OMG Housing Projects

Thank goodness for the OMG-One Monthly Goal-at Elm Street Quilts.  I thought I might be going out on a limb here (heh heh) when setting the goal for March, but it has worked out in spite of everything.

The Goal--Figure out what to do with 77 cute house blocks I made in 2017 for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  All blocks will be used in some way, and NONE will go into the orphan block bin.  The projects don't have to be finished, but (and I quote)  "every single one of these blocks will have an assigned home by the end of March, including a plan for the quilting."

 The Results
Quilt #1:

This top used 42 of the blocks, surrounded by bright (sometimes crazy bright) 2 in. finished strips.  It measures roughly 60 in. x 70 in.
I'm not going to add a border, but I will probably bind with a solid color (purple?) just to give it a visible edge.  I'm going to do some simple machine quilting, and I have a backing already picked out.  When it's done, it will go to Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo, as part of this year's Hands 2 Help Comfort Quilt Challenge.  (Click HERE for more information.)

Quilts #2 and #3:

These are finished!  I haven't had a finish in a long time, so I'm very happy today.  Both of these are 36 in. square quilts for Jack's Basket, another of the charities supported by this years Hands 2 Help.

I blogged about the pink quilt a couple of weeks ago when I finished the top.  (Click HERE to go there for the pattern for the set.  It will work for any 6 in. finished block to make a 36 in. square quilt.)

Here's the back.  I only had a yard of the pink baby print, and you really need the back to be at least slightly bigger than the front.  So I added a strip of the butterfly print I used in the border.

The second little quilt uses blocks in primary colors, with a border of hot air balloon print.

And I did the same thing as the first quilt on the back of it.  The backing looks like clouds in the sky, so the balloons fit right in.

Okay, time for some math.  Quilt #1=42 blocks, Quilt #2=16 blocks, Quilt #3=16 blocks.  That adds up to 74 blocks.  So there are 3 leftovers.  But none of them are going in the dreaded orphan bin!

These 3 are going to be potholders.  I am trying to get rid of the terrible old potholders in my kitchen drawer, and these will help--as soon as I get them quilted.  I've got batting cut here, but I may rethink it, I've got another wacky idea.  If it works out, I'll let you know!

So that has been my quilting journey through March.  Having a goal in mind really does help get things done.  Who knew?

This week, I'm wishing you the joy of springtime and hope for good days ahead.
Cheers for reading,
 Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:
Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal
Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I Get A Whoop Whoop)
So scrappy Scrap Happy Saturday
Oh Scrap 

Old Books, New Blocks

Welcome to the Treadlestitches Blog!  I may quilt with electricity, but all my piecing is done with people-power.  It's old fashioned and energy efficient at the same time.  (Too bad it doesn't burn very many calories.)

We went to the annual used book sale at our local library today, and here is my quilting/knitting loot.  Do you recognize any of these?  Most of them date from the 90s to about 10 years ago.

Here's my favorite--The Knitted Rug, by Donna Druchunas.  It is like new, and only cost $1.
I don't know if I'll make any of the projects in these old books, but I enjoy reading them.  Eventually I'll pass them on to someone else, but I will have definitely gotten my money's worth.

Here's the one Little Buddy likes the best--it has these wacky chickens on the back...

 ...and this is the front cover.  It's like a blast from the past.

Having finished my zigzag blocks last week, it was on to my Spiky Stars for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge month of green.  Now, what's wrong with this picture?

Yep, I cut 8 right-side pieces and 0 left side pieces.  This is my third month making these stars, and I forgot about the tricky part already.  You can't get cocky here!  Four of the "peaky" shapes are cut with the fabric right side up, and four with the fabric right side down. Doh!

There, that's better.  Good thing I had plenty of that green.

So the block did turn out.  I only made 3 of these this month.

As you can see, I quilted the blocks after I finished piecing them.  I'm hoping this will make it easier to end up with a finished Spiky Stars quilt at the end of the year, and not another dreaded UFO.  I will have some hand work to do on the back after I sew them together, but I won't be manhandling a big quilt through my small machine opening.
Spring seems to actually be coming here in Wisconsin.  The robins are back!

I couldn't get any robins to pose for me today, so I'm using a picture from last year.
Robins are a sign of hope, and it cheers me just to see them.

This week, I'm wishing hope for you, and the joy of anticipation.
Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:
Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop
Angela at So Scrappy
Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Wearing of the Green

Welcome to the blog!  We're thinking green this week, with St. Patrick's Day coming up, especially since the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is green.  Above is my little buddy in his dinosaur raincoat, growling for the camera.  He seems to think he needs his tongue to stick out when pretending to be a dinosaur.  Don't be scared, if he catches you he won't eat you.  He should be called the Tickle-o-saurus.

More green.  My two zigzag rows for one of my RSC quilts are done,  a study in bright green craziness.

We've got cows, Halloween, minions, dragons, numbers, diaper pins, ants, and lots and lots of dots!  I didn't think I had very much green, but I cut up everything I could find.  It's like Mulligan stew, only quilting.
Now that's done, I can get on with my One Monthly Goal of working with my house blocks.
I had a total of 77 of these blocks when I started, made year before last for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I used 42 of them to make blocks with wild colors, like this (warning, photo is a repeat from last week).

Those 42 blocks are done now, waiting for me to set them together or quilt them separately, maybe starting tomorrow.
What about the rest of the blocks?
I'm participating in the Hands 2 Help Comfort Quilt Challenge of 2019, hosted by Sarah at the blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Maybe these little house blocks could make quilts for Jack's Basket, a group helping welcome babies with Down's Syndrome, and providing support for parents and family members.
So, I made this top.

I used all of the pink blocks, plus some green and turquoise  and purple, and some of the lighter blocks.

It was hard to get a good picture.  I finally taped it to my kitchen cabinet.

The sashing is made from a paws print, just because kids love animals.  The butterfly print in the corner stones and border is for hope.

Winnie the Pooh is just for love.

Jack's Basket requests quilts that are 36 in. square, so I figured out how to fit my house blocks into that size.  This will work with any 6 in. finished blocks, or even with 6 in. finished squares cut from a cute print.

Here's the pattern.
1.  Make 16 blocks that finish 6 in. square.
2.  Cut 24 sashing rectangles, 2.5 in. x 6.5 in.
3.  Cut 9 squares, 2.5 in., for cornerstones.
4.  Cut 4 width of fabric strips 3.5 in. wide for the borders.
I used the same fabric for cornerstones as for the borders, just to tie this scrappy quilt together, but they could easily be different.  You'll need about half a yard for the border/cornerstones, and less than that for the sashing.

The math works like this:
4 squares per row=24 in. finished
3 sashing strips per row=6 in. finished
2 borders, one one each side=6 in. finshed
Total=36 in.
I could picture a little quilt like this made with stars, or hearts, or nine patches, etc.

That uses up some more of my house blocks.  Nineteen left!

I'm wishing a happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow for all who celebrate, and good quilting time for us all.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:
Angela, at Soscrappy (home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge)
Myra, at Busy Hands Quilts
Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Spring Forward

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  It's been a piecing week here.  I had less time than usual, so I set aside the machine quilting for the moment to cut and sew.

My OMG project for March is working with my little house blocks, made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2017.  Here's a giant pile of strips I'm using this week to frame the houses.  Most are Kaffe Fassett fabrics, all are bright, and some are even crazy.  I got a bunch of Kaffe 2.5 in. strips in an exchange at my local quilt group, so I started with those, and cut up what scraps/yardage I had that fit the bill.

My favorite block this week is the banana house block.  There are purple monkeys in the green print!

While I'm sewing strips on the house blocks, I'm making green zigzag blocks for the 2019 RSC.  It is really hard to stop sewing and do the stuff I need to do around here.

Here's two of the things keeping me busy--Little Buddy, and new carpeting in our living/dining room.  This is not just my usual terrible photography, he's actually running and wouldn't slow down for a picture.  He loved racing around in the empty room once the carpet people were done.

Here's the "new" dining room, all put together.  We had to take everything out of this area (the biggest room in the house), of course, and we're cleaning and sorting as we put things back.  I'm really happy with how it's turning out.

I use this little ladder to display small quilts, especially antiques, so I can enjoy them without causing too much wear and tear.  This is a "bluework" quilt, just like redwork, only done with blue embroidery thread.  Don't you love these cats?

Weirdly, the squares that look blank actually have embroidery on them, too.  Can you see the frog with an umbrella above?  I have shown this quilt to a quilt expert, and we both think the alternate squares may have been embroidered with a blue thread that was not colorfast and has since faded away.  Although it is barely possible these were originally embroidered in white thread, it seems unlikely.

I can finally use my table runner!  I got this for Christmas from the gift exchange at the quilt group.  Isn't it wonderful!  All those gorgeous little hexagons, in colors that make me think of spring.

More spring!  Seed catalogs are arriving.  This is one of my favorites.  They sell plants that thrive in this miserable/wonderful climate.
Speaking of spring and wonderful (and miserable), tonight is the night to turn the clocks forward to start Daylight Savings Time. It means that spring and summer are actually coming, which is hard to imagine with 6 inches of snow on the ground, but it also means an hour less sleep.  ACK!   Guess I better go to bed early tonight.

This week I'm wishing good weather, safe travels, and deep restful sleep for us all.
Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:
Angela at Soscrappy
Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Cynthia at Oh Scrap 

March Forth!

My March OMG (One Monthly Goal) dates back to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge of 2017.  Every month, I made these little houses from all sorts of bright novelty fabrics.

I LOVED doing this!  Just sorting through the scraps was so much fun!  Every house is different.  While I was having all this fun piecing, I barely thought about what I was going to do with the blocks when they were finished.  I didn't even really keep track of how many I had made.

Today, I sorted them by color and laid them out on the floor, and finally counted.  I have 77 blocks!  OMG indeed.
They are only 6 in. finished, but that's still a lot of blocks.
I love them too much to just keep them in a bin.
So, here's my goal.

Before the end of March, I will have a definite plan for ALL of these blocks.  They may make 2 quilts, I don't know.  But they are NOT going back in the bin.
 I may be quilting them by the block instead of as a finished top, and that might not be done by March 31.  But, every single one of these blocks will have an assigned home by the end of March, including a plan for the quilting.
We used to have a sign in the library where I worked, right where the usually procrastinating junior high kids could see it.  It said:
If you are failing to plan, you are planning to fail.

I should put one up for me.  It would say:

Dithering is Hereby Banished!  March Forth and Quilt!

Click on the link below to see what everyone is planning to do this month.

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal March Link-up.

Clean and Green

In Which I Abuse a Centenarian, and Am Appropriately Punished

This is my main treadle sewing machine.  Her serial number begins with the letter D, which means she was manufactured in either 1908 or 1909.  Because of her Egyptian-inspired decals, I named her Aida, from the opera by the same name set in ancient Egypt.  Giving her that name was probably the beginning of the abuse.

She is a work horse.  I have pieced quilt after quilt, sitting at her treadle.  I have also pieced bindings, made grocery bags and doll clothes, and even allowed the grandchildren to give it a go.

Occasionally I would oil her, but mostly I just rushed in, pieced for a while, and rushed back out to my busy life.

Then one day, the inevitable happened.  The tension was off underneath.  Weirdly, it wasn't that way all the time.  When I sewed 5 in. squares together, only part of the seam would be bad.  But it would be VERY bad.  Time-To-Get-the-Seam-Ripper Bad.

I ran down my list of What to Do When the Tension is Bad.  I re-threaded the machine.  I changed the needle.   I made sure I was using the exact same thread weight in the top and the bobbin.  I wound a new bobbin.  None of that worked.

Here's why:

This is a clump of lint.  I don't know why it's always gray, but it is.  This little blob was the last of what I finally cleaned out of the bobbin area.  There was at least THREE TIMES this much lint crammed in there.
Poor Aida!  She was struggling to do my bidding, with this mess choking her, and I was fumbling around with changing needles and threads.
I spent about an hour this morning cleaning and oiling, and begging her forgiveness.  A one hundred year old plus machine should not have to put up with such an obtuse operator.
My punishment was the dreaded reverse stitching.  Triangles and squares had to be ripped and put right.  If I had noticed the problem a little sooner, I might have gotten off easier.  Lesson learned.

 The new color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is green!  I'm laying out the possibilities.  I need bright greens for the zigzag quilt (above)

and reproduction greens for the spiky star quilt.  This is such a fun (and messy!) way to start the month of March.

With my wonderful treadle clean and working well, I got a start on the half square triangles for the zigzag quilt.  After this, I only need 60 more to make the green rows.

Luckily, I have a nice big stack of light triangles cut from the last couple of months.  These will come in handy.
In other news, cooking experiments!

Cherry Kuchen, a yeast-risen coffee cake.

I can verify how well it goes with a cup of tea.

And it's grapefruit marmalade time again.  I've got these grapefruit quarters boiled and cooling.  They will become a small batch of marmalade later today.
We still have snow on the ground here, but the sky is blue and spring is coming.  Things are looking up!
I'm wishing the joy of new and old things for you this week.
Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:
Angela at Soscrappy
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Cynthia at Oh Scrap