Finishing, and Starting

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It's no secret, I love the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Last year, I went overboard making zigzag blocks, and ended up making two Zigzag quilt tops.  I quilted the first one months ago.  This week, I had some time off from babysitting, so I got the second one finished.

 Woo hoo!  These were such fun to make.  (Click HERE for more on this project.)

Of course I started the quilting with the purple row!  Purple is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for August.  Plus it was in the center of the quilt, after all.

The back is a paw print, with hearts thrown in here and there.  The binding is pink, for somebody special.

When I first started making zigzag blocks, I hadn't decided what I was going to do with the quilts when they were finished.  I donate a lot of quilts to charity, and I thought I might do that with these.  But then I started making the denim quilt for my oldest grandson (click HERE for that), and that helped me decide.  This is the year ALL the grand kids get new quilts.

The zigzag quilt on the right will go to Mr. H.  In this one, the rows are in RGBiv color order, with no pink, and it's bound in all different colors.  The new zigzag quilt on the left will go to his sister, Miss E.  She loves pink.  Both of them have birthdays coming up, but I don't think I can wait for that!

These quilts are not big enough for their beds (kids have huge beds now!) but they can use them to cover up when watching TV, or take them camping or on sleepovers.

For this year's RSC, I got my 3 Shoofly blocks done.  All these blocks for this project are made of 1800s reproduction fabrics.

I missed the kids this week--they were up north with their other grandparents.  But it was good to get a few things done.  I spent some of my time canning bread and butter pickles and more pickle relish.  The house smelled like a pickle factory, but it's done now for the year.

Hubby and I went to a state park along Lake Michigan yesterday morning.  It was a beautiful day.

It's a popular park.  See all the footprints in the sand?  We kept a careful distance from other people, and went home when it started to get crowded.

We walked a mile down the beach, and then back across the dunes on the boardwalk.  Growing all over the dunes were these purple flowers.  Standing here you could hear the droning of the bees as they gathered nectar.  It was a welcome sound.  Bees have had a hard time lately.  These seemed very healthy (and happy?).

I wished my Mom was there with us, and not just because she would know the name of this plant.

It was good to get out into the wider world for a few hours.  There's a reason they call it "recreation".

Meanwhile, back at the "ranch", purple inspiration is everywhere.  Even in our shirts on the clothesline!

This week, I'm wishing you inspiration and excitement, and some rest and recreation, too.  Have a good week, and thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Cynthia at Oh Scrap