A Golden Oldie

This is the story of a quilt.  It's the oldest UFO (unfinished object) that I have personally made. 

We're going all the way back to the spring of 1988, when I accidentally joined a Friendship quilt group at a large quilt guild.  I say accidentally, because I signed up for a machine piecing group that met in the evening, but due to low turnout it changed to a hand piecing group that met during the day.

If you were quilting back then, you probably remember the raging debate about hand vs. machine piecing and quilting.  (If you weren't, you might think that was insane, and you'd be right!)  Machine quilting was in its infancy, and machine quilted quilts were often not even allowed in quilt shows.  Completely ridiculous, of course, but a very stuffy crowd was in charge in those days. 

My first quilt teacher was Nedra Whittington, whose name appears on the block above.  In her class, we pieced and quilted by hand, so I had the skills needed for the Friendship group.

We met once a month (I think).  The organizer drew our names out of a hat, and assigned us a month when the others would make blocks for us.  When it was our turn, we brought already cut out pieces for our blocks (with the seam lines marked for hand piecing), and handed them out, two sets per person.   The finished blocks were due at the next meeting.

I was just starting to get into quilt history then, and this was my favorite book:  Remember Me:  Women and Their Friendship Quilts, by Linda Otto Lipsett.  Ms. Lipsett collected friendship quilts and researched their makers.

This was my favorite quilt in the book.  It's in the chapter entitled A Piece of Ellen's Quilt.  There are no patterns, but it was easy enough to draft.  The block is called Snowflake in the Ladies Art Company catalogs of the 1890s to the 1920s.  It has lots of other names, too.

I wanted to make a bed sized quilt, and I knew I wouldn't have enough blocks with just the ones from the Friendship exchange.  So I started making more blocks.

Friends not in the group made blocks for me, too!  This one was made by Elaine, a dear friend who shared my love of antique quilts.  Take a look at the print.

Above is a photo of the quilt in the book.  Elaine found a reproduction print of this fabric, and made her block with it!  The colors are different, but the print is the same.

My friend Nancy signed her block with the exact date, and a heart!

I had lots of extra blocks that needed signatures, so I carried them around with me and got other quilters to sign them.  The second red block above was signed by Maxine Young, owner of my favorite quilt shop, the Fabric Shack in Waynesville, Ohio.  (It's still going strong, and has a great online store, fabricshack.com.)

My grandmother signed this block.  It is especially precious to me now that she has passed away.

I love this one, too!  My oldest daughter had been doing some hand piecing and wanted to sign the quilt.  She picked out the colors, and did some of the stitching.  You might be able to see that she included our zip code with her signature.  She was 9 years old then.

So how did I let this become a UFO?  When the blocks were all finished, I hastily sewed them into a top.  It was very badly done, and I knew it, even at the time.  Diagonal sets are not my favorites, and I had used a striped sashing, which emphasized all the flaws.  I said a thing to myself that one should never say--"Oh, it'll quilt out."  No.  No, it won't.  After a few years I admitted to myself that the striped sashing would have to go.

A few months ago, I finally ripped the top apart, and this week I got it back together with different sashing and added a border.

This is more what I wanted when I started this project all those years ago. 

It's not a huge quilt, but it fits nicely on a twin-sized bed.

I'm so happy to have this much done!  All day I've been thinking of a line from Bookends, a Simon and Garfunkel song.

"Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you."

Little Buddy and I are yelling for joy around here!

I'm wishing you joy this week, in whatever you do.

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

Scraps of Fabric and Time

It's December!  I can hardly believe it, the time passes so quickly.  Little Buddy and I put up most of the Christmas decorations this week.  I'm saving the tree for next week.  We're spreading the joy of the season all through the month.

Here's what I've been working on.  The top for this quilt was finished back in February.  (Click HERE to go to the post about piecing it.)

It's quilted at last!  And shown here on my queen sized bed.  The quilt finished at 72 in. x 81 in.

As you can see, I did very simple quilting.  Mrs. Pfaff and I quilted in the ditch to stabilize everything, and then we quilted the ditches of the nine patches and just continued the lines across the unpieced squares.  I marked the lines with soap.

It was easy to include the pieced border in the grid lines going across the quilt.  When I finished the grid, there was only the outer unpieced border left to quilt.

I sort of copped out, and used a swag stencil I've gone with a lot.  It's easy to mark and easy to quilt.  Plus I actually like it.

Here's the back, a lovely repro fabric I bought on sale a long time ago.  I love turning over a quilt to find a pretty backing.
Did you notice the binding?  It's the same fabric I was thinking about using for a border on my Wagon Trail quilt.  It's really dangerous to leave a fabric laying around in the sewing room.  It can get snatched up and used for something completely different.  Will I have enough left for the border I was planning?  I don't know yet.  I might have to go to Plan B.

