Scrappy Sewing and Summer Memories

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Hello!  Lizzie would like to show you a quilt today.  I think she's gotten jealous of her brother Snicky being The Cat Who Poses on Quilts. 

Our finish is this Bright Hopes quilt.  I showed the top in May, but couldn't quilt it until Mrs. Pfaff came back from the shop.  It measures about 42 in. x 48 in., and will be donated to the Children's Advocacy Center for a child to take home.

About 2/3 of the rectangles in the quilt came from a bag of cut pieces donated to our guild by Mr. M, a gentleman who once managed a fabric store.  I supplied the rest from my "collection".  There were so many fun fabrics in the bag, like monkeys, Ritz crackers, parrots, and quite a few shamrocks for St. Patrick's day.

I think Mr. M might be a Cubs fan!  I still have lots of these rectangles left.  

This is the back.  It was not quite wide enough, so I sewed a strip in the middle.

Here's a closeup of the backing.  As you can see, I quilted a simple 2 in. grid over the blocks.  Take a look at the print.  Notice anything odd about the clothes on the line?

I bought the backing fabric second hand.  It just looked like clothes hanging on the clothesline to me until I looked at the selvedge, and saw the name.  Winter Gnomes?  Oh, the red things are gnome hats!  I didn't even notice before, just thought these were cute clothes.  I love fun fabrics like this.

June is almost over!  I had a little panic over that, and even though it was a busy week made time to finish my orange blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Thank goodness these Radio Windmill blocks are fast and easy.

Favorite blocks!

Orange monkey!

And whatever this is!  Maybe an orange bear?  From a cartoon?  You never know what you're going to find when buying second hand fabric.

Thank goodness I finished the Sisters Choice blocks last weekend.  Now I can start July all caught up.  Our color for July is PURPLE!  My favorite color!

My favorite block from this set uses some of the Halloween squares I got at the last guild meeting.

There goes Little Guy, driving again.  This time he's part of a program called Safety Town.  They learn about how to be safe in cars, on the bus, at the pool, etc.  They have fun field trips to the fire station and a vet's office and the police station.

Yesterday he graduated from the program.  His big Buddy was proud of him.  So were we!

I took a photo of this banner at the school where Safety Town is held.  Isn't it great?

Thursday morning while the boys were at their activities I picked strawberries at the local U Pick place.  Such a delicious part of summer!  I need to start taking the boys with me to pick, even though I know we won't get as much done.  It's good for kids to know where food comes from, and I have lots of good memories of picking with family.  

Do you have good summer memories?  I hope so.  And good winter ones too!  Have a wonderful week, everyone, and Happy Independence Day to all in the U.S.A.

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Lap Quilts, Orange Scraps, and the Big Sale

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

It's two for the price of one today!  These little lap quilts are ready to be donated to a local nursing home.  They are twins, made from the same blocks and the same scrap bags.  I call them fraternal twins since the colors are opposite.

The block is rectangular.  I got this idea from Cynthia at Oh Scrap.  Each block is just one square and one rectangle.  The squares were cut 4 in., and were in a bag of scraps donated to our guild.  The rectangles came from a similar bag, and were originally 2.5 x 4.5, but I cut them down to 2.5 x 4 to match the squares.  There were only a few squares of this farm animal print.  Isn't it sweet?

Quilt A (above) is made from dark squares and light rectangles, all from the scrap bags.

Quilt B is made from light squares and dark rectangles.  I had plenty of rectangles from the scrap bag, but I did have to add in some light squares cut from my scraps.  The border, backing, and binding are the same on both quilts, and came from my stash.

The cat in this square reminds me of Little Lizzy, our shy kitten.  She's shy around people, but goes chasing through the house with her big brother Snicky.

Speaking of Snicklefritz,  our Little Guy asked me to take this picture with him.  Little Guy loves Snicky, but we are still working on teaching him that cats don't like hugs.

Quilt guild meeting was last Wednesday, and I picked up a few more scraps from the free table.  The squares in front are Halloween prints.  I love the ones with black cats!  In the back are squares and rectangles made from strips.  Lots of great orange variety!

Time has been short this week, but I was able to use my orange scraps to make some hearts for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

As always, some are more successful than others, but all will be put to good use in kid quilts.

I have two favorites this week!  Birthday candles and monkeys, and two Dr. Seuss prints!

Sometimes people ask me where I get all these novelty prints.  One answer is the big sale at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts, which happened on Thursday.  It's always a highlight of the summer for me.  Above is the flannel I bought, some novelties and some "calmer" fabrics as blenders.

Here's the rest of it, the quilting cottons, plus a Sock Monkey panel.

I like these cat and dog prints best!  I can't wait to start sewing with them.

Also, lots of scraps!  They had a scrap section outside, where you could fill a bag for a set price.  I filled a kitchen trash bag for $5.

I always think of this sale as a Win-Win-Win-Win-Win.  The museum wins by raising money, and those of us who donate fabric etc. win by cleaning out our stuff.  Shoppers like me win by saving money.  The charities I give quilts to win, and the last win is keeping fabric and scraps out of the landfill.  Plus it's so much fun!

As of this writing, all the new-to-me fabric has been washed and put away.  I must admit, some of the bins are pretty full!  (I will not be buying any more flannel for a long time.)  Everything I bought will either be useful for the quilts I sew, or will be passed on to others.

It's a lovely summer day here, but a heat wave is forecast for the whole weekend.  Perfect weather for sewing in the air conditioning!  But isn't it always perfect weather for sewing?  Have a wonderful week!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Back in Action, and Orange Blocks

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  I'm glad you stopped by.

At last I have a finish!  Mrs. Pfaff, my electric sewing machine, is back from the repair shop (Hurray!!), and we went straight into action this week.  The quilt above is the one we were quilting when she stopped working.  The shop lady said it was a timing issue.  I'm so glad she's working again, and we were able to finish this donation quilt.

Snicky the cat insisted on posing for you.  We were gone all morning, and I think he felt lonely.  The quilt is kind of narrow and long, measuring 40 in. x 65 in.  It will be going to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee, and will be given to a child.

Disappearing Nine Patch is the name of the pattern.  I finished one like this last September.  Most of the blocks for that one were donated to our group.  All of the blocks for this quilt were made from my stash. 

I would call this quilt a variation on a Disappearing Nine Patch.  This block starts with 9 squares that measure 3.5 in. x 3.5 in. (instead of the more usual 5 in. squares).  Four of them are the main print (like the popsicles above), four of the squares are a light print, and one square is a solid color, in this case yellow.  They are sewn, cut, and reassembled to make an 8.5 in. finished block.

The back is a soft blue print with stars.

I do all my piecing using my treadle sewing machine, so I was able to keep piecing while Mrs. Pfaff was being "hospitalized".  Now we have a whole list of tops to finish.  It may take me a while to catch up, especially with doing more babysitting now that school is out.

We've been spending a lot of time outside, in the yard and in the park near our house.  Little Guy likes playing on the unused volleyball court with his cars and trucks.  His big brother Buddy was racing around the park on a scooter when I took this photo.

I can't believe we are nearly halfway through June!  Orange month for the RSC has been especially fun for me this year, since I've been concentrating on collecting orange scraps to use.  They're hard to find, especially novelty prints, but I've had a little help from my friends.

It's always dangerous to use one way prints in the background.  I got a couple (well, maybe 3) of these Bow Ties turned differently than the others.  No worries, I can do an alternating set similar to this with them.  I might actually like it better!

This summer I'm making a new schedule for myself so I can have more time for sewing.  I already get up early, so I make sure to have the basics done by 7:00, and sew from 7:00 to 8:00.  During the day its kids and chores.  After supper I can get things set up for the next day.  I'm mostly too tired in the evening to sew.  We all know how easy it is to make mistakes when we're tired.  Ripping out bad seams is no fun at all. 😒

These wild orange Thrifty blocks were easy to sew.  They're a little extra scrappy.  As always, I'm amazed at all the different shades of orange there are in the world.

Favorite block!  I love that alphabet print.  And that orange crab!

Here's something else I love:  the generosity of quilters.  This pile was collected at our last guild meeting.  Just a note, I didn't make ANY of these, they were done by fellow quilters especially for the Children's Advocacy Center.  There are 9 gorgeous finished quilts, and three quilt tops, complete with binding!  Best of all, these quilts are made with prints and patterns kids will love.  I have offered to deliver them to the drop off point at a quilt shop, and just had to take a closer look first.

Can you see what's on the edge of the galvanized planter?  It's a toad!  The boys noticed it and called me over to take a photo.  We were afraid it would fall in the tub and be unable to get out, but it went on its way after a while.   There's lots of quiet wildlife all around us.

What's ahead for your week?  More orange?  Definitely more for me.  I'm wishing sunshine and quilting time for us all.  And Happy Fathers Day to the dads!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches 

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Churning Through the Scraps

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I picked up the kit for these Churn Dash blocks at a quilt group meeting in April.  They were made from 1930s reproduction fabrics donated to the group.  I sewed the blocks on my treadle and put them together with yardage from my stash.  One of our volunteer long arm quilters will quilt it, and it will eventually be donated locally.

These colors and prints are so cheerful.  A quilt appraiser friend once told me the impression most people have of 1930s fabrics is lots of pastels, and there are plenty, but there was also widespread use of what she called "crayon colors", like red, orange, and dark blue.

The kit didn't include white squares for the centers, so I added the solid color ones.

Here's my favorite block, the one on the right.  It's made from a colorful fruit print, plus an orange solid square.  It's the only one like it in the quilt.

Orange is our Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month, and I am so glad!  I really love orange, and try to find orange fabric wherever I can. 

This week I pulled out all the big scraps, little scraps, fat quarters, etc. to start cutting.  (Does your ironing board collect mess like mine does?)

I started with Bright Hopes, since that's the easiest/fastest one.  The Hot Wheels rectangles came from Mr. M, who donated so much wonderful stash/scraps/etc. to our guild.

I'm having less time to sew now.  Want to see why?

These wild hooligans are off school for the summer.  Thank goodness we've been able to get outside most days to run off some of their energy.

I've also had a big project to work on:  cleaning out my quilt stuff in the basement.

Remember this from last week?

All of these vintage scraps have now been sorted.  Many of them were actually useless, just tiny scraps or low quality fabric, or had stains or other problems.  The bad ones have been trashed and the decent ones I didn't want/need were bagged up for the museum sale (drop off next week).

Here's what I kept:

The bag is full of feedsack strips for a string quilt.  The larger pieces of fabric next to the bag are left over from dresses I made for my oldest daughter back in 1979.  All the rest are scraps from 1930s to 1960s or so.

These are some of the fun fabrics I kept.  Bears in canoes, purple strawberries, and a floral print with what looks like the Liberty Bell on it.  I love weird stuff, old or new.

I also salvaged a rainbow of solid scraps.  They will be put to good use!

Every year, the Humane Society has a huge rummage sale at the county fairgrounds.  Last year I scored a vintage iron there for a dollar, and it lasted nearly a year.  This year I got this little G.E. iron for only 50 cents.  It's slightly smaller than my regular iron, and is a Dry Iron, so no steam.  This is perfect for me, I don't even use steam.  We'll see how long it lasts.  I feel like I've already gotten my money's worth.

The book I found at the sale is called Quilts From the Heart:  Quick Projects for Generous Giving, by Karin Renaud.  I had never seen this book before, but it's absolutely perfect for me!  Simple patterns, bright colors, and the author even loves novelty prints.  How did I miss this?  It was published in 2006.  I gladly paid 50 cents for it, and have already started one of the quilts.

Good news:  Mrs. Pfaff is back!!  My dear "coworker" and beloved sewing machine is back from the repair shop and sewing again.  I can't wait to get some quilting done.  But first I need to go to the Farmers Market, so I'd better wind this up.

Thanks for reading this long-winded spiel! Have a lovely week!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Check out all the great blogs at these linky parties!

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 

Cynthia at Oh Scrap