Last of the Red (Hot) Blocks

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

It's been a busy week here in Treadlestitchesland, and not much quilting got done.  I did finish my "homework" for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, since it's the last Saturday of April.  (I might be getting whiplash from how fast the months are zipping by.)  These are my Sisters Choice blocks.  They finish at 10 in., and I make 5 every month.

This block is my favorite.  Dogs, Wisconsin Badgers, teddy bears and the Lorax make it extra scrappy.  Just all the goofy stuff I love.

Radio Windmill is next.  The pattern is a version of Arabic Lattice, with a square in the center instead of a 4 patch.  These are the blocks that "lean" to the right.  Just picture the square about to fall over and you'll see what I mean.

Did you guess this one was my favorite?  Of course it is, it's the wackiest one there!

This set leans left.  I'm making 5 of each, for a total of 10.

I am sometimes asked how these are made.  I don't feel comfortable giving directions since the pattern came from a book, but I can tell you this:  the blocks are easy to make, the pieces consist of one square and 4 large triangles, and there is no cutting done after sewing, except to sliver trim to 10 in.  The sewing starts with a partial seam.  For more information, see this book:  Dessert Roll Quilts, by Pam and Nicky Lintott.

My left leaning favorite is this dinosaur block.  If you read this blog regularly you may be getting tired of seeing this print!  I still love it, which is good because I still have a LOT of it.

The last red RSC set is the Thrifty blocks.  I'm using up lots of 2 in. squares in these.  Maybe I'll be able to get the lid on the box by the end of the year!  

I like this one best, mostly because of the cats.  Does this ever happen to you?  I have no idea where this scrap came from.  Maybe it was in a bag I bought at a sale or one that someone gave me.  I also don't know why a giant cat would be standing next to the Eiffel Tower wearing a hat and glasses and a pensive expression.  Weird fabric just calls my name.

So that's it for this week's sewing.  Next week it's on to green, which is a great color for this time of year.

We had a family gathering at our oldest daughter's house for Easter last Sunday.  The grandkids posed on the porch before heading out into the rain for an Easter egg hunt.  They are all growing up so fast.  Now I'm getting whiplash from the YEARS passing by.

 The daffodils are such a cheerful sign of spring.

Our youngest grandsons were off school on Monday, and spent the day with us.  It was a gloomy rainy day, so no outside fun.  We went to the library instead and got lots of books on Minecraft and Pokemon.

Grandpa built a lego tower as tall as himself.  With the kids help, of course.  By the way, Buddy always goes barefoot in the house, whatever the weather.

Thursday was a beautiful day, and we had time to go to the park after school.  Little Guy wasn't sure what to do with this exercise apparatus.

Buddy was flying on this one!

We're back to rain and gloom today, but that's normal for April, and it's making the grass green and the trees blossom, so I won't complain.  Maybe I'll get some quilting done!

I hope your week ahead is filled with sunshine, and time to do the things you love.

Cheers for reading this,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Flannel Cat Quilt and Red Heart Blocks

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you're having a lovely Easter weekend.

Please forgive the bad outside photos.  The weather was not as threatening as it appears, just gloomy.  We're having lots of April showers.

I'm excited about finishing this lap-sized quilt for my oldest daughter's family this week. Recently I was at their home and saw that they were still using the flannel quilt I made for her when she went to college.  That thing was literally in shreds! So of course I was happy to make them a new one.

My daughter's family has five cats, so cat fabric was perfect.  Their couch is gray, so these prints will go well with it.  I've had most of the top done for a while, but was hesitating about borders.  There wasn't much of the flannel fabric left and wanted to make it come out okay.

This is the back.  I scored this flannel cat print at the guild's silent auction last fall.  The center is a "cheater" print, made to resemble a quilt.  Remnants from the top were used to make the borders.

I quilted it from the back, following the edges of the printed squares, then flipped it over and quilted the borders from the front.  I've decided I actually like the back better than the front!  I'll be giving them the quilt tomorrow when we go to their house for Easter.

Isn't it fun seeing all the red blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month?  Red is such a bold cheerful color.  I rummaged through the scraps and found some good ones for these heart blocks.

Just a few more.  Some look kind of weird, like the elephants.  (I don't think kids will care.)

This one is my favorite--dinosaurs with books!

Little Lizzy found a cozy spot in a roll of batting!  She pulled the plastic cover off to get at it.  I'm still working on all the stuff in the basement, but it's slow going.

I'm calling these "Mistake Cookies".  No idea what went wrong, but these poor bunnies look really porked out.  The little chicken isn't much better.  Thank goodness no one is relying on me for Easter cookies.  Hubby ate them anyway, he's a trooper.

Signs of spring are everywhere.  The tulips are up, but not ready to bloom yet.  And the robins are back!  Some days are warm, some are windy, and we're not out of frost danger yet.  Just a typical Wisconsin spring, very welcome after the long winter.

Have a lovely quilty week, everyone!  Happy Easter tomorrow to all who celebrate!  

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Scrappy Blocks in Red and Yellow

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Good morning and Happy Saturday!  I've been making red Bow Tie blocks this week, using up some red scraps with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  These blocks are fun and easy to make, and they'll look good set side by side in the quilts I will (eventually!) make from them.