This week, we had a sad event in our family.  Little Buddy's great-grandmother, Grandma Betty, passed away.  She was 90 years old, and had led a full life, but she will be sorely missed.
Grandma Betty was my son-in-law's grandmother.  My son-in-law (E.) told me this story.
When E was born, Grandma Betty made him a quilt.  He kept it all his life, and had it with him when he was living on his own.  His puppy chewed up the edge of it several years ago, which really upset E.  Last summer, E asked Grandma Betty if she could mend it.  At first she told him to just throw it away, but he refused.  Together, they cut off the damaged edge, and Grandma Betty mended the quilt.  Both of them were very glad they had preserved it, and E has this very special memento of his grandmother.
We just never know how important the gift of a quilt might be to someone.  It's a lovely way to be remembered.

I'm wishing happy memories, new and old, for you all this week.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

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

Loose Ends and Layouts

Welcome to my blog.  I hope you are having a lovely weekend.   I know I am--I'm sewing!

All my blocks are done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, so I'm starting to put them together into tops.  This is rows 1-3 of the Mary Ann's Baskets quilt, made from reproduction fabric scraps.  Surprise, I'm not following the layout in the book exactly.  I want a rectangular rather than a square quilt.  (The book is Classic & Heirloom Quilts, by Betsy Chutchian).
Even though I've been quilting for over 40 years, I haven't made very many diagonal sets, at least not recently.  So I'm having to lay it all out and work on it carefully so as not to mess it up.

I'm not sure why I decided to make three Rainbow Scrap quilts this year.  Maybe I just couldn't make up my mind?? (That would not be unusual.)  So I'm also working on this top.

The pattern for this quilt is in the same book.  Ms. Chutchian calls her quilt White Rock Creek, but another book calls these blocks Wagon Trail. They're also made from repro scraps, that I've been sewing all year.  I did add in some brown and black scraps (colors not on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge list this year), which would be appropriate to this time period.
Surprise again, I'm doing a slightly different set.  I'm setting it together in two sections.  Then I'll add borders (not sure what color yet), and quilt each section.  I want to quilt something pretty in the open spaces, and that will be easier if the quilt is in two pieces.

So these quilt tops have been on my to-do list for a while, and I'm glad to be at least starting to get them together.
But--squirrel!

I couldn't help it, I started these blocks last week, and just kept going until I had enough for a child's quilt.  The block is called King's Crown, and the centers are crumb blocks made from the snippets in my scrap basket.  There might be a bit too much red and blue in it, but you work with what you have.  No hurry on this one, it will be a charity quilt sometime in the new year.

I did actually finish a little wall quilt this week, but it was more than half done last week.  Now it's been bound, washed, and hung on the wall, ready for Thanksgiving.

Did it snow where you live this week?  We got a little dusting here Thursday night and Friday morning.  Little Buddy and I made this:

It's his first snowman!  He was so excited about it, even though it's not even as tall as he is.  He couldn't wait to show it to his big brother and mom.

Do we have lots of fun around here?  You betcha!

I hope you had fun this week, too.

Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up this week with:
Angela at soscrappy
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I Get A Whoop Whoop)
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework (Oh Scrap)

Split Personality

Last week, I finished this quilt.  I call it Crossroads.  It's made from my 1800s reproduction fabric scraps.  I bound it by hand this week, and washed it to bring out the crinkly goodness.

Check out these colors--cadet blue, garibaldi red, double pink, indigo blue, and of course lots of shirtings.
Now take a look at this week's finish, a Split Nine Patch:

Bright colors, novelty prints, lots of kid-friendly fabrics.  (It looks good with my grandson's car in the background, doesn't it?)
Sometimes I'm historical, and other times I'm just hysterical.  Maybe I have a split personality.

If so, Split Nine Patch is definitely the block pattern for me.  I was using up strips from the 3.5 in. shoebox for this one.

Here's one block laid out on the treadle cabinet.  Sometimes this block is made with a square of dark in the center, instead of the split square I used.

You can see more of the crazy fabrics I used here.  I got a huge stack of Route 66 fabric scraps at a flea market last summer, and lots of them made it into the quilt.

This was so easy to quilt on my Pfaff with the built-in walking foot!  I just crosshatched the center and quilted lines through the squares.  Between the light and dark areas I quilted with the edge of the presser foot on the seam.

The back is a giant dots print from Connecting Threads.  It comes 108 in. wide, so no seam on the back this time.  My daughter thinks it looks like something a clown would wear.

The binding is from a remnant, and I just barely had enough.  Last year, I bound everything with red, so this year I'm using up the blues.  Not sure what's next when those are gone.  (Shopping??)
The Split Nine Patch will go to a children's charity, and I hope it will be loved to pieces.
I can't wait to see what everybody else is making at Busy Hands Quilts and Crazy Mom Quilts.
Gotta split!
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Just the Scraps, Ma'am

Do you ever feel yourself getting sidetracked?  Last week I started making these blocks, two nine patches paired with two plain squares.  This was supposed to be a leaders and enders project while I finished assembling a different quilt top.  Instead, it completely took over.
I can't regret it, I had so much fun making these blocks!  The small 9 patch blocks are made from 2 in. squares.  All of it came from scraps.  The small squares came from the 2 in. strip drawer.  The larger squares are 5 in., and are from a box of charm squares I cut from reproduction fabric scraps.

Mostly, when I make scrap quilts, about 80% of the pieces come from actual scraps.  I usually cut the rest from yardage or big scraps so I can add in colors or types of prints.  This time, I went with 100% scraps in the blocks.  Scarcity makes for some interesting (weird?) pairings.
Check out the blue block above, with the flag squares.  I only had 4 squares of the original blue print, so I had to substitute a different indigo blue with larger white circles.  (Bet you saw that before I mentioned it!)

Sometimes I just had 1 square of a print, like the blue spools print here.  In that case, I cut 4 similarly colored prints from a strip, and put the odd square in the center.

I ran low on light fabrics right away.  In this blue block, all the lights are different prints.  (I love the rooster!)

This one is my favorite.  The center row in the black block above has two squares of light fabric printed with horses and riders.  This is just how the squares turned out when I cut them.  I sewed them like this as a little joke.  Is this an extremely long horse, or is the poor thing cut in half?  (Note: No horses or riders were harmed in the making of this block.)

Now I'm working on a piano keys border, and trying to decide what color squares to put in the corners.  I don't know why I'm even considering red and yellow, I usually end up with blue anyway.

These are the original piles of 2 in. scraps/strips, separated into light and dark.

And here's what's left after a week of happy piecing.  BTW, this is a small basket, usually known as a peck, which is one fourth of a bushel.
I'm not going to put any of this back in the drawer!  I've got my eye on another scrap quilt, and I'm going to cut up these strips for it.
It might end up being a large quilt.
In other news,

purple!  It's the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

I made 4 of each of the blocks for my quilts.  These are also reproduction fabric quilts, and I really don't have a lot of purple on hand.

In between piecing like mad, I'm quilting the second Pixel Heart quilt for Project Linus.  Check out the scraps under the table.  I think the operative word here is "overflowing".
Even though it's snowy outside, my sewing room is overflowing with scrappy quilty happiness.
And that's what I'm wishing for you this week.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
Link ups as usual with Busy Hands Quilts and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Christmas Red and Ice Blue

Scrappy Christmas stars was finally finished this morning.  Hurray, I've got a Christmas quilt ready for 2018, eleven months early!

Here's a photo of the quilting in progress.  I did this quilt-as-you-go style.  The center 16 stars and the inner border were set together first.  I quilted all but the inner border, and then added the outer borders of stars and red strips.  In this photo, I have just added the top and bottom borders.  Once joined together, I quilted the rest of it.  I'm using my electric Pfaff with the built-in walking foot.

It's a small quilt, only 64 in. x 64 in., shown here on a twin bed.

I quilted the red borders with a leaf stencil I've had for years and never used til now.

Instead of a label, I wrote on the back with permanent red ink.  The binding is sewn on by machine.  It's in the dryer now, and I hope it will be all crinkly when it comes out.
So that's Christmas red.

Here's ice blue--blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2018.  Our color for January is light blue.  The pattern is called Mary's Baskets, and comes from this book:

Classic & Heirloom Quilts, by Betsy Chutchian.  I'm also making a variation of the quilt on the cover.

Five blocks done so far.  I'm changing things around a little, I always do.
I've been collecting, studying, documenting, and drooling over antique quilts for many, many years, but I've never seen a quilt just like this one.   Until...

this one!  Weirdly, it's in a book I bought on the same day as the Chutchian book.

Pioneer Quilts, by Lori Lee Triplett.  It's a nice easy block, and should use up tons of reproduction fabric scraps from the 2.5 in. bin.
I'm happy to have finished a quilt this week, but I realize I just started two more.  Is that even legal?  At any rate, it makes me happy.
Stay warm and happy this week, if you can.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with Myra at Busy Hands Quilts, Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts, and Angela at Soscrappy.