Wrapping Up the Quilts for Hands 2 Help 2022

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

After months of happily sewing, Hands 2 Help for this year is coming to an end.  I have been amazed and delighted to see the quilts on Mari's blog, and look forward to seeing more today.  It's like an online quilt show!

This year I made 8 baby quilts for Little Lambs.  The one above is the last one, and it finally got quilted this week.  I really like to have a deadline.  It gives me that push to get it done.

I was inspired by Mari's hollow nine patch.  It's a great way to use colorful squares.  That's the backing with those white circles on dark pink, folded over the front.

To make the back wide enough, I added a row of charm squares in fun colors and prints.

All the rest of these little quilts have been posted on the blog as I made them, but here they are again.  You can click on the quilt's name to go to the post about it, for more photos, etc.

  Two Step Baby Quilt, designed by Amanda Jean Nyberg, from the book Scrap School.

Yellow and Blue Four Patch, With Cats

 Little Bricks

Pink and Blue Four Patch with Zoo Animals

Little Bricks and Ladders

I Spy Pink

 

Sparkling Gemstones, from the book Jelly Roll Quilts, by Pam and Nicki Lintott.

And that's it for this year.  It's been a lot of fun, sewing these little scraps into quilts for children.  

Thanks so much to Mari, for having taken this on, and to Sarah for all her efforts in other years.  It is wonderful what can be done when we work together.

Linking up with Mari at The Academic Quilter for the final linky party.

Is It Spring Yet?

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Happy April!

And the April color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is (drum roll please) pink!  Isn't it fun to get a new color?  I always start the month pulling out the big scraps and small yardage to see what I've got to work with.  

 As usual, there is some cute stuff and some weird stuff.  (Note to self, I've got to find a use for these pigs!)

Most of the time, I'm making baby-sized quilts to be donated.  I like to make what I call Everybody Quilts, that could be given to either boys or girls.  If I use pink, that usually restricts the quilts to girls because pink is considered a girl color.  I have heard that charities receive more "girl" quilts than "boy" quilts (not sure if this is true?) so I concentrate on colors that will work with either gender.

But sometimes I find a really cute pink fabric like this animal print, and make one just for a little girl.  I bought this fabric second hand at a big sale, and the four patch blocks came from our guild's silent auction.  I had no idea pink was going to be April's color when I finished this last week.

The back is a pink/lavender print.  I showed this quilt on the blog last Sunday as an example of an easy pattern for Hands 2 Help.

I also showed this one, as a top.  It's now quilted and bound and even washed.

This is another one of my little bricks quilts, made with scraps 2.5 in. x 3.5 in. that I call little bricks.  The "recipe" is on last Sunday's blog, and is very easy.  (Why is there always a headless dinosaur on my quilts?)

The back is this fun circles print, and I went with a green binding.  Both of these quilts will go to the Little Lambs Foundation, as part of Hands 2 Help.

I took these photos on Friday.  Here's what it looked like on Thursday:

Seriously?  What about that thing we learned in elementary school, about March coming in like and lion and going out like a lamb?  Maybe that's not valid in Wisconsin.  At least most of the snow melted away by the next afternoon.

This week was my kindergarten buddy's spring break, and he got to go to the Milwaukee Public Museum to see the T. Rex display.  He was so excited to learn new dino facts.  We had planned to take his little brother too, but my Little Guy had a bad cold, so I stayed home with him.

 We're trying to teach him to wipe his nose, and he's doing pretty well when reminded, but covering his mouth when coughing and sneezing is just beyond him.  I've been thinking a lot about that scene in Jurassic Park when a dinosaur spits poison in a park employee's face.  No surprise, I caught his cold.  I'm resting and drinking lots of tea and water, and hoping to be fine by Monday.

Meanwhile, it's snowing again (!).  Should be a good day to stay inside and quilt.

Here's hoping you're in the pink this week!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Cynthia at Oh Scrap 

 

 

 

Little Bricks, A Free (Very Easy) Pattern

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Can you stand another baby quilt for Hands 2 Help?  I'm calling this one Little Bricks. 

This is a stack of bricks.  Quilter's bricks, of course, rectangles measuring 2.5 in. x 4.5 in.  I first learned about them from Bonnie Hunter, quilter and teacher extraordinaire, who has used this shape in many quilts.  When I'm cutting pieces for a quilt and only have a small amount left of a 2.5 in. strip, I cut it into a brick.

If I don't have enough left for a brick, I often cut these pieces.  I call them little bricks, and they measure 2.5 in. x 3.5 in.  They can also be cut from short (or long!) 3.5 in. strips.

It's great to have both sizes of these rectangles cut ahead and ready to go.  And I'm always looking for new ways to use them.

My two youngest grandsons, whom I now call Little Guy (he just turned 2) and Big Buddy (formerly known as Little Buddy, he's in kindergarten), love to build with Duplos, the Lego bricks for toddlers and above.  These colorful bricks inspired me to design this little block.  I'm going to share the simple pattern with you.

Here's the block, done in yellow in honor of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  It measures 6 in. finished, 6.5 in. unfinished.

For each block, you need:

3 Little Bricks (2.5 in. x 3.5 in.) in a color of your choice

For the background, all the pieces can be cut from a 2.5 in. strip at least 11 in. long.

2 Little Bricks, 2.5 in. x 3.5 in., in the background color

2 small rectangles, 2.5 in. x 2 in., in the background color

The sewing is simple, as seen above.  I finger press towards the darker fabric.

When the blocks are done, the two wide seams can be pressed either up or down, which is helpful if you set the blocks side by side and want the seams to nest.  (By the way, it's extra fun to put a tiger in the middle.)

I made 25 blocks, set them 5 x 5, added a 5 in. cut border.  The finished quilt is square, and is approximately 40 in. x 40 in. (a little less after washing and some crinkly shrinking.) 

If you've seen my quilts before, you know I'm fond of a diagonal rainbow of colors, and lots of novelty prints.

The back is a colorful dot print that I LOVE, and the orange binding is just for fun.  It will go to Little Lambs, to be given to a child entering foster care.

If you make a quilt from this pattern, I'd love to see it.  

In Rainbow Scrap Challenge news, I made a few 16 patch blocks with solid yellow and multicolor prints.

Puzzle pieces,
 

happy flowers,

and stripes, like this print cut from an unfinished shirt, are all fun fabrics to use for this quilt.

I made a math mistake when cutting out this one (not that unusual for me!), and ended up making two blocks instead of one.  Not sorry, though, both will be used.

This has been a busy but happy week in our family.

Our Little Guy had a train-themed birthday party, and we were able to celebrate with extended family, almost like before the pandemic.  (BTW he's trying to show me a star toy, that's what's in his hand.  After this he ran gleefully off and no more photo opportunities were offered.)

Our oldest grandson, Teenager Guy, had the ACT test and a couple days off school for teacher inservice, so he hung out here with us.  (No photos, as per his request!)  The kids had dinner with us one night, too, before heading off to activities like play practice and wrestling.
 

Plus Friday was Grandparents Day at Big Buddy's school, so I got to spend a morning with him and his friend.  There were lots of fun activities, plus a book fair.  We had a great time.

Have you heard of Peptoc?  If you're ever feeling down or in need of a little encouragement, there's a free hotline called Peptoc with recorded messages from elementary school students to help.  Big Buddy and I tried it out yesterday, and it was lovely.  The kids' voices are very sincere and kind.  You can choose what kind of message you need.  We chose the kindergarteners', of course.  They told us to "keep going!"  It's a project of a school in California, and the phone number is 1-708-998-8410. Could be something to keep in mind when a quilt just won't come out right.

I hope all your projects are coming together perfectly, this week and every week!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

 

Pink and Purple Trip

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

No outside pictures today, as we're having a gentle spring rain.  Birds are venturing out, however, and I can hear their songs and calls.  I saw our first robin this week, just one so far, but they'll soon be here in flocks.

I made this little Trip Around the World quilt on International Quilting Day last week, and it will be sent to Little Lambs Foundation as part of this year's Hands2Help Challenge.  (Click HERE for more information on how you can help!)  The donated quilts will go to babies entering foster care.

I have not been a lifelong fan of pink (understatement!).  Yet somehow I have lots of pink scraps.  In January, when it was pink month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I sorted some of the scraps, added in purple, and cut out the squares for this quilt.

The back is a soft flannel.  Simple quilting with a serpentine stitch and a purple print binding finish it up.

Plus, bunnies!  Just in time for Easter.  Want to make one?  It's super easy.  Recipe below.

Trip Around the World Baby Quilt

Here's the recipe for this 36 in. x 36 in. quilt.

I used six fabrics in the Trip Around the World part, which I labeled A through F.  All squares were cut 4.5 in.  Here's how many to cut.

A:  5 (center and four corners)

B:  4

C:  8 

D:  12

E:  12

F:  8

Instructions:

Lay out the squares in rows, 7 squares across and 7 squares down, following the layout from the photo.  An A square goes in the center, B squares surround it, etc.  Sew the squares into rows, and the rows together.

Borders: 

Inner border:  Cut 4 strips of a light fabric, 1.5 in. x width of fabric.  Measure the center and add the borders.

Outer border:  Cut 4 strips 3.5 in. x width of fabric.  Measure the quilt and add the borders.

 

In other news, it's the last Saturday in March, which means the end of green month for the RSC.  I thought I had all my blocks finished last week, but I forgot about the Happy Blocks.  Oops!

These don't look very green, do they?  The center squares are green, but the frames are just whatever color I had that goes with the novelty prints in the middle.  For some reason a lot of them looked good with orange.

 

Paddington Bear, tractors, cows, and those cheeky monkeys!  I love novelty prints!

Guess what else I love!

Sorry about the blurry picture.  Baby Buddy doesn't hold still much.  He got a new tooth this week!

Little Buddy was excited to show us the little Easter basket/box he made at preschool.  He's wearing one of his favorite dinosaur shirts.  I should apologize for this photo, too.   I didn't notice all the reflections in the glass of the bookcase.

A Trip Around the World quilt is as close as we're getting to traveling for spring break, but we don't mind at all.  Until we're fully vaccinated, we'll stay close to home and enjoy spending time with the family.

Have a good week, and Happy Passover and/or Palm Sunday to all who celebrate.

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Here's a great way to travel the quilt world--just click on a linky party!

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop, home of the Hands2Help Challenge

Cynthia at Oh Scrap