But wait, there's more!  It's easy to get carried away.  Red is such a good color, and there are so many great novelty fabrics in red.

This is my favorite block.  These adorable little ninjas always make me smile, especially since the fabric was given to me by a friend.  (Thanks, Debbie!)

BTW, quilters, I'm wondering how many blocks other people make for the RSC.  Are you planning specific quilts, or stockpiling blocks for lots of quilts, or something in between?  I love seeing what other quilters are doing, I think that's one of the big benefits of the internet.

This week my Leader and Ender blocks have also been red!  Our guild's wonderful charity committee cuts up kits for us to sew.  I picked this one up at the last meeting.  It's made from 1930s reproduction fabrics in great colors.  Not all of the blocks are red of course, I just chose to do these first.  The pattern has literally 20 names in Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, but the most common are Monkey Wrench and Churn Dash.  

Before I let myself get carried away with the red scraps, I finished up last month's yellow blocks.  They're so scrappy it's hard to see the Sisters Choice pattern in some of them.

This one is my favorite, with Elmo peeking out of the middle square.

On Wednesday, I delivered this pile of quilts from our guild for the Milwaukee Child Advocacy Center.  There were 20 finished quilts and 11 tops.  The lady who organizes it takes 250 quilts to the center every other month, so a drop in the bucket, but I know it helps.  I am so proud of all the charity work our group does.  We're not a large group (around 50 members), and we have already donated nearly 100 quilts this year, plus lots of other sewn items.

Our grandson Buddy had a program at school this week, and we went to see it.  I am shocked at how grown up he looks.  The years just keep zipping by.

When Buddy and Little Guy were here after school the other day, it suddenly got very quiet.  Hubby and I went on high alert, but they were just sitting on the couch.  They don't have phones, those are calculators!  They were amusing themselves adding and subtracting big numbers.  

Hubby and I were remembering when we first saw a calculator.  We were in college!  Technology has changed so fast in just my lifetime.

Speaking of which, I need to go and buy a new computer today.  I've done my research, made my choice, and am just waiting for the store to open.  My old computer has served me well since 2013, but Windows 8.1 is a dinosaur in 2025, so time to upgrade.

Have a good week, everyone!  And Happy Passover and Easter in advance to all who celebrate.

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with these awesome linky parties:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Rail Fence, Red Scraps, Bright Hopes, Log Cabins

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

It's about time I actually quilted and finished a quilt!  It's just this little one, made with leftover rail fence blocks from last year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

It's just a little quilt, 36 in. x 42 in., for a baby or toddler.  It will be donated locally to Project Linus.

The border is this fun fish print from the stash.

I used the pink fabric above for the binding.  On the selvedge it says:  "Designed by Virginia Robertson for Fabri-Quilt copyright 1992.  Sew much fabric, sew little time to sew." Where were you in '92? lol.  I picked it up second hand.  Does this count as recycling?

Speaking of recycling, I'm planning on recycling at least some of  these scraps into quilt blocks this month.  It's red month for the RSC!  On the left is my pile of big red scraps, and on the right are the smaller pieces.  I hope to cut up ALL of the small ones into useful pieces.

I confess I'm still not finished with my yellow blocks, even though we had an extra Saturday in March, but I couldn't resist starting on red with these Bright Hopes blocks.  I used up almost all of my 2.5 in. x 4.5 in. rectangles, and even cut more.

It's fun to revisit these novelty prints.  Most of them are down to the last scraps now.

Last week I mentioned my new project, making Log Cabin blocks with random scrap widths.  I wondered if you'd like to see what I was talking about.  All of these fabrics are 1800s reproductions.  I have lots of crumbs and strings I want to use up.

Above are two 2 in. red squares for the centers.  They're the only pieces I cut ahead for the blocks.  The first rounds are made with my crumbs/small pieces.

First I add light crumbs to the squares.  I don't cut them first, I just grab something that fits on the square, and sew it on.

I square them up at the cutting board.  I can also trim the width or cut off a selvedge, straighten a ragged or crooked edge, etc.

Next I add the blue crumb pieces, and square them up.  Sometimes I have enough shorter pieces to use.  Other times I have to grab a string or a longer strip.

From here on out I usually have to use strings.  I don't worry about the width, just sew them on and trim.

As you can guess, the blocks could come out to different sizes if different widths of logs are used.  I solve that by trimming each block to 8 in., regardless of how many strips are needed to do that.

I'm about 30 blocks in now, and the strings are mostly used up.  I'm having to cut up big scraps to get more strips.  I'm cutting them at 2 in., 1.75 in., 1.5 in., etc.  It's fun using them up.  But don't worry, I still have plenty of crumbs!

It can be tough to get any sewing done when this happens!  Snicky laid right down on my pieces and demanded to be petted.  He wouldn't even pose for the camera.  I complied, of course, but eventually I had to shut him out of the sewing room.  We had lots of time together on the couch after supper.

I hope things are good in your world today.  Hubby and I are going to a protest to try to make things better.  Have a great week!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Cynthia at Oh Scrap