On the Bright Side

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Like most (all?) quilters, I have a fabric stash.  It is large.  (How large?  I can't say.)  And  I have been pretty good about using it during the last year.  I went to the chain store for thread and basting spray, but I pulled fabrics from my stash for all my quilts.

That's about to change.

I am so grateful to be fully vaccinated.  It means I can go back to the quilt store!  And since I hadn't been there in a whole year, it felt okay to spend more than usual.  This is my loot:  10 yards of fabric (!) and a bag of scraps from their bin.  

Did you notice?  All the fabrics are brights or bright on white, except for one Civil War print.  I keep thinking I'll stop buying the Civil War stuff, but I just can't quit it.

Here's the stuff in the scrap bag.  Why are other people's scraps are so intriguing?

While looking through my stash before I went to the quilt store, I came across this cute print.  I don't know if the little creatures are monsters or aliens, but they are really cheerful.  I put this simple top together this week so I could finally use them.

For the border, I used one of the new fabrics from the quilt shop.

Here's the little top, 36 in. x 42 in.  All the pieces are cut from 3.5 in. strips.  Quilting this baby quilt will go on my weekend to-do list.  It will be donated to Little Lambs, as part of Hands2Help 2021.

So what about the Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for the week?  Bright colors again, in these Happy Blocks.  The centers are light or bright blue novelty prints, and the frames are colors that contrast, in calmer prints. 

Does this remind you of yellow month?  The frame color tends to dominate the block.
 

These centers just looked better with darker blue strips.  The darkest colored fabric came from the scrap bag I bought at the quilt store.

The green batik around the duckie block is also from the quilt store scrap bag.

Red was really the only color that went with these blue squares.  But I didn't have very many choices of non-novelty red prints, as you can see.  Guess that means another trip to the store!

Last Sunday, my husband and I went antiquing for the first time since the pandemic.  We still wore masks, and we ate in the car, so not the same as before, but we had so much fun anyway.

Look what I bought!  This is the pile after I washed, dried, and folded it.  All of these fabrics are 100% cotton, and most are several yards long.  There are 3 yards of the John Deere fabric.  In all, I got 27 yards of fabric for an average of $2 per yard (!). These will make some nice borders and backs and other pieces for charity quilts. 

Baby Buddy and I were able to go to the park yesterday morning while Little Buddy was at preschool.  He's pointing at some Canadian geese.  The weather has been weird as always this week.  On Wednesday, snow poured out of the sky off and on.  Luckily it didn't stick.

Little Buddy hasn't wanted his picture taken much.  He was okay with me taking this shot of him playing with his dinosaur.  I'm not sure what he's feeding it, just hope it isn't Daniel Tiger.  I know it's pretend, but it just seems wrong.

I hope things are bright in your world this week.

Thanks for reading!

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Need a brightener?  Check out these linky parties!

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Safe at Home

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It's finished!  Safe at Home is my name for my house quilt, one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects for 2020.

Last week, it was a roadblock.  This week, it's done and the way ahead is clear.

The pattern I used is called Home Made, was designed by Monique Jacobs, and was published in American Patchwork and Quilting magazine, issue # 162.  I used the house pattern, but made more blocks and set them differently than the original.  

When I started making the blocks in January of 2020, I had no idea what the year would bring.  I was just having fun using scraps of vintage fabrics, feedsacks, and 1930s reproductions in the color of the month.  

In March, the illness and death of the pandemic hit New York hard, and it was suddenly terribly real to all of us all over the country.  Home was more important than ever, as millions of kids (including our grandchildren) started virtual school, and millions of adults either worked from home or were unemployed.  

This quilt will always represent 2020 to me: the worry and fear we all felt every time we sneezed or coughed, the hilarious zoom fails of virtual preschool, the mask making, the dreaded toilet paper shortage, and the uncertainty still hanging over everything.

As I've mentioned on this blog before, I used a quilt-as-you-go method on this quilt.  (After all this time, I must admit I am REALLY tired of this backing fabric.)  I will be posting more on the way I do this in the near future.

 The border is a vintage 1930s-1940s print fabric, probably meant for dresses or blouses.  I only had just over a yard of it, so that determined how wide it would be.  I quilted simple diagonal lines in the border, and bound the quilt with a green solid, also vintage, from my basement "collection".

 My youngest grandson, whom I call Baby Buddy, was not really in a posing mood yesterday.  He's sort of ho-hum about the whole thing.

In other news, I got a few more half square triangles done for this year's RSC.  These are loose on my design wall, not yet sewn into groups of four, but this may end up being what I do with them.

And the blue ice cream cones!  I looked up some blue colored ice cream flavors on Wikipedia, and was surprised to find out about Blue Moon ice cream, invented in Milwaukee!  So I'm saying the cone on the bottom left is Blue Moon.  Above it is Blue Heaven, a blue colored Australian ice cream flavored with vanilla and raspberry (mine has little candies), next to a Blueberry ice cream with raspberry ripple and tiny sprinkles.  Lastly, we have a truly original imaginary flavor, blueberry with Victoria sponge cake, strawberries and cherries.  All this, and no calories.

Outside, the rhubarb is getting taller and looking very healthy.  Little Buddy hoped it might be ready to cut.  I made him some rhubarb cake from last year's canned rhubarb, so he's content to wait a little longer.

