Summer is Coming, Even in Wisconsin

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It's the end of red month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I'm sort of sad to see it go.  Red is such a striking color.  I used it in the center of the May block for Barbara Brackman's current Civil War quilts blog Block of the Month, above.  (Shown on the top of my Minnesota A treadle.)

The book next to the block in the first picture is an old photo album, bought in an antique shop.  I wasn't looking for "instant ancestors", but I was intrigued by all the photos of children.  This little girl looks like my daughters when they were toddlers.  Except for the fancy curls.  They barely put up with having their hair brushed and combed.

The clothing of the little girl on the right above dates her photo to around the Civil War.  She's posed just like a grown woman.  On the left is a little boy in a dress.  Children of both sexes wore dresses for their first few years.  Easier for diaper changes, I suppose. 

My other reproduction fabric project is done for the month too.  These Poinsettia Star blocks have red fabrics for the star part and a different color for the contrasting squares.  I'm using up lots of 2.5 in. strips making them.

More red!  We went to a huge outdoor flea market a couple of weekends ago, and I got this scrap bag for $2.  The man who sold it to me said his mother was tired of making quilts for her family, and these were her leftovers.  I wonder if I'll ever get tired of making quilts.  Doesn't seem likely!

I cut about half of the rhubarb on Wednesday morning.  This variety is green, with a few streaks of red, instead of the more popular red kind.

The green tastes as good as red, in cakes or pies!  Grandpa kept the baby busy while I threw this pie together.  It was a good day for baking, with a high temp of only 45 degrees, down from over 80 degrees on Monday.  Wacky Wisconsin weather strikes again.  

Summer is definitely coming when the California cherries start appearing in the grocery store.  Grandpa, Little Buddy, and I absolutely devoured these, like ravenous dinosaurs.

Yeah, like this guy!

This week's grand kid pictures are just going to feature Little Buddy.  Baby Buddy caught a nasty cold, and was even running a fever on Thursday.  Friday he felt better, but we still ran through lots of tissues.  He was in no mood to have his picture taken, just wanted to be held.  So that's what we did.

Little Buddy made this cute project from a kit we got for free from our public library.  (Our library is awesome!)  The "swimming pool" is a cup filled with blue jello, and the teddy grahams bears are floating on candy rings or rafts.  We made the jello one day and decorated it the next.

Decorating is always the most fun.

Preschool for this year is almost over, and our Little Buddy will be going to kindergarten in the fall.  He's growing every day.  Now it takes almost every Duplo we have to make a tower taller than he is.

We have a little more time this weekend, so I hope to get some things done.  One of my projects is going to be quilting this tulip quilt as my last donation for Hands 2 Help.  Last Sunday there were only 8 blocks made, now the top is finished and spray basted, so it's coming along.

Happy Memorial Day weekend, to all who celebrate.  In the not too distant past, this holiday was called Decoration Day.  Families went to the cemetery to spruce up the graves and gravestones.  There were often ceremonies and parades to honor surviving Civil War soldiers, and later all other veterans.  Although cemeteries no longer depend on the public for upkeep, we still have the ceremonies and parades.  Maybe some of them will even be in person this year.

Have a happy safe Memorial Day weekend, and a good week ahead.

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Cynthia at Oh Scrap