Rainbow Triangles, and Straightening Up

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It's a Blast from the Past!  I started this little quilt in January of 2021 as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt for that year.  Each month I made 20 half square triangles (3 in. finished) from the color of the month.  Recently I dug them out, sewed them into 6 in. blocks, and put the quilt top together.

My inspiration was this photo of a brave nurse in New York being one of the first people vaccinated against Covid.  I was inspired by her dedication, but also distracted by the logo of the hospital/health company on the wall behind her.

This is my version, different from the original photo but kind of the same idea.  Most of the fabrics I used were subtle prints, but a few bolder ones sneaked in.  (Looking at you, green with stars!)  The quilt will be donated locally.

The border and the binding are batiks.  The blue one came from the museum sale in June, and the green one was a larger scrap from the clearance table at a quilt shop.  I haven't used batiks a lot, but I'm loving the bright colored ones.

The back is this fun print.  I got two yards of it at the quilt show a couple of weeks ago.  I quilted a 3 in. grid (across and down) plus a diagonal grid on the long side of the triangles.

Snicky is taking his job as "poser" very seriously.  I can't lay a quilt down without him jumping on it (or diving under it).

Catching up on projects is part of what I'm doing with my "extra time" now that Little Guy is in preschool 3 mornings per week.  Right now, I'm using that time to think, plan, and organize.

I forgot to take a "before" photo when I straightened up this shelf unit. If you want to know what it was like, you'll just have to imagine clutter, a thick layer of dust, piles of books and magazines, and smaller boxes of fabric stacked on top of each other.  I have lots of fabric "inventory" now, after the recent sales, so I needed bigger boxes, and lids are great at keeping the dust out.

Reorganizing the tools was important.  The basket on the left holds all the rotary cutter stuff, like extra blades.  The tins next to it hold used blades and specialty pins.  Behind them is my pinker (the thing with the handle) and a wood block originally used to print fabric (not by me. Yet?).

Some of my antique finds are on the top shelf, along with a newer Singer tin that stores needles.  The  little flowered box holds tiny spools of thread.  I just think it's cute, I'm not planning on using the thread.

I want my sewing room to be pretty as well as functional.  It makes me happy to be here.

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge makes me happy, too!  

This week's blocks are the 16 patch ones.  Now that all the blocks are done, I need to decide how to put them together.  I plan on donating the finished quilt or quilts.  Should I make one twin sized quilt or two baby sized ones?  Are there places that would want a twin sized quilt with lots of crazy novelty prints?  I'm thinking it would be most appropriate for a child.  Any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated.

Here's a new project I'm working on:  Jelly Twist, from Cluck Cluck Sew.  I bought the pattern while visiting my mom in July.  I'm using a white background, and choosing from these rectangles for each block.  Easy, fun, and colorful, it's a good pattern with all the math done for 4 different sizes.

No photos of the kids this week, sorry.  It was a crazier than usual week, but all is well.  I hope all is well in your week, too!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Last Yellow Blocks, Museum Stuff, and the One Dollar Quilts

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

 The last Saturday of August is here already.  Summer fun has been taking up more of my time, but at least the yellow blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge are done.  Above are the 16 patch blocks.

This one is my favorite!  

I figured out why I started making 5 every month.  If I make 5 of 8 colors (leaving out pink, I made a whole baby quilt of the pink ones), I'll have 40 blocks at the end of the year.  That could make 2 baby quilts of 20 blocks each, or I could just make 2 more blocks and have 42 for a bigger quilt. 

I'm making 12 each of these Uneven Nine Patch/Puss in the Corner blocks each month.  I have absolutely no idea how many quilts or what size I'll be making.  Just winging it!

The big annual sale at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts was a great place to find cool scraps.  I got several small pieces of Dr. Seuss character prints.  I've always loved Dr. Seuss.  His wacky stories have delighted readers for generations.

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish!

This was the last week of summer vacation for our youngest grandkids.  Buddy earned a free Milwaukee Public Museum admission through the library's summer reading program, so we took both boys and went there on Wednesday.  They're posing here in front of a pretend street car.  We all had a great day.

My husband and I love going to museums, especially when on vacation in far away places.  While walking through the Pitt River Museum in Oxford, I spotted this bit of patchwork in one of the cases.  It's a pieced Parcheesi board, hand made from cotton fabric, that folds up for storage.  This museum does cases by theme, this one is games of the world.

I enjoy seeing and learning about all sorts of things in a museum, but "quilty" objects always catch my eye.  This is a female mummy in the Ashmolean Museum (also in Oxford) with traditional cloth wrappings that might look to us like log cabin patchwork.  The portrait of her face is original and was painted on linen.  It has been painstakingly restored.  (Click HERE for more information.)

What would you think if you saw this price tag on a quilt?  Would you grab it, pay, and run home?  That's what my eldest daughter did when she found not one but TWO quilts priced $1.00 each at a rummage sale.  And then she gave them to me!

Here's the first one.  Barbara Brackman identifies this pattern as Baby Bunting, and it was available from the Ladies Art Company from the 1890s through 1926.  I estimate the quilt to be from this period as well, judging from the fabrics.

It's hand pieced and hand quilted.  Can you imagine cutting out all those tiny little triangles?  It must have been a labor of love.  I believe the triangles were once a brighter red that has faded (very common for turn of the century non-Turkey red).  I'm a little confused about the tannish brown, which is not a usual color for the time period.  Has it also faded, possibly from green?

But, the quilting thread is brown.  The only damage besides the fading is the narrow binding, which is also brown.  Maybe it was red and brown all along?  Hm, it's a mystery.  

Less mysterious is this sweet old Double Nine Patch from the 1930s.  The nine patches are set with yellow, which makes it on theme for the RSC today, and the alternate blocks are a lovely lavender.

The blocks are about 8 in. square, or less, and the tiny squares are an inch or under.  The fabrics are scraps typical of the time period.  It's hand pieced, except for the borders which were added by machine, and is hand quilted.

The quilting has helped to keep the quilt together despite heavy use.  There is lots of fading and damage to the fabrics, especially in the lavender alternate squares and the border.  It has been rebound in recent years.

Neither of these quilts are museum pieces, but I think they're worth more than a dollar!  Many thanks to my thoughtful sharp-eyed daughter.

Lastly, here's something I've been working on instead of quilting!  Hubby and I really like jigsaw puzzles.  We leave them out on the kitchen table and add pieces as we walk by or after the kids go home.  I bought this one in an Oxford bookstore, it came in the cloth pouch to the right.  Only 500 pieces, but it was tough with all those colors, and it was possible to fit pieces in the wrong place!  When it was done we felt a real sense of accomplishment.

I hope you feel that way this week, even about something as silly as a puzzle!  Happy quilting!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Last of the Red Hot Projects?

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It's the last red Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I have enjoyed making these 16 patch blocks.  I often make them in just two fabrics, using the quick and easy tutorial by Cynthia of Oh Scrap fame (Click HERE), but this year I'm making each square in each block a different fabric.  More variety, more fun!

For some reason that I can't remember, I started making 5 of these each month, so here's the other one.  I'm throwing in new prints, old prints, anything red.

Even the cell phone bag I made for my Mom is red!  (Click HERE for the YouTube tutorial I used.)

The lining is a red and cream print.  I adjusted the directions to use a Velcro closure instead of a snap, and even though I had to do a little ripping, it all worked out.

When I was hunting around the internet for a good cell phone bag tutorial, I found an easy one for these cell phone stands.  The directions were very straightforward and quick to make.  (Click HERE.)  The title says "beanbag" but there are no beans in these, just poly stuffing in the top and rice in the base.  I sent the one in the center to my Mom and kept the blue one to use in the kitchen and the sewing themed one in (where else?) the sewing room.

Lined up like this, they look like hats to me.  Wouldn't they be fun in red with a pompom on top for Christmas?

Speaking of hats, I've started knitting winter hats for kids again.  PBS used to have a yearly drive, so I got used to knitting hats and mittens while traveling in summer and fall.  It keeps my hands busy while waiting in airports or riding in a car.  I got these three done while visiting my Mom.  The handy Moda bag was a prize I won a few years ago as part of the Hands 2 Help quilt drive (thanks, Sarah!).

