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small triangles of fabric roughly sorted by size and color family

this is because I bought three quart bags of triangle scraps from Seattle Recreative for $0.50 each. I went there looking for somewhat larger scraps, as I’ve been wanting to try a scrappy/crazy quilt project but haven’t yet generated enough scraps of my own. Unfortunately most of the bags of larger cotton scraps contained decidedly Christmas fabric (yes, even the green scraps) so this was my best bet… and $0.50!

ziploc bags stuffed with small colorful fabric triangles

I have been sorting through the bags and finding some pre-sewn squares as well as a great many right or right-ish triangles. Unfortunately, triangles this size tend to skew when sewn together and don’t have a graceful seam allowance for machine sewing. So I am experimenting with English Paper Piecing a lot here, since it lets me hand-correct for neat angles as I sew.

The process starts with me basting each square to a piece of card so I can make sure the diagonal is exactly on the diagonal of the card… even a millimeter off true gets really obvious, which is why I have not historically quilted triangles! After that, each fabric-wrapped card gets whipstitched to its neighbors through the small amount of extra fabric around the edges of the card.

a line of partially completed whip stitching with the needle left partially through the fabric

After you stitch together all the borders needed for a given card, you can remove the basting thread and are left with just fabric. The backs are pretty lumpy because there’s places with 6+ layers of fabric all bunched up together, but that should even out okay when it’s pieced into a quilt top and quilted down over batting.

the back of a quilted square with lots of folded over seam allowances
dubious!!

I’ve been using these little squares as a chance to try out designs based on rotations. I’m only partway through my second block (the blues) but the design process is really fun. I have also looked up historical block patterns to see how many I can hack together out of scrap triangles.

quilt block made of two pinwheels and two diamonds, quartered
two pinwheels and two, idk, diamonds
blue and white blocks like claws around a center blue and white diamond
idk if this one has a name, I was just messing around
Dutchman's Puzzle block in navy, orange, and green with triangles swirling outward from the center
Dutchman’s Puzzle block

Due to the decidedly inconsistent quantities I have of any given color of triangle, I am going to have a pretty haphazard selection of shapes and styles of blocks, and many may end up as color vibes (like the blues and whites block above) rather than Exactly The Same Fabric in all the color locations. The quilt blocks will also vary in size, so in order to turn all the blocks I make into a lap quilt I will probably add borders to different sized blocks in order to even them out for sewing together into a more unified quilt.

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this is a Wheeler & Wilson No. 91 treadle sewing machine from 1905. I was looking for light fixtures at one of our regional architectural salvage stores2 and this machine was just sitting there all folded up in its table waiting for me…

the unpolished front of the Wheeler & Wilson 9
dusted and gently gone over with a coat of sewing machine oil
dirty back of the sewing machine
cleaned and polished back of the sewing machine

I wasn’t exactly in the market for a treadle machine (I mean I wasn’t not but it was very much an “I’m not willing to pay the prices that are usually asked for machines that might not be in very good condition” sort of situation) but seeing that the mechanisms appeared to still function and it came with six(!) replacement bobbins and a whole assortment of original feet, for less than $100 USD3, well.

it turns out that replacement leather belts for treadle machines are a thing you can easily obtain from sewing and vacuum stores (one place I called could get me one with a day’s notice, the other had them on the shelf ready to buy), so after buying a belt and cutting it to fit & adding copious amounts of oil at all the manual-indicated locations4 I have one fully-outfitted machine that works quite well. I still need to give the oak cabinet some love, but it’s doing great!

sewing machine reinstalled in its oak cabinet with a new leather treadle belt
all tucked away in the table

once I got everything set up and oiled, threaded properly, and adjusted the upper tension, I tested the stitch length adjuster at all the whole-number increments from 0-6 (it’s a continuous scale, so I could get other lengths as well). doing pretty well! I’m really looking forward to doing some slow projects on this new machine.

fabric with lines of stitches
stitch lengths from 0 (shortest) to 6 (longest)
  1. I’m still not sure how to tell if it’s a No. 9 (regular) or D9 but I am very certain that 9 is involved ↩︎
  2. architectural salvage rules. anything from used furniture to light fixtures to tile and flooring and lumber. if you’re in the greater Seattle area try Ballard Reuse, Earthwise Architectural Salvage, or Second Use ↩︎
  3. with an unmarked discount, $71 after tax ↩︎
  4. ↩︎

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photo of a blue quilt block stretched in an embroidery frame

In what is becoming a (bad) (not good) holiday tradition, I have knitted too much and started giving myself some kind of RSI strain in my left wrist. I’ve caught it early and am taking it very easy, but it also means I cut myself off from easy fidget projects. So! it’s time to resume hand-quilting this lap quilt.

We’re having construction done on the house so I have a lot of extra furniture in my room… I managed to rearrange things so that I can have the quilt frame and the ironing board the quilt is draped over next to my desk for ease of tv-watching and music-listening. I did block the dresser full of yarn to accomplish this, but since yarn projects are largely off-limits at the current time I have made my peace with that 😅.

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aka the day that the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution (repealing the 18th Amendment, aka Prohibition) was fully ratified! it’s been 91 years since beverage alcohol was re-legalized1 in the United States

if you’re inclined to celebrate, may I suggest having your favorite beverage (alcoholic or not) tonight?

some suggested reading:

  • Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City, Michael A. Lerner
  • Prohibition: The Era of Excess, Andrew Sinclair
  • The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State, Lisa McGirr
  • American Women and the Repeal of Prohibition, Kenneth D. Rose
  • Battling Demon Rum: The Struggle for a Dry America, 1800-1933, Thomas R. Pegram

  1. for beverage purposes, there were carve-outs, etc., but this is basically true ↩︎

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Last week I read a piece in Smithsonian Magazine on the oldest fossil tadpole yet described—161 million years old! Jurassic tadpole! That’s so old!!

I love frogs but I don’t actually know a lot about them, so it was really interesting to read this piece and learn that basic frog metamorphosis is really really really old. If you’re interested in reading the original Nature paper this piece is based on, the Smithsonian article has a sharing link to Nature that will allow you to read the full text.

P.S. If you’re looking to have a few interesting science and history stories land in your feed reader every day, I can highly recommend adding Smithsonian Magazine to your reader. Here’s the RSS link: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/rss/latest_articles/