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