Keep calm and Treadle On

Well, it's the Allietare Linky in Quiltville and I am so excited to participate!  Welcome to all the Bonniacs that are visiting here today.  I hope you'll enjoy my blog enough to come back every week.

Allietare! is well underway and it's time to show my progress which isn't much.  But before I talk about that I have to share about my weekend at Quilt Villa.  Bonnie and her 'hubster', Dave invited me and my hubby, also named Dave, for the Thanksgiving weekend and it was absolutely wonderful. We left Louisville a little later than planned and subsequently arrived in North Carolina well after dark. It didn't take long for us to realize that our not-so-trusty GPS took us the wrong way when we left the Blue Ridge Parkway for a dirt road straight out of Deliverance. Yikes!  Fortunately, Dave and Bonnie were out looking for us and once we hit a spot with cell phone coverage they were able to find us and lead the way to Quilt Villa.

Dave and Bonnie shared so much with us over the weekend.  They shared their wonderful cabin; a place to get-away from the stress and hassles of the everyday.  We had the pleasure of meeting their boys, Jason and Jeff and Bonnie's dad, Bill and had a great time playing Mexican Train Dominoes and Farkle.  We also enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast fit for a king, lovely hikes to see mountains, valleys, streams and waterfalls and a Thanksgiving leftovers picnic.

We also got to meet wonderful Sadie Jane who is just a love!

But my favorite part of each day were the evenings where we all sat in front of the TV watching our favorite holiday musical movies, binding our quilts and singing along.  You can't beat Karaoke Christmas movies, especially White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney!  It was really wonderful and a Thanksgiving I will always remember.  I accidentally left my crockpot behind so I guess I'll have to go back for another visit to pick it up!

Garden Party

So now I am back home with these lovely memories and the first clue of Allietare! waiting for me.  I pulled out the Easy Angle and my 2" strip bin and my gray constant and jumped right in.  I've decided to make this quilt on vintage machines which means each step will be made with one of many different vintage sewing machines that I own.  First up is Minnie... Minnie is a Minnesota Model H treadle sold by Sears back in the 1930s.  She's a beauty. I got Minnie last summer in Iowa while I was attending at retreat hosted by Jo Kramer of Jo's Country Junction with classes by the one and only Bonnie Hunter!  I love the way she stitches and I'm sorry I don't take the time to work on her more often.  


Minnie resides in the living room so I had to bring everything upstairs from the basement studio.

 And of course my kitty, Bobbins Hunter felt obligated to oversee the whole process.

 Not to be outdone, Riley decided to take over for Bobbins when he left his post.
















And of course nothing can be done until we get the seam allowance right.  This needs a little bit of adjustment. Can you see that it's a little short at the top left side?  Uh oh!  





















Using Bonnie's Seam Allowance guide, I can see that it is ever so slightly off.












Ahhh!!  Now that's better.  Remember, check the UNIT SIZE!  NOT THE SEAM ALLOWANCE MEASUREMENT.  When we go to put these pieces and parts together we'll want things to match up so it is really important that the UNIT SIZE is correct!













I'm about halfway done with these HSTs and the plan is to finish the rest in the next day or two.   Can't wait to see where Bonnie takes us with this one!  The next clue comes out in a couple of days.  Yes!

Piece and Joy!
Irene

PS  Find your way back to the linky by clicking HERE