Trip Around the Rainbow

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  

After a couple of weeks of attending more to my regular life, I finally have a little finish.  It's a Trip Around the World baby-sized quilt that I'm calling Trip Around the Rainbow.  Like everybody else, I have lots of UFOs I could work on, but there's nothing more fun than a new project.  (I know you know what I mean!)

Over the years I've made lots of these Trip Around the World quilts.  The only difference here is using the rainbow as a color guide, with red in the corners working toward purple in the center.  The squares are cut at 5 in., and the quilt is 40.5 in. square finished.

Here's the back, a "cloudy" purple with white stars.  The binding is a multi-colored print of fireworks.  For quilting, I stitched an X in each square with the serpentine stitch.  The batting is a soft and warm poly, from the roll given to me by my friend Joey.  (Thanks, Joey!)

There are hardly any novelty prints in this quilt, which is unusual for me, but I chose the fabrics mostly for intensity of color.  Two butterfly prints made it in, the orange and the aqua, and there are also light blue bubbles and yellow stars on blue.

This pattern would also look good with the colors reversed and red in the center.  Maybe I'll make one like that sometime.

The binding for the TATW quilt came from this large piece on the left.  I bought this stack at the Historic Bloomington Antique Mall in Bloomington, Indiana, where we spent a long weekend including viewing the eclipse.

It was a fun place to browse.  They have two floors plus a basement.  Of course my eyes went right to the antique quilts.

Hubby and I met at Indiana University and graduated in 1976, so when we found out Bloomington was in the path of totality we decided to go there.  The campus was beautiful as it always is in spring, with lots of flowering trees.  The eclipse itself was amazing and beyond my powers of description.  The university had set up a viewing area in a meadow, with live music and food stands and hundreds of people.  When the sky turned dark the street lights turned on.  The birds disappeared, and bats flew out over our heads.  Then suddenly the light came back, but everything looked strange.  Truly an awe inspiring experience.

Indiana's spring is farther along than Wisconsin's.  Their daffodils were mostly done, but we did see a few in their prime, like this one.  The gorgeous yellow made me think about the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.

Stretched stars were quick to make from 5 in. cut squares and 2.5 in. white squares for corners.

These are small, so I'm going to need lots of them!

I also made some more hexagons for this project.  I don't have very many yellow 1800s reproduction scraps, so I have to repeat a lot.  It won't matter in the finished quilt.  

Weirdly, I just realized how similar both of these yellow sets are.  Both have light stars that appear when you set them together.  And both only have two seams.  Hmm.  I didn't plan it that way at all.

Who loves legos and the library?  This Little Guy!

I hope you have as much fun as he does this week.  And every week!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Cats, Flying Geese, and Butterflies

 Welcome to Treadlestitches, and welcome to April!

It's a new month, and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month is yellow.  Now's our chance to cut up our yellow scraps and sew them into blocks for future quilts.  I started with my Rainbow Kitties, just because they're so much fun.  

I think of these more like stuffed animals than real cats.  In addition to prints with birds and dogs, we've got stars, swirls, flowers, and even sushi.  I can hardly wait to put these into quilts for children.

Yellow is really brightening up the sewing room, especially on all the rainy days this week.  Yellow scraps also looked good today, when we had sun and blue skies.

The yellow 3-D Flying Geese are flying in this week, too.  I'm getting lots of ideas of what to make with them when I have all the colors done.  I might try a couple of different options. 

Last week I mentioned this project, a UFO dating from (probably) the 1970s, that started out with large butterfly-shaped blocks to applique, and which I changed to these pieced butterfly blocks.  Here are the yellow ones.  A very bright (screaming?) yellow was popular in the 70s, and often had little flowers/figures in blue, red, and green.  I'm finishing the quilt as a donation to charity from the ladies at the church where our quilt guild meets.  This week I got all 20 blocks done, so I'm excited to choose sashing, cornerstone, and border fabrics.

Just a word about poly-cotton fabric.  Processes to make it were invented starting in the 1950s, and by the mid 1960s even kids like me had heard of "permanent press".  I remember my grandmother talking about how great it was with the neighbor lady.  Ironing was a huge chore when clothes were made of 100% cotton.  By the 1970s, when I was starting to quilt, it was tough to find any 100% cotton in the fabric stores.

There are lots of different kinds of polyester and poly cotton fabrics from this time period.  The best ones are 50% poly and 50% cotton.  Almost all the gingham in this era is 65% poly and 35% cotton, and it is slippery, nearly see-through, and pills after just a few washings.  Not ideal.

When I chose which butterflies to use, I picked the ones that would hold up the best and would also contrast with the muslin background.  I ended up with 16 blocks, and added 4 more from my vintage scraps.  I didn't use the original blue gingham, but I replaced it with a red and white vintage cotton gingham (I'll show more pictures as I finish the top).

I'm enjoying "remodeling" this old project, and I hope the church ladies will be pleased.

On a rainy Saturday afternoon, I started work on this puzzle.  It's called Caterday Afternoon.  See all the cats?  I didn't even try to count them all.  There were only 500 pieces in it, and it was great fun finding all the colorful cats.  Not too challenging, but I'm not working puzzles to drive myself crazy!  As I worked on it I realized several reasons why I liked it.

There were at least two tuxedo cats, which Snicklefritz and I heartily approved.

Books about knitting sat on shelves.  Hmm, there are a few books like that in this house.  Lots of the cats in the puzzle had knitted sweaters.  Hard to imagine cats putting up with that!  I'm just knitting dish cloths with cotton yarn at the moment.  (Isn't it fun how variegated yarn turns out?)

The cat puzzle also had several houseplants.  After a long winter, I'm building up my windowsill garden with herbs.  The rosemary and lavender survived from last year, and I've added this basil...

and thyme.  The last two were small plants from the grocery store which are happily growing, especially on days like today when the sun encourages them.

I'm not sure what these blue flowers are called.  They were blooming at a school where my Little Guy has speech lessons.  It's lovely to see flowers coming back to life.  Welcome, Spring!  Glad you're here.

I'm glad you are here, too!  Have a wonderful week, whatever the weather gives us.

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

P.S.  One more photo of our little boys at the Children's Museum, specifically the Harley exhibit:

Go, guys, go!  But don't forget your helmets!

 

UFO sightings

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for visiting!

As I write this, it's a cold rainy morning outside, but nice and cozy inside.  I'm doing a little happy dance, because this UFO is finally a finished quilt.

Here's the block.  Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns lists it as #2165, The Twinkling Star, first published in Capper's Weekly, in a Nancy Cabot column.

As you can tell, the blocks are enormous!  They are 24 in. square, and there are only 6 of them in this twin sized quilt.

More than 30 years ago, I saw an antique quilt in this pattern in a friend's house.  When I asked her about it, she said it came from her husband's family and was made by someone she only knew as Mrs. Boyd.  Because I didn't yet know the name of the pattern, I've always called it "Mrs. Boyd's quilt". 

For years I wanted to make a quilt like it.  In 2009 I finally started work on it.  Yep, 15 years ago. My friend Debbie C. and I decided to each make one, but with larger pieces than the original.  I got the blocks done, but they languished awhile.  I could hardly believe how much fabric these giant blocks used!  Anyway, I finished the top, and hit the old "how do I quilt it" road block.  More languishing, sigh.

Fast forward to now.  I have been trying to straighten up my quilting stuff in the basement, even before we had a new furnace put in and everything got discombobulated.  Many of my older quilt tops are being donated for charity, but I have a special love for Mrs. Boyd and knew I'd never quilt her myself.  I asked my friend Joey to quilt her for me, and she did a beautiful job with her freehand Baptist Fan design.
 

Two weeks ago I got the finished quilt back from Joey, and I was over the moon about it.  In between family stuff and other obligations, I got the binding on this week.  I chose red, to set off the edge of the quilt, and because Debbie's version has lots of gorgeous red in it (and I'm jealous of how pretty it is!).

Finishing a quilt always gives me energy to tackle another one!  Good thing, too, because this happened at this month's quilt meeting.

Our quilt guild meets in a church.  Some of the church ladies asked us to finish some of their UFOs into quilts for charity.  I chose this one, a butterfly quilt.

These butterflies were huge, nearly 10 inches across.  They were probably cut in the late 1960s, early 1970s.  And they were poly cotton.  (As a self professed cotton snob, this was a bit off-putting.)  Also in the bag was about 3 yards of muslin (that was thankfully 100% cotton), and a handwritten design for a large quilt with alternate plain muslin blocks and a muslin ruffle.

I really like taking someone else's UFO and reworking it into a quilt.  It's a fun challenge.  First, I knew I would not be appliqueing these blocks.  Poly cotton is tough to applique, since it resists taking a crease, and it's not my favorite technique.  But I did want to honor the original quilter's intention.  

I'm going with pieced butterflies.  I did the purple ones first, for purple month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I'm cutting the large wings from the original butterflies, the background from the muslin, the black bodies from vintage scraps, and the rest from coordinating solids.

This pattern was a free one, which I call The Captain's Butterfly.  It was designed by "Captain" Richard Wightman of Treadleon.net, a website for people powered sewing machine users. I wrote about it in 2015, complete with a tutorial. (Click HERE).  It's an 8 in. finished block.  It does not seem to be on Treadleon any more.

The top two butterflies are made from the pieces in the bag.  The bottom one is made from vintage fabrics from my stash.  My plan is to use mostly the original pieces, and add in a few to make enough for a small/medium sized quilt.

 On to the projects that will hopefully NOT end up as UFOs, this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.

A week's worth of grocery receipts plus bits and pieces of purple makes these strips.   I've got an idea of what I might do with them, but we'll see.  They are fun to make.

New project!  These are fun to make, too.  I'm cutting hexagons and triangles from my reproduction scraps using the Accuquilt cutter.  Can you see the white star in the center?  When they go together in the quilt there will be lots of other colors, of course, and scrappy light "stars".

No set in seams makes these "blocks" easy and fun.  Now I have to go back and do green and red to catch up.

Speaking of fun, it was Spring Break this week for our little boys, so we took them to the Betty Brinn Children's Museum in Milwaukee.  The place was packed, but it was still a great day.  In the photo above they are driving a pretend truck.

I hope you are having a good week, whether working on old projects or new.  Happy Easter to all who celebrate!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

16 Patches, Purple, and Snow

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Spring snow fell yesterday, leaving 5 inches on the ground here.  It makes a pretty backdrop, but I'll be glad when it melts away.  This week's finish is a 16 patch, made from my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks from 2023.

Here it is, spread out on the snow.  Don't worry, I'll wash it today before it is ready to donate.

It's fun to revisit this purple block.  I wish I had more of that monster fabric in the top row!  I bought a fat quarter at a quilt show.  I definitely should have bought more.  Lesson learned!

The back is this multi-dot print.  I've used it a lot, just because it's so cheerful and goes with any color.

Snicky posed on the quilt when I first laid it down, then ran through the house with his tail in the air, for some reason known only to himself.

He ended up sleeping in this cozy nest of quilts in my sewing room closet.  It was a great place to be during the snow storm.

While Snicky was sleeping, I was sewing blocks for this years RSC.  I'm making 6 in. rail fence blocks, each with a light, medium, and dark strip.  

When the rail fence blocks were done, I started on the string blocks.  I just love making these!  Using up the strings makes me feel frugal, although I must admit I don't have enough "real" strings of every color, so I cut them from the big scraps.  This part of my RSC sewing makes a huge mess in the sewing room, but I don't even care.  

The trimmings even make the trash look pretty!  Confetti trash!

On Thursday my Little Guy and I went to the library.  He loves to play with the train set, even though he has a similar set at home.

He's really enjoying the Bad Kitty books by Nick Bruel.  We read this one on Thursday, Bad Kitty Does NOT like SNOW.  I think I agree with Bad Kitty.

How are your projects coming along?  I'm looking forward to seeing all the great quilts and blocks at the linky parties (links below).  Have a wonderful week!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

 

Bricks and Bananas

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Finally, this quilt is out of the problem pile and done!  I pieced it at least a month ago from bricks blocks I made as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge last year.  Then I layered it, basted it, and started quilting.  Turns out my basting was very very bad, causing tucks and other unspeakable faults.  So I pulled out the quilting I had done, took the quilt apart (sigh), and started over.  You gotta do what you gotta do.

Check out the border--it's bananas.  Literally, a print of bananas on blue that looks like denim.  I'm so happy I still have some of this fun fabric.
 

This is the 4th and last Bricks quilt, and at 48 in. x 54 in. it's the biggest one.  I'm hoping to donate it to Quilts Beyond Borders.  I think I followed all the rules, but I'll check with them to make sure.

It was fun making these blocks last year.  Especially since each one only has two seams!  I'm going to keep this pattern in mind to use again.  The free pattern is called Forest Bricks, and comes from Marysquilts.com, click HERE.

The back is this red plaid from the stash, and the binding is the same fabric I used for the dark blue in last week's Lightning Streak quilt. 

There are a few more projects in the problem pile, but at least one is now problem-free.

 The purple 3-D flying geese are done.  I'm realizing how small they are (finishing at 2 in. x 4 in.) and how many I'll need for finished quilts, so I'm making lots of them.  These are easy too, just one seam.

More cats!  I keep finding more cute fabric to make into pieced cats.  I am inspired by some stuffed cats my grandkids have, called Cats Vs. Pickles (Click HERE to go to their web page.)  These cute little cats are all different colors and are soft and snuggly.  Even the pickles are cute.

When I bought the fabric for the green cat above, I thought the print was shamrocks, which would be fun for St. Patrick's Day on Sunday.  (In my defense, I snagged it out of a sale bin at a crowded quilt show and didn't get a good look.  I needed green anyway.)  It's still a cute cat, and I'll add it in with January's other green kitties.

Our guild's block of the month is this Pineapple Block, seen here made up in my yellow scraps.  I wonder what a whole quilt of pineapples would look like?  Hmm, or maybe lots of other tropical blocks?

Here's Buddy, putting a real pineapple on his head because the Minions do (?)  Or just because he's being goofy.  We all love fresh pineapple, and it was on sale this week at the grocery, so why not.
 

These little guys have just discovered video games, oh dear.  Their dad and uncle play online, and they get to watch.  Here they're pretending to be heroic characters.  Buddy and Little Guy have also been playing Mario Cart on the weekends.  They can hardly wait for Friday.

We've had some warm days this week.  It's a joy to go to the park with my Little Guy.  He was pretending to be a super hero, and told me we needed to "vacuum the city".  It took me a minute to get it.  "Do you mean evacuate the city?"  He nodded.  We got all the pretend people out, and he learned a new word.

I hope you are all having fun, and NOT vacuuming cities, unless you want to of course.  I'm wishing you a Happy St. Patrick's Day on Sunday, and a wonderful week ahead.

Thanks for reading!

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at SoScrappy