Flannel Cat Quilt and Red Heart Blocks

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you're having a lovely Easter weekend.

Please forgive the bad outside photos.  The weather was not as threatening as it appears, just gloomy.  We're having lots of April showers.

I'm excited about finishing this lap-sized quilt for my oldest daughter's family this week. Recently I was at their home and saw that they were still using the flannel quilt I made for her when she went to college.  That thing was literally in shreds! So of course I was happy to make them a new one.

My daughter's family has five cats, so cat fabric was perfect.  Their couch is gray, so these prints will go well with it.  I've had most of the top done for a while, but was hesitating about borders.  There wasn't much of the flannel fabric left and wanted to make it come out okay.

This is the back.  I scored this flannel cat print at the guild's silent auction last fall.  The center is a "cheater" print, made to resemble a quilt.  Remnants from the top were used to make the borders.

I quilted it from the back, following the edges of the printed squares, then flipped it over and quilted the borders from the front.  I've decided I actually like the back better than the front!  I'll be giving them the quilt tomorrow when we go to their house for Easter.

Isn't it fun seeing all the red blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month?  Red is such a bold cheerful color.  I rummaged through the scraps and found some good ones for these heart blocks.

Just a few more.  Some look kind of weird, like the elephants.  (I don't think kids will care.)

This one is my favorite--dinosaurs with books!

Little Lizzy found a cozy spot in a roll of batting!  She pulled the plastic cover off to get at it.  I'm still working on all the stuff in the basement, but it's slow going.

I'm calling these "Mistake Cookies".  No idea what went wrong, but these poor bunnies look really porked out.  The little chicken isn't much better.  Thank goodness no one is relying on me for Easter cookies.  Hubby ate them anyway, he's a trooper.

Signs of spring are everywhere.  The tulips are up, but not ready to bloom yet.  And the robins are back!  Some days are warm, some are windy, and we're not out of frost danger yet.  Just a typical Wisconsin spring, very welcome after the long winter.

Have a lovely quilty week, everyone!  Happy Easter tomorrow to all who celebrate!  

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

Baby Quilts and Green Strings

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It might be too much to say we're snowed in here this weekend, but my husband had to siphon gas out of the car to keep running the snow blower, so he could unblock the driveway and get out to buy more gas!  At least we have power, plus plenty of food, books, and quilt projects.

These little quilts are ready to be donated to the Community Baby Shower going on here this month.  Both are from kits I cut last year from my flannel scraps and yardage.  The pattern is Rail Stepper, by Alycia of alyciaquilts.blogspot.com.  (Click HERE for the link to the free pattern.)  Thanks, Alycia!

Many of the scraps in the pink/purple/yellow quilt are left over from a big quilt I made for my granddaughter years ago.

You can see the block here in the corner.  There are 3 rails (the pink and purple rectangles) plus a longer white print on the left.  All the pieces can be cut from 3.5 in. strips.  I quilted it in a 3 in. grid.  BTW, my favorite print is the purple queen cat at the top.

The back was also left over from my granddaughter's quilt.

It was so nice to have these kits ready to go!  There are only 20 blocks in each quilt and the sewing is easy.

The back of the blue/green quilt was a remnant from the fabric store.

What's better than finishing projects?  Starting new ones!  January is always fun for me, despite the weather, because I'm planning out RSC quilts for the year.  It is possible to fall down a "sequential vortex" though.

I started here this week.  I have a little bin on my cutting table for snippets left over when cutting pieces.  Over a year ago, I saw Janine-Marie of Quilts from the Little House Blog sewing crumbs like these onto adding machine tape, and decided to do that with this year's grocery receipts.  (Click HERE for her year-end post with the strips, scroll down.  Hers are MUCH nicer than mine!)  The top strip is from last week, and the bottom strip is this week's.  Weird how they're nearly the same length even though I didn't cut them, and I didn't buy exactly the same items.  

That started me thinking about this basket full of strings.  Maybe there were some short strings I could use for the grocery strips.  That required sorting.

Sorting is kind of fun.  Now the strings are separated by color.  And I did find some short green strings.

More than that, I started another new RSC project:  string quilts!  I'm sewing the green strings onto a cloth foundation, and using leftover green triangles for the corners.

Here's what I've got so far.  The sewing is fun, and I love "recycling" these skinny scraps.  I don't know how many blocks I'll make, I'll just keep going until the strips are gone or there's not enough variety.  I'm having so much fun with this that I'm making up a parody song to Greensleeves (oh, green strings were all my joy and green strings all my delight..).

