Happy Greens, and Back From the Quilter Part Deux

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I hope everyone had a happy (and safe) St. Patrick's Day yesterday.  I made Happy Blocks as one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge sets for the year.  The centers are light novelty prints, bordered in green.

One of my goals this year is using up some of my vast collection of 5 in. squares and strips.  The centers of the Happy Blocks use the light pieces, and these Uneven Nine Patches use two light and two dark squares each.  (Click HERE to find out how.)  So, progress, right?

It's fun to use all these prints I've been collecting:  bugs, school stuff, race cars, cows, tractors, animals...

Minecraft, sports, more bugs, and of course Green Bay Packers.

How are your green blocks coming along?  I love seeing all the blocks people are making for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  So many scraps are turning into useful, beautiful quilts!

Apparently I'm not sewing fast enough!  These are just 3 of the 10 (I counted!) scrap baskets in my sewing room.

Do you recognize this?  Well, of course you do, it's a die for an Accuquilt Cutter.  More than 10 years ago I bought a cutter to help with getting all these scraps under control.  This particular die makes 2 in. finished half square triangles.

Take a close look at these.  The points are nubbed off on both sides!  It makes them so easy to work with.  The die cuts 12 of these at a time from each layer.  I usually cut 4 layers at a time (although the directions say you can cut more).  One quick pass through the machine, and I have 48 hsts ready to go.

Maybe I got a little carried away with the cutting.  I cut hundreds of triangles from my reproduction fabrics, and made several quilt tops.

I started this blog in 2013, and in January that year I posted this photo of the not quite finished quilt top.

It's a top no more!  After all these years, my Scrap Basket quilt is beautifully quilted, thanks to the talents of my friend Joey Mahieu.

Back From the Quilter, Part Deux
 

Originally, I was undecided about the borders.  I didn't have enough of anything to do all four sides, so I set it aside for a few years (!).  I could have bought something, but I wanted to use up what I had.  Eventually I just used two different indigo blue fabrics, one for the side borders and one for the top and bottom.

Joey quilted gorgeous feathers in the borders, and a graceful flower in the corner.  (Sorry it's hard to see.)  The pink is a Mary Koval print I bought on sale at a quilt show.

Each block in the quilt takes 10 small triangle-squares (so 20 triangles) plus 3 more triangles in the top and two more at the base, for a grand total of 25 small triangles.  Much easier with the Accuquilt cutter!  (BTW, just a happy customer, no affiliation.)
 

Some of my favorite conversation prints are in here, like the little sewing machines and the books.  I love how the curvy quilting contrasts with the piecing.

The quilting shows up even better on the back.

It's a wide backing from Connecting Threads.

There are just two more jobs for me to do to finish this quilt:  Bind it, with these strips I've saved, and add a label.  I am so thrilled to have this very old UFO nearly done, and done so well!  Thank you, Joey!

If you'd like your quilt top quilted by the Marvelous Mrs. Mahieu, click HERE for her Facebook page, and HERE for information about the shop.  [No affiliation, just a friend and a satisfied customer.]

In other news, my Little Guy has really gotten into puzzles lately.  These wooden ones from Melissa and Doug are his favorites.

And when I have time in the sewing room I usually have the company of a curious young cat.

It's hard to sew when he's stretched out on the treadle!  But I persist.

What are you persisting with this week?   Hope it's something fun!

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