Vintage Four-Patch

This is what my cutting table looks like most of the time. I move on to the next project and leave a pile of leftovers to put away later. This slows down some of my creativity, but not enough to keep me from doing it again. I had a bunch of strips and squares leftover from my Star Storm Quilt. I decided to trim down some of those leftovers to make some simple four-patch in four-patch blocks.

First, I made a bunch of smaller (4.5" by 4.5") 4-patch units.

Then I joined some to make bigger blocks (8.5" by 8.5"). 

So many happy little 4-patches!

I'll keep working like this until I have enough for a quilt or I run out of fabric. I am unlikely to run out of fabric, so I'm sure to get a quilt. Scrappy will win the day.

Tools and supplies (affiliate links):
Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle
Fiskars Rotary Cutter
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Classic Steam Iron
Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion
Fiskars 8-inch scissors
Juki TL-2010Q
Creative Grids 6.5" Square Ruler
Cheryl Ann's Quilting Design Wall - 72" White

Remembrance

I've been working on this quilt for what seems like forever. This quilt is a recreation of a family quilt given to my Darling Husband when he was still a small child. That quilt lived on our bed for the first few years of our married life. Even then, it was pretty worn.

I wanted to use the block in combination with a growing stack of 1930s reproduction prints to reacreate the quilt for his sister. This quilt is the result.

This quilt is much larger than the original. That quilt was something appropriate for a twin or a full. This quilt is more appropriate for a queen bed. Of course, that complicated the purchase of white batting, but I found some Quilter's Dream in white at Spring Water Designs.

I wanted the quilting to provide stability but didn't want to do custom quilting. I went with the swirl flower as an all-over motif. Once washed this beauty will be so snuggly!

The piecing is the real star in this quilt.

My accordion-folded binding ready to go. Making binding is a relatively quick project. Something I can fit in on a worknight.

I attached the binding by machine because I want this quilt to be used up, just like its predecessor. I don't think quilts should be put away for a rainy day, or for safe-keeping. I think quilts deserve to be used.

One last close up.

This quilt is number 10 on my Get It Done UFO Challenge 2018 list.

Getting Married Again

I'm terribly sorry. I won't be able to post about crafty things today. Today is the day I get married the same guy I've been married to for the last 30 years. Again.

Here is my stylish (from 1987) veil from the first day of this adventure. Those fake flowers have held up rather nicely.

So far, the forever part seems to be working out.

I'm sure there will be something crafty for you to look at on Friday.

Recreating a Memory in Fabric

A few months ago I wrote this post about the name of this quilt block. The block design was taken from a quilt my husband received from his grandmother more than 40 years ago.

I had a stack of 1930s reproduction prints that I thought would be perfect for this quilt. I cut the pieces to make 25 of these blocks during the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild retreat.

I managed to finish all but one of those blocks as I misplaced a single square.

I arranged the blocks and pieced the rows.

Then I sewed them together. Now I need to buy fabric for an outer border and some backing.

Here are a couple of the original blocks faced and ready to be mounted and framed. That quilt earned its rest. I used this tutorial to attach the facing to these blocks.

What is in a Name?

Darling Husband has a quilt made by his grandmother. 

It is old, worn, and well-loved. Sadly, it is beyond time to throw it out. 

But what are these blocks? Blocks made with fabrics from the early 1950s, sewn entirely by hand. What is the name of this block? I wanted to find the answer to this so I set out across the internet in search of some answers. 

It isn't quite a Crown of Thorns, and it isn't quite an Single Wedding Ring or English Wedding Ring. Those blocks are constructed the same. Only color placement is different. In truth, I went down the rabbit hole on this one a couple times. In the end, I picked the story I wanted to tell. 

Marcia, the amazing quilter of Quilter's Cache fame, has this block described twice in her even more amazing collection of quilt blocks. If you are a quilter and have never visited the Quilter's Cache I recommend you stop what you're doing go there right now. This post will be here when you get back. 

Crown of Thorns block

From the Quilter's Cache I found the the Crown of Thorns block. The assembly is the same as my block, just the color placement is different. Second is Wedding Rings 2, again, the same assembly, just different color placement. I looked around the internet for a couple evenings and could not find this block put together with an obvious plus in the middle of the block. 

I did more research and found some wonderful history about this block. I found this block has been around for over 100 years. It has been called Saw Tooth, Odd Scraps Patchwork, Crown of Thorns, Wedding Ring, Single Wedding Ring, and English Wedding Ring. You can read more about this block from Quilt History Tidbits or from The Quilt Index.

It was published in the Chicago Tribune in 1933 by Nancy Cabot. You can learn more about that from Moore About Nancy. And if you want to know who Nancy Cabot was (hint, that isn't her name) I recommend you check out Illinois Quilt History.

There is also a Nancy Cabot made modern group over on Flickr if you want to see what some of her blocks look like in modern fabrics.

There is also a tutorial for this block on Fat Quarter Shop's YouTube. It's really good and you should check it out if you are a visual learner. 

At one point, I made this block from an issue of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks. In that issue the block was called Saving Grace submitted by Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew! You can read more about that quilt in my post from 2015. The quilt is made with a single, super-sized block and the effect is perfect for a baby or toddler quilt.

Ultimately, I was forced to just make the block I wanted to make. I'm not sure what to call it. It isn't a Wedding Ring block but it will make an awesome quilt someday. I'll find a good name for it and I'll let you know what I come up with.

What would you call this block? Do you have a favorite vintage block?

Stringing Along: Quilting

Last week I posted about this string quilt. I finished the assembly and added a border. Why did I add a border? I think a border, while not always necessary for the design, is important for stabilizing the center of the quilt. All of these string blocks and the on-point setting made it pretty obvious to me that I would need to stabilize the quilt before loading onto the frame.

My favorite place to pick up wide backing fabric is Spring Water Designs. Every time I to they have something that just works with my quilt top. This backing was no exception. I embroidered the label directly onto the backing fabric before loading onto the quilting frame.

Not surprisingly, I found that this quilt was a little oversized but still fit onto my frame. I did buy batting for this project because I didn't want to have to piece batting. I generally buy batting by the roll so my limit (without piecing batting) is 90". This quilt is almost exactly 90" wide so that wasn't going to work.

I went nuts with the quilting. I quilted feathers, I echoed the feathers. I quilted swirls and echoed those. This quilt is full of several different quilting motifs and I love the overall effect.

I love playing with different designs. This is the back of the quilt so you can really see the quilting detail. I really need to make a quilt with some negative space and do some free-form quilting. quilting it over busy piecing doesn't give it a chance to shine.

Here it is all quilted. I still need to add the binding and get some good photographs of this one.

For those three people who follow my blog, I apologize for being late with the third post the week. I always mean to blog regularly but this week got sort of busy with after work social events, almost no craft time, and even less opportunity to sit down in front of my computer and write a post. I'll try to do better next week.

Do you make scrappy quilts? What about string quilts that use up those skinny leftovers?

Stringing Along

I have been making string blocks for a long time. Long enough that it is time to make something. If you want to learn more about string blocks, and how I made these blocks using my vintage treadle sewing machine, check out this post from over a year ago. I joined the blocks using a more modern machine but that had more to do with the time I had and the fact that I had house guests than anything else.

I piece my string blocks on a thin paper foundation like Bonnie Hunter suggests in her free tutorial. I used Electric Quilt 7 to make sure I had enough blocks and got piecing.

This quilt will be about a queen size at about 89" by 97" or so. That depends on the final border but that is the plan. It is bright and scrappy and absolutely awesome.

If you want to see the story behind my vintage sewing machine (nearly 100 years old and still sews a pretty stitch) my adventure began in this post from 2014. Old sewing machines are amazing creations that will outlive me just like mine lived longer than my gran.

Stringing Along

I regularly add narrow strips of fabric to my bin of strings. Saving those slivers of fabric for a rainy day. I discovered that there was a small flaw with this plan. The bin does not hold infinite amounts of strings. I decided it was time to start stitching.

I trimmed pages from an old phone book to use as a foundation for assembling my blocks. This is a method I learned from Bonnie Hunter. Her blog Quiltville has loads of great stuff including the directions for string piecing blocks using foundation papers called Basket-Weave Strings. She also has a section about getting started with string piecing.

I decided it was time to really sit down and use my Singer red eye (model 66) in treadle cabinet and make something. You can read the four-post series I wrote about this wonderful machine. Start at the beginning and see some of what I've done to take this machine from a display piece to a working machine. This seemed the perfect project. That 1/4" seam allowance isn't all that important when piecing strings. This machine sews such a pretty straight stitch, and quietly, too.

I stitched and stitched.

Then I pressed and stitched some more. I used Electric Quilt 7 to figure out how many of these blocks I would need. It helpfully supplied the answer: 200! Because I don't make many small quilts.

I stitched and stitched. On January 9th I reached that goal with this stack of blocks. Next will be trimming them, removing the paper backing, and sewing them into rows. I did manage to knock down that strings bin, though.

How small is too small a piece of fabric to keep? I found some very narrow strips in my bin and I'm not likely to keep pieces that small (think around 1" wide) any more. What is your limit?

Recently Kelly Ann asked her readers if they used these leftovers. If you are a scrappy person, please go leave her a comment and let her know.

I recently discovered some amazingly colored cotton yarns through The Knot Theorist. You should check out the fun color combinations created by Susan of Jazz Handz Fusion Fiber.

Vintage Revival: Singer Stylist 457 Gear Replacement

Last year I wrote a couple blog posts about a Singer Stylist 457 that I picked up.  She isn't fancy, doesn't do any special stitches and isn't much to look at.

First I talked about the machine and then I talked about the cabinet.  Then I also talked about my sadness when the gear that drives the bobbin assembly was chewed up.

While making an order for some other parts for some vintage machines through a very helpful seller on Etsy called Old Sewing Machines, I found that he also had the gear I needed for this machine for a great price.  I added the gear to my order and did some research while I waited for my parts to arrive.

The belt on the underside is what drives the bobbin hook.  When the gear went, the machine wouldn't pick up the bobbin thread because the hook wasn't grabbing the needle thread.  I had shared an email or two with a commenter on my original post and was given a link to the procedure to change the gear and reset the timing.

Here is the best photo I could get of the damaged gear while it was still in the machine.  This photo is taken from the front of the machine through an access port.

Here are some of the remnants of the gear that I managed to rattle loose during replacement of the gear.

Somehow I lost the gear inside the machine and it got wedged inside but not near any moving bits.  I had to get a friend to come peer inside to find the darn thing for me.  But here it is after removal.  Since I had already installed the new gear I don't have a side-by-side comparison.  I did some more cleaning and oiling while I had the machine apart and it sews quite nicely now.  

I did some test stitching and while it could use some more minor adjustment, I'm really proud of the result.  For reference, the white thread is the bobbin thread and the pink is the needle thread.

Now that she is all put back together she is ready to go back in the cabinet and back into the travel trailer.  I'll let you know how the new gear works out.  So far I'm really pleased with the outcome and I'm so glad someone told me it was easy to do so I could get over my reluctance to trying to time a machine.

Have you stretched yourself lately and learned a new skill?

Singer Spartan - 1962

I decided to finish up the work on this darling little Singer Spartan.  (I think I spent more time getting that little slide plate onto the spring than I spent doing anything else.)

The only thing I hadn't done was remove the bobbin case and clean under it and the feed dogs.  I'm glad I didn't skip this step.  I found more a than a few dust bunnies had made their home under there.  I've learned so much about the 66/99 machines through my willingness to do a little bit of homework and to take things apart.  These machines are brilliantly designed.

Here is the serial number for this little Spartan.  According to ISMACS.com she is a 99K, from September 11, 1962.  She sews beautifully!

I picked this machine up locally through a Craig's List ad.  It was a great transaction for a wonderfully maintained machine.  I may have paid a bit of a premium on this one, but I got an amazing machine for an amazing price.  You couldn't get a comparable machine for $75 in a chain store.

The Spartans didn't come with lamps, so I had to add a stand lamp.  (I'll share more about the lamp next week.)  I sewed up all the blocks for clue #5 of Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt on this machine.  Every stitch was beautiful.

Don't think this 3/4 machine is light.  I haven't put her on a scale, but I will say she isn't light.  I've read on the internet that she weighs in around 26lbs.  I should go find my scale.

Do you have a vintage machine that you love?