The green scraps are a happy contrast with all the snow outside.  We got somewhere around 10 inches just in the last two days.  It's finally stopped snowing (hurray!) but I might still stay inside today and sew.  How about you?

Stay warm, and thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Let's go virtually visiting!  I'm linking up with these ladies today.

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

 

Purple Butterflies and Flannel Scraps

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It's still purple month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (until Tuesday!) and I'm working on this UFO.
 

There are 20 of these butterfly blocks, made with Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  The free pattern comes from The Canuck Quilter (click HERE) although I changed it slightly.

I started this project after my niece died, as a comfort quilt for her mother.  My niece passed away from a massive aneurism in August 2021, just a couple months short of her fortieth birthday.  She loved butterflies and her favorite color was purple (mine too!).  It took me a long time to decide on a pattern, but by January 2022 I had fabric and pattern in hand and started sewing.

The pattern is great, and the sewing is easy, but there are a lot of pieces.  This is what was needed for each block.

Luckily, I had these alphabet pins!  The pattern gives each piece a letter, so I could pin them with the appropriate letter and keep it straight.  Some of the pieces are close in size.

I am very grateful to all the bloggers who share patterns and tutorials with us, free or not!  I could not have figured this out by myself.

The plan was to finish this quilt by August of 2022 to give to my sister.  Sadly, she died of a heart attack last May.  At that time I had all the blocks done.  I just set them aside for awhile.

The original purpose for making the quilt was to comfort my sister.  Now I'm making it as a  remembrance of both my niece and my sister.

Next will be an inner border of the same size and fabric as the sashing, then a pieced border of half square triangles.  Many of them were already made from the cut off pieces as I was making the blocks.  The others are in the box above, more Kaffe fabric plus light prints, right sides together, ready to sew.

 You'd think that would be enough to keep me busy, wouldn't you?  Especially with our two youngest grand kids staying with us for 5 nights while their folks were out of town!  I knew I wouldn't be able to get any sewing done, so I started sorting a giant garbage-bag-sized bag of flannel scraps.  I didn't take a before photo (oops!) but this is the after photo.  The diaper box holds what's left to trim down plus a couple of old projects.  The rest are strips and squares.

As I was pressing and cutting, I put together pieces for six quilt kits.  I had to dip into the flannel yardage for borders etc.

All of these kits use mainly 3.5 in. pieces.  I made two bricks kits, three Stepper kits, and one four patch kit with alternate blocks.  One more four patch kit is partially cut, but just needs alternate blocks and borders.  Next year when the Community Baby Shower rolls around in January, I'll be ready.

The post it notes will help me remember what I was doing!  It's amazing how many times I've come across a UFO and had to puzzle over what my plan had been for it.  (Anybody else have this problem?)

The plan here must have been Lego skyscrapers!  My little guys made a very colorful town.

Snicklefritz made sure the flannel was cozy for sleeping.  He's always willing to test fabrics and quilts for softness.  What a guy!

I hope you have a lovely week, with time to do the things you enjoy.

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

 

 

Little Pink Houses

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It's Pink month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge so I'm making these fun little houses from novelty print charm squares.  They're not sewn to the background, just laid on there for the photo. Anybody got a song in their head now?

 We've got popsicles, hippos, bunnies, hearts, pigs, and even ants at a picnic.

I think the dancing frogs are my favorites.  Or maybe the Valentine puppy.  I didn't even know I had so many pink prints.

The pattern is called Row Houses, and comes from the book Quilts for Scrap Lovers, by Judy Gauthier.

More pink, and more duckies, this time in flannel!  I did make a pink flannel quilt to donate to the Community Baby Shower, using this adorable duckie fabric from the quilt group silent auction.

This quick pattern Alternate Square from Quilts for Kids was a big help, since I was so short on time.  There are some other easy patterns at their site.  (Note:  Quilts for Kids does NOT accept flannel quilts due to hospital washing requirements.)

Here's the whole thing.  Sorry about the bad lighting.

Isn't it amazing how much thicker flannel quilts get when they're washed?  I snapped this photo, bundled the quilts into a bag, and delivered them to the collection point at a local bank, just hours before the deadline.  All the donations will be given to local charities that work with families in crisis.  Next year I'm going to start sooner (!) and also make some other needed items.

