Farm Quilt and Green Crumbs

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

The Farm Quilt is a top!  The wind died down enough yesterday afternoon to take a photo outside.

Isn't this farm print fun?  I knew when I picked it up at a quilt guild meeting that it could be a good border.  It came from our guild stash, which is donated to us.  Check out the date:  1999!  With proper storage, good quality cottons can last a long time.

The blue fabric with chickens was also from the guild stash.  I originally wanted to have a narrow border of the blue between the main part of the quilt and the red border.  Unfortunately, when I did the math I didn't have enough of the red for that option, especially if I wanted to show most of the repeat of the farm print.  I will make the binding from the blue.

Here's what I meant about the border repeat.  These borders were cut at 4.5 in. and you still can't see the whole scene.

The framed blocks were cut from several different farm and/animals prints.  I have a bag of farm themed fabrics and scraps that I used to make the 16 patch blocks.  And to no one's surprise, even after all these blocks the bag is STILL not close to being empty. 

 I counted 8 different tractor prints in the bag, both scraps and yardage.  They were mostly John Deere but also International Harvester, and some generic ones like the block above framed in dark green.

The blocks are 8 in. finished, and the top measures 49 in. x 65 in.  It will be donated locally.  I don't plan to quilt it myself as I know others can do a better job.  It will either be quilted by someone in my quilt guild, or by Lynn with the Children's Advocacy Center.

Tomorrow is the last day of February, and that means the last day of green month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I finished these crumb type blocks just in time!  I'm making them from leftover small pieces and strips.  After making a Duckworth quilt as a guild challenge, I've changed how I make this kind of block.  Now I'm working from the center, kind of like a log cabin, instead of a less organized approach.  It's fun to learn new things!

While I had the green crumbs and strips out I made a few more things for an eventual village type wall hanging.  There's a big green house with a Green Bay Packers strip, some green grass for the little blue house, and a couple of trees made from scrap triangles.  I'm not really happy with the big tree, I think it looks less like a tree and more like a big green tent, but it might be better when I add a trunk.

In Progress

New Project Alert!  Multicolored string blocks are under my treadle's needle today.  I went through my bags of strings and pulled out bright strips of all the colors.  I'm sewing them to batting scraps.  This will end up being a quilt for another guild challenge.

Check out this orange strip!  It's from a scrap of Halloween fabric I got from the free table at guild a while back.  The whole verse on the fabric says: 

Trick or Treat

Smell my feet

Give me something good to eat.

Rude, right?  I'm glad the manufacturer didn't include the rest of that rhyme that the kids at school used to say!

Here's a little more green for the last day of green month.  That's me, standing outside our hotel in Arizona in January next to the tallest cactus I have ever seen.

Time to go cut up more batting squares and do something about the scrap pile on the cutting board.

Have a good week, everyone, and happy quilting!

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Grocery Receipts, Bright Hopes, and Greek Crosses

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

Don't you love it when you accomplish something with a UFO?  This poor project was languishing in a bag for nearly 3 years.  Now at least it's a flimsy!

Snicky the cat wouldn't leave me alone to finish sewing it, so I finally had to shut him out of the sewing room.  Oh, and lock the door, because he can (and will!) open doors.

Here's the top, laid out on my design floor.

The sashings are made from tiny scraps sewn to grocery receipts.  I had to make a few extra to have enough for this design.  I'm tentatively calling it Rainbow Garden.  It's neat and orderly, like I imagine my garden will be someday.

The light pieces are 6.5 in. cut.  I chose light scraps to color coordinate with the sashing strips.  The cornerstones are solid fabric squares.  If I make something similar again, I will stay stitch the edges of the sashing.  They had a tendency to stretch.

It was fun finally putting the top together.  Angela of the So Scrappy blog was making something similar, and seeing that gave me the inspiration for the design (thanks, Angela!).

The border is even green, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.

 

Check out the name of the fabric:  Busy Lizzy!  Lizzy aka Queen Elizabeth III is our shy cat.  I didn't buy the fabric because of the name, but it was funny to see.  The print is from the Kaffe Fassett Collective.

I bought it at this shop, Quiltagious in Mukwonago, Wisconsin.  I was there on Thursday dropping off quilts and tops for the Children's Advocacy Center.  BTW, if you live in Wisconsin you might want to stop by.  They have LOTS of beautiful fabrics including Kaffe Fassett's, with a nice sale section.  (I got the green I used in the border for $7.99/yard!)

I'm not sure exactly what will happen to the quilt next.  I may quilt it myself, or donate it as a top.  Either way, it will be donated locally.

I know I say this all the time, but I am STILL finishing up my RSC quilts from last year.  This little quilt used 30 of the Bright Hopes blocks.  I'm afraid to count how many are left, the bag is still pretty full.

It's fun to revisit these blocks one last time.  I'm so lucky to have all these kid friendly fabrics.  The striped fabric in the border has been in the multicolored stash for so many years I've forgotten where it came from.

Check out the back!  Have you ever made a quilt just to use a certain backing?  The Amazing Colleen gave me this piece, which was given to her by a scout camp that had used it for a tablecloth.  They evidently didn't use it very much, as it was in great shape.  I loved the bug print and the colors, but it was kind of narrow, especially since it had been hemmed.  It would fit a 36 in. wide quilt, so that's what I made.  I picked the blocks to go with the colors on the back.

Simple quilting, as always, this time in a 2 in. grid.

On to the green scraps!  This was my pile of small green scraps, after I removed pieces I know I will never use.  I am not good about doing this, but I have to restrain my inner packrat.  

When I was done cutting, I had strips, squares, and rectangles ready to be used.  The triangles are saved for string quilt corners and that pile of pieces on the bottom left will go in the crumbs bag. No more green scrap guilt!

For the RSC this week, I made 5 green Greek Cross blocks.

Of course there had to be a Green Bay Packer's block!

In Progress

Sometimes I get an idea for a quilt, and then try to find fabrics to make it, either in my stash or at the store.  Other times I start with the scraps and figure out what I can make with them.

This quilt in progress come from asking "What can I do with these scraps?".  The bigger pieces, like Mrs. Cow, were donated to our quilt group.  Many of the smaller ones came from a bag given to me by my friend Joey.  After thinking about this little collection for a year or so, I started working on this farm quilt this week.  The pieces on the left have lots of different animals etc. surrounded by fabric frames in several colors.  Those are done!  

Now I'm sewing the 2.5 in. (cut) squares together for the 16 patch alternate blocks.  I'll be using these blocks for leaders and enders, so it may take a while to get all the blocks ready to join together.  (Did you notice the black and white rabbit that looks like Snicky?)

So what are you cooking up with green scraps, or anything else?  I'm looking forward to finding out at the linky parties this weekend.

Have a wonderful week, everyone, and happy quilting!

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

More Orange, John Deere, and Amanda

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

This week's orange blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge are 16 patches, with 8 different orange prints and 8 different light prints.  These are fun to make. 

The cute carrot fabric came from my friend Joey's scraps, as did some other yummy orange prints.

I think that's my favorite part of making quilt blocks--putting together adorable scraps.

Where do all these scraps come from?  Well, here's one place--my local quilt store!  They have a giant basket of scraps that customers are welcome to root through.  We can fill up a bag for a small price, and take them home.  Wanna see what I got?

All this was in that bag!  Good quality fabric scraps, just waiting to be made into quilts.

Like this one!  I finished the little farm quilt this week.
 

The blue and white striped "My John Deere" fabric was a small piece I bought in an antique mall, and I used up nearly every bit of it.

The dark blue squares and the narrow inner border were in the same fat quarter bundle I got at a recent quilt show.  (I always look for whatever fabrics are marked down at the show, of course.  Don't you?) 

The batting is poly.  I cut it from a thicker poly and then just pulled it in half to make it thinner.  It actually worked!  Still soft, but not quite as puffy.  And there's another half ready to be used!  Bad news, though, it means I can make twice as many quilts from the giant batting  rolls Joey got for me.  Gotta sew faster!

The back of the quilt is this John Deere tractor print.  The quilt will be donated to Project Linus locally.  I'm hoping it will go to some little farm girl or boy.  God bless the farmers, we all need them.

More scraps are in my new project above.  (Check out the scrap from the farm quilt!  Leftovers from one quilt go into the next one, of course!  And on and on forever!)

The block is called Amanda, and comes from Me and My Sister Designs.  I've had this book forever, but just suddenly realized it would be perfect for my 3.5 in. squares and 1.5 in. wide strips.

Here's the front cover of the book, it's 3 Times the Charm, by Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobson.  They call it that because each quilt pattern is made up into three quilts, and most of the pieces can be cut from charm squares.  All of the patterns have women's names.  There are 3 more books in the series.

My 1.5 in. wide strips live in this little overnight case.  I sorted them, and separated out the light prints, solids, pinks, and blacks.  The big pile is Everything Else.  Amanda is going to be a fun quilt!

I may use the black prints for this project, but not the others.  I also moved the very short strips to the schnibbles box to be made into crumb blocks. 

Now that the kids are well again, we're having fun on the playground!  It seems I always take a photo of one or another of them inside this orange tube during orange month!  Our Little Guy was thrilled to be climbing up it again and enjoying the nice weather.

Rain is expected for this weekend, so we'll try to enjoy the sunshine while we can.  I'm wishing sunshine and scrappy fun for you too this week.

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

 

 

Hands 2 Help Check In: Two More and One on the Way

Welcome to Treadlestitches! 

 Two more quilts are ready for donation for the Hands 2 Help annual drive.

Here's an I Spy baby/child quilt made from 5 in. squares.

Novelty prints, plus bananas in the border.
 

Next, Hourglass four patch in bright colors.

Mostly NOT novelty prints, except for these cats in the border.

Those are done, and will be going to Project Linus next week.

Next, this one is the one on the way.  I'm layering it up today, and might even get some of the quilting done.

It's a little farm quilt, with lots of cows and chickens and a few sheep.  Oh, and John Deere tractors.

Right now I've got an old Loretta Lynn song going through my head, called One's On the Way. When looking it up this morning, I learned it was written by Shel Silverstein of Where the Sidewalk Ends fame.  Who knew?

I love seeing what everyone is making to help others.

Happy quilting!

Linking up to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict