Chaos Theory

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I'm not really sure, but I think Chaos Theory is something in physics.  I vaguely remember Jeff Goldblum going on about it in Jurassic Park.  For me, physics is like snakes, something necessary but dangerous, to be avoided whenever possible.  When it comes to just plain chaos, however, I'm a bit of an expert.  My little grandsons bring the chaos every day.

A couple of weeks ago Little Buddy picked out a gigantic stack of fabrics.  He wants me to make him a new quilt for his naps.  It took a long time just to cut up pieces of all these, and to figure out how on earth to put them together.

I finally decided on this pattern, Chock Full O' Charms.  I made the quilt above a while back in a baby size.  This one will be twin sized.  I ordered the pattern from Quiltwoman.com for $10. (Click HERE to view/order it on Quiltwoman.com.  Click HERE to see the sizes, fabric requirements, etc.)  

I cut a 5 inch strip from each of Little Buddy's chosen fabrics, and cut two squares from the strip. We also added in other charm squares.  Now I'm sewing them into 4 patches as per the instructions.  This is just too random for me!  But I know he's going to love it.

More chaos!  This is my 2.5 in. strip drawer.  Once upon a time, it was nice and neat.  Now it's a disaster.

From chaos to order!  I'm turning the 2.5 in. strips into these blocks.  I got the idea from Bonnie Hunter (of course!  She's the home of good scrap quilt ideas.)  She calls the block Poinsettia Star, and it's part of her Carolina Christmas quilt, in her book Scraps and Shirttails II.  I changed the piecing a little.

Most of the pieces for this block are coming from the 2.5 in. strip drawer and my already cut supply of 2.5 in. squares.  I can also use a 5 in. square to cut the 4 matching dark squares, so that's using them up, too.  The diamond shapes (actually made of 2 HSTs) are in the color of the month (yellow) for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  The pink ones are made in last month's color. There will probably be more of each as I clean out the drawer.

Quilters have always made order out of chaos, but sometimes we have to make the chaos first!

In other news, the Civil War quilts Block of the Month for February is done.  (Click HERE for the first post if you're interested.)

It's a Missouri Star.  I kept the background and the star points the same as the first block, and used a yellow print for the center as a nod to the RSC.

Not sure how I'm going to set them.  Ms. Brackman has several layouts suggested.

And in old news, the Math Genius baby quilt is finished.

Just simple quilting, and a bright aqua binding.

Wait a second--isn't this kind of chaotic?  Am I starting to like chaos?  Yikes!

The back is calmer.  Just a nice yellow strip to make the minions fabric wide enough.

Isn't this fabric a hoot?  It's hard to see, but the word "unique" repeats across the fabric, underneath the minions.  I hope the child who gets this quilt knows that he/she is unique and uniquely wonderful.

And so are you!  Have a wonderful week!

P.S.  Our mailbox is finally visible!  The dirty old snow is slowly melting, and it's going to be a beautiful day.

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

Math Genius???

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  

Guess what's in this box--that's right, it's a quilt!

 

 Sometimes, when I'm cleaning up scraps, I cut up pieces for a baby quilt and stash them away in a box, waiting for when I have time to sew.  It's like a little present for myself.

 

The pattern for the quilt in the box came from this book:  Quilts for Scrap Lovers, by Judy Gauthier.  There are LOTS of good patterns in this book.  The one I chose is called Mathematical Genius.  If you've read my blog before, that might strike you as ironic.  My struggles with math are not a secret!

One recent Sunday, I just couldn't wait to start this any longer.  I shooed away the dog and cat, turned on All Creatures Great and Small on PBS, and started laying the quilt out on the floor.  The pattern is kind of like a Plus quilt, but all the pluses have to fit together.

Without the book, I would have been lost.  It doesn't seem complicated until you start actually placing the squares.  (Did you notice the yellow parrot fabric?  I keep using it everywhere this year!)  I must admit, I lost track of the TV show, and had to rewind and watch it later.

This quilt pattern turned out to be a good place to use multi-colored fabric, like the Pete the Cat and Snoopy/Joe Cool prints above.

Keeping everything straight when moving from the "design floor" to the sewing room required a little thinking.  First, I took a photo of the layout on my phone.  Then I pinned the squares into rows and stacked them back in the box.  As I sewed, I would take a pinned row out of the box, sew all the squares together (checking the photo on my phone as needed), and then drape that row over the ironing board as shown above.  If any squares were in the wrong place, it would be easy to tell.

Now it's a top!  Adding the bright red border made it a slightly large baby quilt at 40 in. x 48 in.  Today's job will be basting and quilting it, to get it ready to be donated.

In other news, more yellow!

Four patch stars, and log cabins.

 

 More half square triangles, that I still have no specific plan for.

My favorite blocks this week are the Happy Blocks.  I used a yellow square in the center of each one, and surrounded it with a color picked up from the square.

So, lots of piecing but not much actual quilting.  Piecing for 20-30 minutes a day gives me a good start to the weekday morning, before my Baby Buddy gets here.

Speaking of Baby Buddy, here he is, in the middle of getting into everything.  He is so fast!  We have to batten down the hatches when he arrives.

This was the only picture I got of my Little Buddy this week where he WASN'T growling like a T. Rex.  Here he's watching a video on my phone about (of course) dinosaurs.

 My heart goes out to all the people in Texas and Oklahoma (including my family members) who have been hit by the disastrous weather.  It's so easy to take infrastructure like water and electricity for granted, and so tough to manage without it.  I'm hoping warmer weather will help start getting things back on track.