Snicklefritz the cat has been exploring the sewing room closet.  In this photo, he's perched on my quilt tops needing quilting.  I was so surprised the first time he did this, but now it's a regular thing.  If he gets heavier he may come crashing down, but for now he actually takes a nap like this.

With all those UFO quilts in the closet you might be surprised to see me making yet another project.  (Or not, quilters know how it is!)  A goal for this year is using up some of my 5 in. strips and squares.  The house block uses dark fabrics, and this new block uses light squares as the centers of modified Happy Blocks.  (I've always loved these cheeky bunnies, btw.)

The centers are 5 in. squares cut, and the surrounding strips are cut 2 in. wide.  The blocks finish at 7.5 in.  So far I have 8 of the pink blocks.

I don't know if you can see it, but the center most cupcake says "my little cupcake" on it.  Aww.

Dark blue ones for January had to be made, to catch this RSC project up.

And here's more dark blue!  It's our Buddy, wearing his wrestling tournament shirt and that crazy haircut.  The whole team has their hair like this.  His mom is looking forward to his regular hair when wrestling season is over. 

No photos of Little Guy this week.  He had another head cold, and was not very photogenic.  I think we should buy stock in Kleenex.  He was feeling okay most of the time, though.

I hope you're feeling well and happy this week, and every week!  

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Check out all the great quilt blogs 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, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Flannel-palooza, or Fluffy Side Up

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Today's blog is brought to you by Snicklefritz the cat, official quilt tester.  Three of these little flannel quilts will be going to the Community Baby Shower early next week.

I've been on a flannel kick lately, inspired by the winter and by an overabundance of the soft fluffy fabric. And what's better to make out of flannel than baby quilts?

Two of the quilts were made with these Tumbler shapes, cut with the Accuquilt die cutting machine.  This scrappy one has blue and green prints for the darker pieces, and various lights.

There are lots of fun prints here, from frogs and bugs to dogs and crocodiles.  I think this is the last of that Baby Boy print.  

I'm hoping someone's little guy will find this quilt warm and cuddly.

The second tumbler quilt is a classic two-color quilt in yellow with a green binding.

Duckies!  And a soft plain yellow.  It's easy to tell which side is the right side with printed flannel, but it's harder with solid colors.  Both sides are soft, of course, but there really is a difference.  I had to keep checking to make sure the fluffy side was on top.

Each of these quilts use 48 tumblers.  I cut 24 each of lights and darks for the scrappy one, and 24 each of duckies and solid yellow for the second one.

Once the rows were sewn together, I straightened the edge with a long ruler and a rotary cutter.  The quilts measure 33 in. x 35.5 in. finished.

More duckies on the back!  I got this fabric at the quilt group silent auction last fall.  It came from the stash of a very nice lady (Mary G.) who had passed away.

The third flannel quilt is a Trip Around the World, and it started like this, as a kit I cut from scraps.

I know some (most?) people strip piece this pattern, but I sew it from individual squares.  I keep track of the rows like this, pinning them to the makeshift design wall with paper row number labels.  It helps to keep me on track, especially since I don't usually sew for long blocks of time.

Plus there are furry distractions laying on the pieces!

In the end it came out okay.  The pieces are 5 in. squares (cut), and the quilt finished at 40.5 in. square.

And guess what the theme is---

That's right!  Even more duckies! 

The back is this gorgeous Hoffman print.  I don't remember where/when I acquired it, but I wish I had a whole bolt.

The Community Baby Shower contributions are due at the end of the month, which is Tuesday, believe it or not.  Since two of these quilts are meant for boys, I might try to make a pink one in the spirit of equality if I have time.  Plus the RSC color for February is pink!

In other news, here's my last dark blue Rainbow Scrap Challenge project for January.

I made these Capital T blocks a few years ago from reproduction 1800s fabrics.  The plan had always been to quilt them by the block, so now I'm finally getting going on it.

There will be some handwork, but I don't mind at all.

We're expecting snow here, so I'd better wind this up and get to the store before it starts.  I don't want to be stuck in the house like this guy!  (He wiggled out right away, of course.)

If we do get snowed in, we'll at least have plenty of chocolate brownies my Little Guy and I made yesterday.  Bet you can tell his favorite thing is licking the spoon!

I hope you have time for your favorite things (and people and animals!) today.  Happy Quilting!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Alycia at Finished or Not Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap