Quilt Progress on the Treadle Machine

When I first posted about the blocks in this quilt, I received some great feedback about the block name and its history. This block has been known by many names including Rose Dream, Endless Chain, The Broken Square, Lover's Knot, or Cactus Rose. Thank you all for your help with that. You guys are better than Google!

Mom and I had another Sunday sewing afternoon. This time we were ready for the real thing. No more practice for us. It did take us a few tries to get a good start, but once we were going, it was full steam ahead.

We took over the whole room with all of the blocks. I pinned; Mom sewed. I decided not to attempt squaring up the blocks. I did not want to disturb the hand stitching and actually, once they were all pressed, they are fairly square anyway.

In just a couple of hours, we had all of the rows sewn together. We were both surprised and a little proud of our progress. Here is the back of one of the blocks. You can really see how small scraps were sewn together to make pieces big enough for the blocks.

Look at all the extra seams in the pink fabric. The interesting thing is the piecing of the individual fabrics was done on a machine. It may have even been the very machine we are using. The assembly of the block, though, is all hand stitched.

The next step for this project is to sew all the rows together. Then we will be ready to layer it up. We need to decide on a back and may go with traditional muslin. I will be doing some studying up on pin basting. I have become spoiled by 505 temporary adhesive spray for layering my quilts but am afraid to put chemicals anywhere near these special blocks.

I'm looking forward to more progress with this special quilt.

Linking up with Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River, Scraptastic Tuesday at She Can Quilt, and Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Other posts related to this project and the treadle sewing machine.

Quilt Blocks from my Great Grandmother

Treadling Away 

Practicing on the Treadle Sewing Machine

Practicing on the Treadle Sewing Machine

This is my grandmother's sewing machine. My mom had the cabinet restored and I am very fortunate to have it in my home. Recently, mom and I decided to use this machine to sew together a quilt top with blocks made by my great grandmother.

Before Mom and I get too far into putting together the blocks from my great grandmother, we wanted to get some practice in on the treadle machine. Fortunately, my husband knows a lot about sewing machine care so he put the belt on, oiled it up in all the right places and made sure it was ready for us. She came over on Sunday for lunch and then we got started with our sewing.

Thank goodness for YouTube. The bobbin is a long bobbin set inside a shuttle, similar to this one.

We were able to thread the bobbin and the machine, and insert the bobbin in the shuttle, but could not figure out how to put the shuttle in the machine. These videos saved the day:

• How to Wind a Singer Sewing Machine Long Bobbin and Load the Shuttle the Correct Way
• How to Load the Bobbin, Thread, and Start Sewing on a Treadle Machine
• Installing a Long Shuttle

Once set up was complete, the sewing worked fabulously.

After a while, the light through the window was a bit much so we turned the machine to the side. I love watching my mom sew. She remembers making clothes on this machine as a teenager. I used a piece of painters tape to mark the 1/4" seam allowance for her.

I was really impressed with the stitches. They are a bit small but very even and the tension is just right.

Every now and then, a little bit of thread would bunch up on the back, but it never impeded sewing and still holds the seam together just fine. It may be happening on stops and starts so we'll check that out next time we sew.

This is the uncropped version of mom sewing. I love the contrast of my youngest son in the background playing computer games. There have been just a few technology changes over the two generations.

The sewing machine is set up right in the spot where our Christmas tree usually stands. I told mom we had until the end of November to get that quilt top put together. I believe we will share a number of Sunday afternoon sewing sessions over the next few weeks.

Related posts:
Treadling Away
Works in Progress - Treadle Piecing and Machine Quilting 
Quilt Blocks from my Great Grandmother

Works in Progress - Treadle Piecing and Machine Quilting

No finishes to share yet this month, but certainly some fun in progress happenings are going on. First, I'm in love with my grandmother's treadle machine which returned very recently to working condition.

I'm making a scrappy trip around the world quilt using Bonnie Hunter's tutorial. I have a basket of strips next to the machine and every time I have a few minutes to spare, I sit down and sew a strip or two. This is going to be a fun, long term project that will hopefully, make a great dent in my scrap pile. My family is a little bit nervous about this one, since I am intentionally using fabric that might otherwise sit neglected for years. My husband, Duane, isn't so sure he wants to be sleeping under ladybug fabric, but he knows better than to judge a quilt by just one block. I'm looking forward to seeing how this one develops.

My other major work in progress is this triple Irish chain quilt.

I want to say this is the third quilt top I ever pieced, back in the 1990s, but I'm not positive about that. It's at least among the first five. My stash was very limited then and I remember deciding on the color scheme simply based on which color I had the most of. I pieced and layered this quilt, then promptly set it aside. The quilting step was way too scary back then. 

Since this is a year for finishes, it was time to get this one done. Also, the quilting step is becoming one of my favorite parts of quilt making these days. I decided to quilt a large flower in the center of each block. It is from Leah Day's Flower Ball free motion pattern.

The rest of this quilt will be taken care of with my walking foot. I plan to cross-hatch all the cream squares in the Irish chain, and then think about how to quilt the borders.

This shouldn't take too much longer to finish. I'll be sure and take some daytime pictures once this project is completed.

Treadling Away

Many years ago, my mom became the caretaker for my grandmother's treadle sewing machine. She invested in refinishing the cabinet, and as a piece of furniture, it makes a beautiful show piece. Somewhere along the way, my mom decided that it would become mine and it could go ahead and move to my house.

Recently, I became more interested in this machine. We had always said that it would work great if it just had a belt installed. I wanted to know if a belt really was all that it needed. We had a new belt, and Duane installed it fairly easily. Then it sat for a little while longer, because it was going to take some effort to figure out how to wind a bobbin and thread the machine.

A few YouTube videos later, the bobbin was wound, and the machine was successfully threaded. It was time to sew. One of the things I was worried about is how I would look using this machine. My hand-eye coordination isn't the greatest, so I had this fear of my head bobbing like a chicken while my feet went up and down on the treadle. No, I did not record myself sewing on it, and I'm fairly certain that it wasn't an overly embarrassing experience.

The really exciting thing is that it sews a fairly good stitch. For a machine that hasn't been sewn on in probably thirty or more years, it works great. I've got to figure out a good way to mark a 1/4" seam allowance. This machine is going to get used.

I love the contrast of the old machine with the modern thread. This machine deserves all the tender loving care it can get, and Aurifil thread will help keep it going long and strong.

With the excitement of being able to sew on this machine, I decided to see if I could find out more about its history. A quick search for the serial number shows that this machine was manufactured in 1911. Wow, 102 years old and still sewing strong. They just don't make them like they used to.

My grandmother was born in 1915. She and her husband raised a family of three daughters in McDonough, Georgia. They were a farming family, which meant it was often a challenge just to meet basic day to day needs. This machine was purchased as a used machine from a newly married couple in the community that had fallen on hard times and needed money more than they needed this sewing machine. My grandmother told me that she remembers how sad the new bride was when they picked up the machine from her home.

My mom told me that she used this machine often growing up and that she could make it go a hundred miles an hour. I can't wait to see her give it a try next time she visits.

Check out the decal detail. A winged sphinx on a Singer sewing machine. An interesting combination. I'm going to do some research to see how to clean this machine up. It has a good bit of rust that I want to try to clean off, but certainly don't want to cause any further damage. I'm also going to figure out a project to make exclusively on this machine. It will be something small that can sit in a basket next to it so that I can work on it a little along. It's fun to think that I am sewing on the same machine as my mother, my aunts, my grandmother, and maybe even my great grandmother.