My guess is when things get a little more settled, there will be a need for quilts to help people who have lost so much.  The quilting community always responds to disasters, and I know we will do so again.  In the meantime, click HERE for a list from CNN of places to donate money to help people in Texas.  If I find a similar list for Oklahoma, I will post it.

Good luck to everyone in the week ahead.  Stay warm, stay safe, and let's keep sewing!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

 

 

Hello, Yellow!

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  What's going on in your world today?

February's color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge has really been brightening up my sewing room.  I've been sewing mostly in the morning before my baby grandson gets here, and the treadle wheel has been flying.

Every month I'm making 3 hearts from strings and the little scraps we quilters call crumbs.  These are so much fun to make.  These just happen to be timed right for Valentine's Day tomorrow.

Friendship stars are next.  I'm using up all sorts of yellow bits and pieces.

All four little yellow triangles in this block are made from the crumb triangles cut off when making the hearts.  Waste not, want not!

I have to admit, the ice cream cone blocks are my favorite.  I've gone so far as imagining what flavors these would be.  Left to right, cherry/French vanilla, lemon-citrus swirl, banana, and vanilla custard with sprinkles.  Yum!

Last week's Bright Hopes baby quilt is bound and washed, ready to be donated.

I wanted to use a different color on the binding, but I didn't have enough of it.

So I chose this crazy print.  Isn't it a hoot?  I just love these chickens.  The print isn't really visible in the small slice of a binding, but the colors are good.  I like all the little pops of yellow.

Okay, who ordered the snow every weekend?  No wonder I'm surrounding myself with bright fabrics.

And bright faces!  Baby Buddy likes sweet potatoes, can you tell?

We made chocolate cupcakes (with sprinkles!) on Thursday, and Little Buddy got to lick the beaters.

Here he is with a clean face, pretending to be a fierce dinosaur.

My lovely little orchid is blooming again.  It's a sign of hope.  Spring is coming.  Well, eventually.

In the meantime, let's get some sewing done!

Have a great week, and stay safe!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Quilts

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Bright Hopes

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I have an almost-finish to share with you today.  The little Bright Hopes blocks I was setting together last week are bordered and quilted.  I'm not sure what I'm going to bind it with.  What color would you use?

The Bright Hopes baby quilt (35.5 in. x 40 in.) uses up all sorts of bright scraps from my 2 in. wide strips.  Nearly every little block has a piece of yellow fabric in it, making it even brighter.  I am really loving this month's color (yellow!) for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

As you can see, the quilting is simple, just straight lines using a serpentine stitch.  It's fun to remember where all these scraps came from.  The white kitten is leftover from a pillowcase I made for my granddaughter.  The blue whale fabric below it came from quilts made for her cousin, my Little Buddy.  Some of the pinks are scraps from my youngest daughter's wedding quilt.

You'd think with a quilt this small I could find a big enough piece of backing, but the fabric I chose from my stash was not quite wide enough (are they making fabric narrower now?) so I added a row of home cut charm squares down the middle.

Is it weird how I can't remember to buy soy sauce, but I know where every piece of fabric came from?  I hope Spongebob and Patrick will be a happy surprise for the kid who gets this quilt.  This fabric was given to me by my friend Debbie in Pennsylvania.  The green frog and bug print was a remnant I bought at a quilt show.  I thought I had used up all the yellow parrot fabric with this 5 in. square, but I was delighted to find some more in the 2.5 in. strips.

I may have over-used the parrot fabric, but it's just so darn cute.

More Bright Hopes blocks, but bigger!  These are made with 2.5 in. strips and finish at 6 in.  The block is sewn with a partial seam, which is easier than it sounds.  Click HERE for a tutorial I wrote a few years ago on how to make them.

That parrot fabric is sneaky!  It turned up in these Plus blocks too.

I'm balancing it out with tractors.

In other news, my Little Buddy and I spent some time in the sewing room Thursday, and oh dear I think I have another quilt project to work on.  He picked out a big stack of fabrics he loves, including this dinosaur print which I hardly have any more of.  Well, nothing wrong with starting a new project!

More snow this week.  We got a big storm last Sunday and another on Thursday.  This is the snow plow clearing the street across from my house.  With the cold weather we're having, the snow won't be melting any time soon.

Inside, we're still having a good time.  Little Buddy and I have been watching Peppa Pig lately during our TV time, and it's a breath of fresh air, compared to the usual run of kid TV programs with their good guys and bad guys and heavy-handed lessons.  Normal stuff happens on Peppa Pig, like getting new shoes or making pancakes.  In one episode, there is a power outage, and Peppa makes a TV out of cardboard box and performs in it.  So of course Little Buddy wanted to do that too.  Little Buddy's show is about a dinosaur.

Baby Buddy broke through the "4th wall" to go after the dinosaur.  I think he wants to chew on it.  More teeth are coming!

What's on your agenda for today?  I'm going to bind the baby quilt, and then get some work done in the sewing room.  It looks like a hurricane went through there, tossing out yellow strips and scraps and yardage and piling up novelty prints.  It has gotten to the point where I can't concentrate on anything until I straighten up the mess.

Later on, I'll get a cup of tea and enjoy all the quilts and quilters in the linky parties.  You should come, too!  It's a great way to go "visiting" on a snowy day.

BTW, did you know you can (for a small fee) invite goats to a zoom meeting?  If I was still working, I would be so tempted!

Have a good week!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Cynthia at Oh Scrap