Leaves are appearing on the black raspberry canes, an encouraging sign.

Spring is progressing as it always does here, two steps forward and one step back.  There was frost on the grass this morning, but sunshine the rest of the day.

I'm wishing sunshine for you this week, and blue skies.

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Roadblocks, Blue Blocks, and a Tulip Block

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Does this ever happen to you?  I've got a quilt that needs to be quilted, but keeps getting set aside so I can finish other quilts.  So finally I get very stern with myself and say, "That's enough!"  (I MIGHT not say this out loud if there's anybody else at home.)  "This quilt HAS to be finished, and I can't quilt anything else until it is!"  So the quilt becomes a roadblock.

My current roadblock is my 1930s house quilt, a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project from last year.  As you can see, making it a roadblock is working towards getting it done.  I put the top border on last night, and will work on quilting the borders this weekend.  Eventually I will finish writing up the tutorial on my quilt-as-you-go method, using this quilt as the main example.

More light/bright blue blocks for the RSC!  The reason I am always so far behind in finishing quilts is probably because I piece quilt blocks just about every day.  My treadle is facing a window that overlooks our driveway.  In the mornings, once I've got things ready for the day, I can sew while waiting for the baby to be dropped off.  When my daughter's car pulls up, I shut off the iron and the lights, and go downstairs.  No need to shut off the treadle, although I kept trying when I first got one!

The log cabin blocks share a lot of the same fabrics, as I'm running out of 2 in. strips.  I don't think it will matter, since they may not be in the same quilt.  I'm planning to make several baby quilts from the RSC blocks this year.

These crumb hearts always make me feel so frugal!  All the tiny chunks and pieces are recycled into something useful.  Some old triangles made their way into this batch.

Tulips aren't blooming here yet, except in the sewing room.  I made this block to try out an idea for a Hands2Help quilt.  Click HERE for the excellent tutorial by Kristina of Center Street Quilts.  It's easy to cut and sew, and makes a cute rectangular block, 6 in. x 12 in. finished.

Speaking of cute, you know what's coming now--photos of my grandkids!

This was Easter Sunday at my oldest daughter's house.  We were able to be together this year after being vaccinated.

Little Buddy drew this adorable bunny on our kitchen chalk board.  I do not have the heart to erase it.  Not sure why one eye has some kind of a problem. 

Baby Buddy has just discovered Duplos.  I have just discovered making quilt patterns with them.  We're both having fun.

Usually things go well around here when I'm babysitting.  But once in a while, when the dog is barking madly, the cat is throwing up, the preschooler is having a fit about nothing and the baby is trying to crawl away while I'm changing his messy diaper, I think back to that old TV commercial and want Calgon to take me away.  (I think Calgon was bubble bath???)  When it all gets sorted out, and I end up with both little ones, clean and calm, close to me reading a book, I know there is no place I'd rather be, and no job I'd rather have.

One more flower picture.  The barrel cactus in my little window garden is responding to the spring sunlight with these pretty pink blooms. This hardly ever happens, so I made sure to take a photo.

I hope all is well in your world this week.

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap 

A New Blue Start

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Sunshine and blue skies have visited us this week, and it feels like a classic Wisconsin spring.

In between digging into my light blue scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month, I finished this baby quilt to donate to Little Lambs for Hands2Help.

The star of this quilt is Clifford the Big Red Dog, shown here as a firefighter.  Back before Clifford was on TV, he was the hero of a series of books by Norman Bridwell, and was well-loved by children in my libraries.  He even helped me bridge the language gap with a little boy who was new to the school and only spoke Spanish.  His eyes lit up when he saw the book I was going to read to his class, and I think that familiarity helped more than my fumbling Spanish to put him at ease.

The pattern for this little quilt comes from this book, Seamingly Scrappy, by Rebecca Silbaugh.

It's called Field Day.  I replaced the green squares of the original with the Clifford squares, made fewer blocks, and left off the borders.  My quilt measures 36 in. x 42 in.

I always appreciate designers who give us a good pressing diagram.  This one was perfect, and made all the seams nest nicely.

The white background print of dogs was a leftover from a backing, and the print squares came from my box of extra squares.  I included this rainbow zebra ...

...a square just of Clifford's face...

and a lovely kitten to represent an alternate viewpoint.

The backing is this silly print with fire hydrants.  You might be able to see the quilting here.  I just followed the square "paths" in the ditch, with extra straight line quilting on Clifford squares.

 Meanwhile, more dogs!

Do your scraps ever surprise you?  I had no idea I had so many light blue dog-themed prints.

No surprise here, just awesome blue minions!  

We went to the playground this week for the first time since fall of 2019.  Little Buddy is so brave, crossing this rope bridge.

Baby Buddy just likes the wood chips.  When you're a baby, it's the simple things.

This is how we felt, being outside again in the park.

This week, my husband and I got our second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.  More and more of our family is getting vaccinated, and I am so thankful.  Soon this nightmare may be over, and we can all do the simple things we miss, like playing in the park.  Or going to quilt stores in person!

This tiny bunny in the center of the star is saying Happy Easter tomorrow to all who celebrate.  

Have a lovely week!

Cheers 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