Apron made with a 1889 Singer VS2 treadle. I made three aprons with these fabrics as party favors for some of the moms that I knew who love to cook.

Monica you are so talented - I love the quilt and the aprons! I have not used my 1889 VS2 yet!

Nancy

You should give your Singer VS2 a try! You would be surprised at how pretty a straight-stitch it makes. At least, I was surprised with my machine. It produces a beautiful top stitch on both sides of this reversible apron. My only other machine that makes such a beautiful stitch top and bottom is my Singer 201. The aprons were a fun and quick diversion from making quilts. Thanks!

What a beautiful quilt with the blues. It is very calming to look at!

Thank you! It's an easy and quick quilt to make.

How amazingly awesome!! I love it!! :D

The only thing I've actually managed to finish in the past year is a nursery set for my youngest granddaughter. Very simple, but fun to make, sewn on my 201K treadle and Davis VF. I call this the "It's Good Enough" quilt--all except for the bumper pad, which is referred to as "Almost (But Not Quite) Good Enough".

Oh Miz Johnny! That is an adorable set! I love the sunflowers and the critters on the mobile.

Okay here is my contribution to the thread, all of these were done on a treadle and that is the only type of machines that I will use.

Billy

I only started quilting late last year, but all the quilts I have finished have been on vintage electric machines. I haven't remastered the treadle yet - it's been at least 55 years since I sewed on one. The quilt I'm currently working on is a shared effort by the 301 and a Necchi from the 40s.

Nice looking quilts, Billy. You seem to like color as much as I do.

All very nice! I love the stripes.

nice.

I love them ALL! Billy and Irishrose your quilts are very NICE!

Miz Johnny, those flowers for the mobile are a neat idea, so cute too.

Billy, all the quilts look so cozy, but I too like the stripes best, lots to look at and enjoy in those kinds of quilts.

Irishrose, love the colors in the purple one, it really pops!

Some more items made on my 15-91. The first has to be one of my favorite quilts, a string pieced spiderweb made for a baby boy. I used the directions off Bonnie Hunter's website.

The second is a washable duster made from left over flannel and some old nightgowns. (After washing it gets really fuzzy, this is a pre-washed picture).

Thank you. That daughter is prone to depression and loves purple, so I wanted her quilt to be uplifting. The Moda charm packs that are in it are called Happy and they really are. It's a disappearing 16 patch.

Bennett, love the Spider Web. So many quilts, so little time.

Disappearing 16 patch looks like a fun pattern to do. I have done a disappearing 9 patch, but your pattern looks more interesting.

That string spiderweb looks like a great way to use up some scraps. Very nice quilt!

I have a few blocks made using her Virginia Bound pattern. Another one of my Permanent Collection of UFOs. She's a great teacher; love her attitude!

All the quilts I have just looked at are really pretty. Lots of bright colors being used. Keep up the good work.

Sew Extreme,
Thank you!
Some of the blocks are log cabin blocks, they were extras from another charity quilt.
The crumb blocks don't really use a pattern. Here's a link for an idea of how to get started.

http://quiltville.com/crumbs.shtml
Sharon W.

This one was not done by me. It was done before I was born. My aunt gave it to me at a family reunion. Her grandma made it out of her boys old pants. I can see wool, velvet, silk, cotton, linsey - lots of texture. It has a linen back. It has wool inside and is just knotted together. I'm sure it was on a vintage machine - she died in the 1950s. Her sons were born between 1880 and 1900.

What a great piece of history to have!

It is interesting that they only knotted this. Thanks for sharing with us.

When I was younger, my Aunt used to come over for a couple weeks and we (the whole family) would tie quilts. The quilt was probably more utilitarian and meant to keep people warm. Plus the heavy fabric would have been hard to quilt.

That makes sense that the heavy fabric would be hard to quilt.

Monica, the wool quilt that I lost of my grandmother's was hand-tied.

OH NO!!

That is why I was so quick to save the antique quilt. When I lost it I wasn't into quilting and I had no idea the value of it all. "Young and dumb," as my late husband would phrase it.

Well you have some very pretty quilts to cherish now!

This quilt was knotted - very common in Wisconsin back in the day - it's all I ever saw until I moved south. I'm sure it has changed. Cloth cover of some kind and wool batting and knotted together would be called a quilt or a comforter. That area had a woolen mill at that time where you could card or re-card your batt. I would suppose the knots were easy to take out and wash the covers and then re-card. Our furnace was coal. The second floor of the house did not get much heat. My sister and I rolled up in thick 'quilts' made of two pieces of fabric with a batt tied in between. One of my earliest memories is the ladies aid from church would gather one day a week and tie quilts - they had a big table full of goodies, several quilts to tie and frames with quilts. The frames were wooden boards with holes down the middle of the board. They were suppose to be held with pegs. My mom's was held by C clamps. There was a strip of folded fabric tacked down the middle of the boards. The sides of the quilt were pinned to the strips on the boards. This part was done on the floor. Then the ends boards with some folded fabric strips were clamped under the side boards. Fabric pinned on. Then the batt would go on. Then the quilt top was pinned on all the way around. The frame was then raised and put on chairs or what ever got the height needed. The ladies aid would tie off the quilt. (If there were extra frames someone would prepare another quilt.) Then when it got out of reach I can remember going under and catching the needle and poking it back up or they would un-clamp the quilt boards, un-pin a couple pins at the top and bottom of the bottom board and roll the side boards a turn, reclamp and finish tying off the quilt. Wool yarn was best to tie with - the knots hold better than anything smooth. Once the knotting was done the outer layers were turned under and sewed to each other and the quilt was bed ready.

Not all the 'quilts' we tied were pieced some were just two pieces of fabric with a batt in the middle. I also remember crazy quilts made by Cora Clark in Sheldon Wisconsin. They were beautiful. I do not recall seeing any blocks in her quilts - it was all solid crazy pieces sewn one after another somehow. I had one of her quilts - I spent hours wondering how it was done. It just had all kinds of crazy cut pieces out of all kinds of little scraps - absolutely no rhyme or reason to it - one big quilt square. People would give Clara bags of scraps cut from the clothing they made - or used clothing - she turned them into quilts. Those quilts were tied, same as anything else. I should see if my mom can remember any thing. I'm pretty sure mom threw out the one I had years ago. All the quilts I ever saw when I was a kid were scrappy type quilts. I still like my quilts tied - warm and soft and fluffy.

This is interesting. I never saw a quilting bee or knew how the process. I did see my own grandmom quilting, but never with a group of ladies. Thanks for posting!

I wish I remembered more of the quilting bee. I think most of the time someone took ALL the kids in a different room and we played games - came out only for treats or out house visits. I'm thinking we played Spin the Bottle, Mother May I, I Spy With My Little Eye, Pass The Thimble, I'm Going On a Journey and other parlor type games with a couple teenage girls in charge. If it was nice we went outside. It mostly wasn't nice. Nice weather was for other stuff. I can also remember the old men sat in the kitchen and told stories. We didn't have much tv back then - just didn't get reception until cable... people had to gather somewhere. It was more than tying off a few quilts. It was during the day. I bet the trip to town also meant a trip to the store. We lived in town so it was no big deal to go to the store. Our town had a general store, a small grocery, and a corner store with a gas station, a post office and a co-op until it burned down, 3 churches and the school - grades 1-8. I'm thinking there was a tire shop too. Dad walked to the post office every day. Sometimes I tagged along - had to walk very fast to keep up - I still walk fast. There was no mail delivery in town. Fabric came from the Sears catalog or involved a trip to the 'city' (bigger town) and was a rare occurrence and a whole lot of fun. When we got fabric it was run through a measuring meter, then there was a thing they punched to cut a nip in the fabric and the clerk would tear it across. My mom would always check it - she would hold the fabric out to the end of her arm with one hand and up to her nose with the other... That was a yard.

OMG thats how my mom taught me to check yardage when a tape wasn't available! How cool to hear someone else say that :)

Miriam, you are pulling some real good memories. That is the way it was done in my home town also. What happen to those little machine.

I often wonder what happened to the little machines they used to measure fabric. You would think being so many of those they would turn up in antique stores or something.

I remember the measuring meters! I was always fascinated with the machine. Nice memories.

Beautiful quilt, Vintagemotif.

Wow what beautiful quilts ladies.