 At the beginning of this month, I made the red blocks for this baby quilt, and I've been using the rest of them as leaders and enders while doing other sewing.  The block is a Buckeye Beauty variation in a six inch size.  I snapped this photo of the layout, something I do often so I can refer to it if blocks get moved or turned around (looking at you, Snicklefritz!).

Yet more red, and one of the reasons more quilting is not getting done!  One of today's goals is to make these cherries into jam.  Wonder if there will be enough left for a pie?

And then there's the pickle relish, shown here with "some assembly required".  I always buy the "misfit" pickles, since I'm just chopping them up anyway and they don't need to be pretty.  Neither do the peppers, which suffered some hail damage in a storm this week.

This is lots to do, I'd better get on it!

One last red photo, of Buddy and Snicklefritz, two of my favorite guys.

Have a lovely week, doing the things you love to do!  Happy quilting!

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

 

 

16 Patch and Sorting the Scraps

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Not much sewing got done here last week, just my 16 patch blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in light blue.  Lots of pirate squares in here, plus bugs and chickens and Clifford the Big Red Dog, etc.  

I like sharing these blocks with quilters.  You get how much fun it is sewing little pieces together.  People who don't quilt (like my great-grandfather) are often mystified trying to understand why we buy fabric, cut it up, and sew it back together.

Maybe I'd get more time to sew if I wasn't spending so much time buying fabric!  The last few weeks have been amazing, and the Endless Stash is even more endless, if that could be possible.

The best Stash Enhancing eXperience of every year is the annual rummage sale at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts, held just over a week ago.  This is a MAJOR event, and I am so thankful for all the people who donate fabric and other items, and for the volunteers who organize, price, and staff the sale.  This year, the museum made over $17,000.00!

For all us shoppers, it does not disappoint!  Pictured here is the regular cotton yardage I bought, after it was washed and folded.  There are fat quarters, half yards, one yard pieces, and quite a few pieces with multiple yards.  All the sizes are approximate, of course, since these were donated fabrics and not cut to measure.

Next are the flannels!  When the prices are this amazing and the prints are so cute, my resistance is easily overcome.  There are giraffe prints, and monkeys and cats and trucks and ABCs and everything!

My first love is scraps, of course!  And I brought home all of these from the sale.  I already had a stack of scraps from the yard sale a couple of weeks ago, so these got added to the pile.

Then last Wednesday night on the way to quilt group, my friend Nancy Queen of Scraps gave me a big bag of mostly novelty print scraps for kid quilts.  Plus another friend brought two big bins of yardage and scraps to the guild meeting from a quilter relocating, and I snagged some of that too.

So now what?  The yardage was easy to put away, although some bins are suffering from overcrowding. But in order to use the scraps, I have to sort them.  This is my system, for what it's worth.

I divide my scraps into Big Scraps and Cutting Scraps.  Big Scraps are cut as needed for a project.  Cutting scraps are trimmed and stored.

This is the resulting pile of Big Scraps.  I call them Big Scraps if they're at least 6 in. wide but less than a fat quarter.  They're rubber banded together by color and stored in a bushel basket.  This works well  any time I need a specific color, or for the RSC.  When a color is called, I can pull out a bundle and start cutting.

An ironing board can be a good place to sort scraps.  As long as Snicklefritz the cat is elsewhere!

The coast is clear, he's sleeping in the dog bed.
 

Here's the Big Scrap basket after the sorting was done. Wonder how many quilts I can make with this?

So now it's down to the Cutting Scraps.  Some of the pieces will just be trimmed into squares or strips and stored until the right project comes along. As I'm trimming, I'll also cut these scraps into pieces I need for current projects and to make kits for myself. 

Like this one!  The small squares in the box will make 9 patch blocks in green or aqua/blue (right in line with the RSC!).  The striped fabric came from the museum sale and will be alternate blocks. For borders, I'm thinking a narrow blue inner border with a wider green outer border, but I could change my mind once the blocks are made, so I haven't cut them yet.

Meanwhile, back at summertime...

We spent a lovely day at a local lake.  Buddy is holding up a rock he found, and Little Guy has his sand toy.  That's Grandpa in the background.

These guys really know how to pose!  They were on a hiking trail near the swimming area.

Our little strawberry patch is making us all very happy lately.  Summer is such a tasty time of year!

Have a great week, and thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy