More Pink, and More Little Bricks

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

First, more little bricks, those 2.5 in. x 3.5 in. rectangles!  Here's another pattern that's easy and fun for using up all these little scraps.  This child's quilt uses 168 of them, in matching sets of two.

The colors are a bit brighter outside, but then you have my shadow taking the photo!

It was fun pairing up the scraps.  Dogs and cats and crayons and dinosaurs, oh my!  The Paw Patrol border was a find at a sale.  I hope kids still like Paw Patrol.

Sponge Bob is waving hello!

The blocks are 6 in. finished, and the quilt measures 44 in. x 50 in.  It will be donated to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee.

I first saw this block in the book Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott.  They call it Sparkling Gemstones, which is a good title since all their small pieces are Kaffe Fassett prints.  The directions were for strip piecing, but I wanted to use my scraps, so I adjusted it.  

To make one block, cut two pairs of little bricks 2.5 in. x 3.5 in., and sew into a four patch.  Cut two white (or other color) rectangles 1.5 in. x 6.5 in., and add to either the sides or the top and bottom.  Couldn't be simpler!  Set them alternating the orientation, just like a rail fence.

The back is this print of kids at a playground.  I bought it second hand from from someone selling their mother's stash at the Winter Quilt Show.  It wasn't quite wide enough, so I added a strip of red solid through the middle.

Pink:  In Progress

Pink month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is rushing by, so fast I can hardly keep up!  I got all the blocks done for this Sticks and Stones quilt, but didn't have time to add the borders.  Maybe later today?

I thought you might like to see the Christmas quilt I made in this pattern a few years ago.  This is my grandson Buddy, rolled up in the top before I quilted it.  It has been a while, he'll be 10 years old next month!  

I made some changes this time, widening the light strips to 2 in. cut and making all 4 squares in the block match.

More pink progress!  I have more pink scraps than I thought.  So of course I have to start another quilt!  The pattern is Happy Blocks, one of my old favorites.  This one uses 5 in. squares and 2 in. strips.  I'm making half of the blocks with dark strips and light centers, and the other half opposite.  And this is the last pink project this month.  (Probably?)

Easter at our daughter's house was wonderful.  All five of the grandchildren are gathered here, waiting to start the Easter egg hunt.  The teenagers were a little reluctant, but I think they had a good time anyway.

The youngest grandsons had one more day of Spring Break on Monday, so their mom and I took them to a local gymnastics center for a couple hours of fun and exercise.  Buddy, above, is getting ready to run down the ramp and jump in a foam pit.

Please pardon this blurry photo of Little Guy, he was jumping too fast for the camera.

Buddy even did stunts going down the bouncy slide.  It looked like great fun. Sadly, adults were not allowed on the equipment.

The kids are back in school now, and life has settled down.  Which means more time for quilting!  And that is what I'm wishing for you this week, and every 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

Pink, and Not Pink

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

Last week I posted this picture of the back of a quilt in progress.  Now for the big reveal!  Drum roll, please.

Sorry it has to be an indoor photo.  The weather started out nice this week, but has ended up rainy and cold.  This is another one of my small "toddler sized" quilts, just 42 in. x 48 in., which is not too difficult for me to quilt on Mrs. Pfaff, my domestic sewing machine.  It will be donated to the Children's Advocacy Center.

The pieces in this box are 2.5 in. x 3.5 in., and I call them Little Bricks.  They are usually the ends of 2.5 in. or 3.5 in. strips, which are sizes I use all the time.  This box can get VERY full, which is why I designed the Little Bricks Block a couple of years ago to help use them up.

This is the Little Bricks block:  3 Little Bricks in bright colors, plus 4 background pieces. (Click HERE for the free pattern.)  Simple, and easy and quick to make.  And another chance for me to use some novelty print scraps.

Even though it used up 126 Little Bricks, it is not enough to give the scraps some room in the box.  So, I'm making at least two more, but in different patterns.  It turns out these little pieces are quite versatile.  Stay tuned for more in the next few weeks.

Snicky the cat always tries to get under quilts on rainy days.  He swirled this one up for me.  Thanks, Snicky!

Pink:  In Progress

Now for pink, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  I'm doing something different this year.  I'm NOT making pink blocks in my usual RSC sets.  Here's the reason:  most of my quilts are made for kids.  If there are pink blocks in a quilt, adults often assume the quilt is for a girl.  Without pink blocks, the quilts can be for anyone.  

But, I do want to make some quilts specifically for kids who love pink.  The blocks above are for one of those quilts.  All the blocks will be pink!  I modified a pattern I used years ago called Sticks and Stones that was designed by Bonnie Hunter.  It doesn't seem to be online any more.

More pink in progress!  I made myself another quilt kit inspired by ones I used to make for Quilts for Kids.  It's a four patch with alternate blocks of this princess print.  (Click HERE for the free pattern.)  I just need to add the inner pink and outer princess borders to finish the top.

I didn't have a whole lot of time in the sewing room this week.  This is why:

It's spring break, and these dudes were here!  We had lots of fun, including going to see the new Mario movie on the opening day.  In the photo above, Buddy and Little Guy have just finished a 100 piece puzzle by themselves.  Their mom and I also did a different 100 piece puzzle, but it took us longer.  The boys were very proud of themselves.

Easter is tomorrow!  As I was going through my pink and background fabrics, I kept finding bunny prints, including a bunny in scrubs and a circus bunny.  Those little bunny squares are going in the center of some more pink blocks.

We will all be going to our eldest daughter's house for Easter brunch and an egg hunt for the kids.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate, and happy quilting to everyone!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Summertime Blues (and Aqua)

Welcome to Treadlestitches! 

Is it summer where you live?  Here in Wisconsin, you can't get much more "summer" than yesterday, the 4th of July.  Happy Independence Day, America!

Hanging on the clothesline today is a child's quilt, 36 in. x 42 in., freshly finished and ready to give away.

All sorts of bugs and other creepy crawlies are enjoying the good here weather too. Even on the border of the quilt!  The bug print came from a rummage sale last summer.  The colorful scraps all came from the box of 2.5 in. x 3.5 in. rectangles.  I used 90 of them in the blocks, and probably still have enough to make 2 more quilts.  Scraps are forever lol.

I don't know an official name for this block.  (If you do, please tell me!)  I call the 2.5 in. x 3.5 in. rectangles Little Bricks, so I named this block Little Bricks Ladder.  I'm hoping there's a cooler name somewhere in quilt blog land.  The three bricks are sewn together, and then 2 in. x 6.5 in. white strips are sewn on each long side.  Easy peasy.

Here's the back, made of two different light prints.  I'm trying not to be so fussy about the backs, I just need to use up what I've already got, and both these prints are cute.  Kids are probably not going to care about this anyway.  The quilting is a 3 in. grid in serpentine stitch.
 

Now that it's July, I have finally caught up with June's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  These are my 1800s repro hexagons.  I absolutely adore indigo blue, and it's getting harder to find it in stores.
 

What if I added in the red ones for a patriotic look?  Hey, this would make a great quilt!  But I've already got mine planned to include ALL the colors.  I didn't start this project at the beginning of the year, so I'm catching up on the RSC colors I missed.  I don't think I'll have many hexagons in aqua for July, it's an unusual color for reproduction fabrics, but I'll hunt out what I have.

Aqua kid prints aren't hard to find!  Some of these are old favorites, and a few of them came as ready-cut charm squares from the big museum sale last month.  I'm going to need a lot of these stretched star blocks per quilt since they're small, only 4.5 in. finished.

Speaking of aqua, check out this vintage quilt I saw at a flea market last Sunday.  Star blocks with a pink background alternate with aqua blocks with pink centers.  I always love looking at antique quilts.  Frequently you see things you've never seen before.

It's been fun having the grand kids around more this summer.  Here's Buddy, just hanging around.  Hang on, Buddy!  He had to hold the pose while waiting for me to take the photo, and I was kind of slow.  He's not angry, just straining to hold on.  Sorry, Buddy.
 

Our black raspberries are ripe, and the little boys love picking and eating them, which is what Little Guy is doing here.  We have also had lots for eating on cereal, etc., and a few pints for the freezer.  Snicky the cat wants to go out whenever we do, so he's learning to walk on a leash.  Or maybe I'm learning to go wherever he wants to go.  But we will not be chasing any birds or rabbits!

And you know where I want to go--the sewing room!  I'm getting some sewing time in this long weekend, but there are errands and other jobs to do, too.  

I hope you have a happy peaceful week ahead, and some time to do the things you love to do.

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Bricks and Houses and Hands 2 Help

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

This week had me searching high and low in my stash for purple novelty prints to use in my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  I found some!  but I did have to include star prints to make up the numbers.  And there are no less than 3 butterfly prints, plus a caterpillar one.

I love this one!  It's a Kaffe Fassett design, meant to be buttons.

I've had this cat print forever.  The background is an odd color, almost lavender but not quite.

This is one that quilt author Judy Gauthier might call a "husband" print.  She says they're like husbands--you loved them at first sight, you want to keep them, but you don't always understand them or know what to do with them. (Click HERE to go to info about Judy's books and shop.)

A few more houses got cut and sewn from the same fabrics as the bricks.  Dora the Explorer is leading the way.

Here are two little quilts for Hands2Help 2023.  These are the first quilts I've made with the new poly batting.

First, more bricks!  This is another Little Bricks quilt, made with my free (and very easy) pattern.  (Click HERE.)

The poly batting makes it "bouncier" than cotton, and will definitely make it warmer.  I'm still learning how best to baste and quilt it.
 

The back is this rainbow print.

Here's quilt #2.  This pattern is perfect for poly batting.

Long long ago in a state far away (well, not that far, it was Ohio) I took a class with the woman who developed this pattern, the amazing Kaye Wood.  Kaye was a quilting pioneer at the beginning of this current quilt revival, although many quilters now may never have heard of her.  She had one of the first television quilt programs, and traveled the country teaching.  At quilt shows, she would sell her patterns and templates and videos (of course), but she would also set up a huge area with stations for volunteers to sew this pattern for charity from donated fabric and batting.  She called it the Love quilt or the 6 Hour Quilt.  At the end of the show, the quilts made would be donated to local hospitals, etc.  (Click HERE for her video instructions.)

As a teacher, she was down to earth, helpful, and fun.  The workshop was a full day, and I finished a twin sized quilt for my daughter there.  The quilt was used for years and was warm and well loved.  I was very sad to hear of Kaye's death in July 2019. 

 One of the best things about this pattern is this--it's reversible!  Side one of my quilt uses construction/vehicle prints, and side two has a farm theme with cows and chickens, etc.

 The technique is easy, but I had to modify it a little.  Kaye Wood may not need to pin the layers, but I do!  

It has been so warm and nice here this week!  We all went for a walk in the park, and Grandpa and the boys posed on the bench.

The rhubarb is up, a sure sign of warmer days to come.

By Tuesday, it was 75 degrees out, and our little boys were wearing shorts!  Our old dog is so glad to see the this Little Guy every morning.

I hope you're having a wonderful day today and a good week ahead, with time outdoors as weather permits.

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Check out all the lovely and exciting quilts at these linky parties!

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