in an antique mall in Oklahoma, when I was visiting my mom.  It's a reminder of a nice day together.

In other news, I just had to add one more red project for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Crayons!  I've wanted to make a crayon quilt for a long time.  I didn't need a pattern, just sewed 18 rectangles (2.5 in. x 4.5 in.) into a strip. I added a 4 in. finished point at the top made with the Tri Recs tools, the same way I  made ice cream cone blocks.  All the rectangles are different red prints.  Easy and fun.  Can't wait to make crayons in the rest of the colors!

The red string quilt is layered and basted, and getting quilted.  It takes a little longer than a baby quilt of course.  I'm working on this while I wait for the backing I ordered for my cross stitch quilt (you know, the one I've been working on since 1967!  It's not getting set aside ever again!).

This one is done.  Someone in my wonderful quilt group made the six center blocks and added the tan sashing.  I sewed on the two outer borders, and quilted and bound it.  

The back is this cozy black and green flannel.  It's not very big, less than twin sized, but it might work for a cot at the homeless shelter.  I will leave it to the charity committee at my group to decide where it ends up.

Speaking of our amazing quilt group, look at this!  Because I was the moderator for about half of last year (meaning I led the meetings), they gave me this wonderful gift--a handmade basket full of fabric!

Since they know how much I love making quilts for babies and children, they packed the basket full of fun novelty prints and even yardage for backing!  It was so kind of the ladies to do this.  I appreciate it very much.

I've started cutting up some of the pieces.  Fussy cutting these little squares is so much fun.

Here's some big fun--our little buddies working puzzles on a cold winter's day.  Baby Buddy has magnetic dinosaurs, and Little Buddy is putting together a U.S. map.  They work well together when they have separate projects!

I hope your projects are all coming together nicely, whether you work alone or in a group, or both!  Have a great week.

I'm looking forward to sitting down with a cup of tea and seeing what all the bloggers have been up to, thanks to the hostesses of these weekly linky parties.  Come join us!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

Bits and Pieces

Welcome to the blog!  Do you have one of these?  This is my "bits" basket, a place for scraps too small to go in my strip drawers or boxes of cut squares.

These are some of the bits I pulled out to make aqua blocks, for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  I make them like slab blocks or crumb blocks.  (The cute monsters scrap didn't make the cut.  Sorry, monsters, just not enough aqua.)

I already had two projects going for the RSC, but this just sort of happened, as things do, so I'm rolling with it.  I will need to go back and make a few more blocks in the colors for January, February, and March.  Not a problem, there are lots of bits and pieces.

I didn't realize until I took this picture, but this block features a lion's butt, complete with tail.  Just a little secret to find in the eventual finished quilt.

Flowers may not be blooming outside yet, but the orchid in the windowsill is going crazy.  Little Buddy and I have been enjoying watching the buds open.  He thinks they should hurry up.

The color reminds me of the fabrics in this little quilt I finished this week for Jack's Basket, as part of the Hands 2 Help Comfort Quilt Challenge.
It's a Trip Around the World quilt, made in pink and green.  The squares are charm square size, 5 in. x 5 in.  I used up some of my 5 in. squares and strips, which I was saving just for this purpose. 
The charity requests quilts made 36 in. square, which has been kind of a fun challenge for me.

I always think of these quilt patterns sort of like recipes.
Here's the recipe for this one.

Trip Around the World Baby Quilt
finished size:  36 in. x 36 in.
All squares are cut 5 in. x 5 in.
When I make this pattern, I lay the squares out as I go, and then sew them into rows.  As you can see from the photo, the colors go in rounds.
Round one: the center.  1 square
Round 2: 4 squares.  (I used a lighter fabric to contrast with the surrounding squares.)
Round 3:  8 squares
Round 4:  12 squares
Round 5:  12 squares
Round 6:  8 squares
Round 7:  the corners.  4 squares.  I cut mine from the same cupcake fabric I used for the center.

This is a total of 49 squares, set 7 x 7.  These squares finish at 4.5 in.
7 x 4.5=31.5 in. square
To make the quilt finish at 36 in. square, we need to add borders cut at 2.75 in. (two and three-quarters).  After sewing, they will measure 2.25 in.
Here's the math on the total.
31.5 + 2.25 +2.25=36  (or, 8 x 4.5=36)

Can you see the cute cupcake fabric in the center?  I only had a few squares of this, bought second hand on a sale table.

Simple quilting goes very fast on these little quilts, and then they're ready to mail off.  I hope this one will be cheerful and sweet for a new baby.
More Jack's Basket quilts are in the works!  I'm going to fill up a box before I send them.

At long, long last, the redwork quilt is finished!  I had the hand quilting done as my February OMG, and just this week finished hand sewing down the binding.  I don't know why I just never wanted to pick it up and put in those last stitches, but I finally got up the gumption and did it.  I'm keeping this one.  It's sort of a "new" antique, made from old blocks.

My life tends to be really busy.  Little bits and pieces of sewing time make me happy, and make everything run more smoothly.

This week, I'm wishing you joy in all you do.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:
Angela at Soscrappy
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Cynthia at Oh Scrap
Hands 2 Help Check In 

OMG I made it!

Woot!  My fingers may be sore, but my redwork quilt is QUILTED!!!  This was my OMG, one monthly goal, for February.

I've been working like crazy on the hand quilting this week.  Yesterday, with the quilting done, I was finally taking out the basting stitches.

Biddy the cat was helping me, as usual.  He's mostly moral support.

I still have a few thread ends to trim.

The back is off-white solid fabric from my vintage bin.

All that's left is the binding, which I'll do this weekend.  Thank goodness I didn't make that part of the goal!  I managed to find enough of the original red fabric to bind with, which is almost a miracle.  This project has been hanging fire for more than 3 years!
If it wasn't for the OMG, I wouldn't have gotten this done.  Many, many thanks to Patty at Elm Street Quilts, where I'm linking up today.
Happy dancing all day long today!

Quilting Like Mad

Has anybody else got an OMG deadline you haven't yet met?  ACK!  I've got til Thursday to finish this little redwork quilt for the One Monthly Goal February challenge (click HERE for details), so I'm hand quilting until my fingers bleed, or at least hurt. 

Two of the borders are done, so I do have an actual chance to finish if I keep after it.  I'm using this rope design.  I chose it because a) I had it already; b) I don't see how I could use this stencil for machine quilting; and c) it's an old fashioned design for an old fashioned quilt.
I've been working on this quilt during my Little Buddy's naptime, and sometimes in the evening when watching TV.  The best programs for hand quilting, in my opinion, are on PBS.  No commercials.  We record nearly everything we watch, and skip the commercials when we play it back, which means grabbing the remote every few minutes to buzz through all the people trying to sell us luxury cars, medicine with truly terrifying side effects, financial services we don't need, and delicious-looking food we shouldn't eat.  Time spent buzzing is time not spent stitching.

And of course, I have more than one project going on!  Having (finally!) decided on a backing, bought it, washed, and pieced it, I am at last machine quilting my Wagon Trail quilt, one of last year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts.  Above is the design I chose for the open spaces.

I'm using Golden Threads paper to get the design on the quilt.  I mark a square of the paper with the design, using a permanent pen, pin it to the top with safety pins, and then twist and turn (and possibly swear a little), quilting this on my domestic machine with the built in walking foot.  I'm liking the look of it, but I am very glad I'm doing this in two sections.  As a complete quilt I would not be able to manage this design at all.
So that's the quilty stuff I'm up to!  Also, this:

I got this book from the library--Modern Quilt Magic, by Victoria Findlay Wolfe.  (Click HERE to go to her author page at Amazon.)  It was fun to read and to look through the colorful quilt pictures.  She is an inspiring artist, and I actually got to meet her once.  I hear from acquaintances that she is an excellent teacher.
When not reading or quilting this week, I was having fun with my Little Buddy.

This is my youngest grandson on the giant pile of snow at the side of our driveway.  I have a similar photo of his mother doing the same thing.

Little Buddy loves the snow!  (Can you tell?)
This week, I'm wishing you this kind of joy, in the simple things.  Like a four foot snow drift.  (But just the joy, not the snow.)
Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Angela at So Scrappy
Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop
Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Wintry Mix

Wintry mix is a term that accurately describes our weather lately, here in southeastern Wisconsin.  We have had rain, snow, below zero temps, sleet, ice, oh, and sunshine, all just this week.

So of course I'm not venturing outside much, which leaves lots of time for sewing when my Little Buddy goes home for the day.  As you can see above, I finished my little Kings Crown quilt, which I started back in November (click HERE for the post).  The centers of the blocks are crumb squares.

Here's the back.  The binding is a green I've had a long time, probably because it is so ugly (at least I think so!).  It's the right shade of green, so I can finally use some of it up.
I'm planning to send this one to Quilts for Kids.  I hope it brightens up a hospital room for a child and his/her parents.
This whole post is a wintry mix, just a mish-mash of things I've been working on lately.

I got 3 yellow stars done for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt made from reproduction scraps.  Here I'm laying them out on the ironing board, trying to decide what I'll eventually use for sashing fabric.  What do you think of the green?

Yellow can be a hard color for 1800s repro quilts.  It is so bright! which is great, but it tends to draw attention to itself, maybe a little too much.  So I made the star points in yellows and the centers in a contrasting fabric to calm things down a little.
I only made 3 yellow blocks, mostly for the same reason.  A little yellow goes a long way with these post-Civil War reproduction quilts. JMHO.

At last, I got around to straightening up my sewing room bookcase.  It took half a day to take everything off, dust like mad, put stuff in the basement and/or the Goodwill pile, and decide what I really needed on here.  I even weeded out the project bins on the bottom, and only kept things upstairs that I seriously plan to work on this year.  Progress!

Here's where I am on my OMG--one monthly goal--for February.  I'm hand quilting the sashing on the little redwork quilt.  There are a total of 31 sashes, and I only have 13 more to go.  But then I have to figure out what to quilt in the border.  Any ideas?

More yellow!  I'm sewing the triangles for my second RSC project, a zigzag quilt in bright colors.  I get a few done just about every morning before my grandson gets here.
So that's where I am today, ready to go up to the sewing room to do my favorite kind of "work".

I'm hoping your work this week is interesting, challenging, and fun.
Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up today with:
Cynthia at Oh Scrap
Angela at So scrappy
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Sarah at Can I Get a Whoop Whoop 

Check out all the wonderful quilty goodness!