Still In the Pink

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

I'm still working through the pink scraps, and I have a finish!  It's a small quilt ready to be donated to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee.

The main fabric in the quilt is this princess print.  A large scrap of it was donated to our quilt guild.  I had thought to use it as a backing, but it was both too narrow and too short for even a small quilt.  I ended up cutting it into 6.5 in. squares to alternate with the 4 patch blocks.  

A few fun prints were in my pink strips, like this llama fabric given to me by my friend Joey M.

And of course I had to include frog prints, like the one in the top left.

Anybody recognize this backing?  These fabrics with tiny hearts were very popular in the late 1980s/early 1990s.  I bought it second hand for $2 a yard.  It's still good and sturdy, and washed up nicely before quilting.

Can you see the binding?  I was so happy to find it in my stash (another gift from Joey).  The color was just what I was looking for.  It was only a fat quarter, but I made it work.

Snicky was my quilt tester today.  He assures me it is cuddle-worthy, ready to go to a child.  After washing, of course!

I have used this free pattern for literally years!  It comes from the Quilts for Kids web site.  Click HERE for a full page of their free patterns.

In other news, I put the borders on the Sticks and Stones top, and it's ready for donating as well.

No suitable pink showed itself here, but there's lots of pink in this mostly-blue Kaffe Fassett print.  It's one of my favorites, and has been around a long time.  The quilt store where I drop off the donated quilts has dozens of Kaffe fabrics (among all the other amazing fabrics!).  They even have a clearance section, and I often get good buys there.  (FYI, it's Quilt-agious in Mukwonago, WI)

In Progress

Still working on the Pink Happy Blocks quilt.  I think this will be my last pink quilt for a while.  As of yesterday the blocks were all in rows and the border has been pressed, ready to cut.

Remember this project?  It's called Cabin Steps, and I've been using it for leaders and enders.  I have 10 blocks done, and need 26 more.  The pieces are small (2 in. x 3.5 in. cut), so it will take a long time.  That's okay with me, it's steady progress and I'm not in a hurry.

The weather here has been crazy this week, with thunderstorms every night and the tornado watches and even warnings to go with them.  All that rain is causing flooding also.  We are very lucky to be safe and dry, and hoping for this spell to be over soon for everyone.

These cool guys were hanging out here the other night.  They make me smile every day.

You make me smile too!  Thanks for reading this silly little blog.  Have a wonderful week, and Happy Quilting!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

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

Lions and Tigers and Bears and Purple

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

It's a rainy day, so no outside photos, sorry.

At last, a finished quilt!  By some miracle, I got a little extra time this week.  Mrs. Pfaff and I made short work of this little 40 in. x 48 in. Happy Blocks quilt.

I showed the top on the blog back in March.  It was waiting for quilting when Mrs. Pfaff had to go into the shop.  In my head I'm calling it Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My.

The pieces in the center of the Happy Blocks are animal prints cut from panels and striped fabrics, and bordered by solid colored scraps.  The squares were cut at 4.5 in., and the outside strips at 2.5 in. wide, making blocks that finished at 8 in. square.  

I'm donating this quilt to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee.  In my experience, most kids love animals, so I hope an animal quilt can brighten a child's day.

Wait, we've got a moose, a skunk, an elephant, birds, butterflies, etc., but where are the lions?

Here they are, on the back!  Along with zebras, giraffes, more elephants, turtles, and even more tigers!

I bought this fabric at a second hand sale, and it fit perfectly for the back.  The copyright on the selvedge is 1998.  Older cotton fabrics (in good condition!) can be great for backing, since they are usually 2 to 3 inches wider than today's fabric.

It's hard to believe this is the last Saturday in July.  The summer is speeding past!  I had to push hard to get my purple blocks done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, since I know I won't have much time next week.

Sisters Choice is first, just five blocks, but with lots of purple scraps.

Next are the heart blocks.  I was surprised I had so many different shades of purple in the scraps.

There are TWO ghost print blocks.  The one on the upper left came from the box my friend gave me two weeks ago.  I'm already working on those scraps, Joey!  I just need to sew faster!

My favorite block this week is one of those prints that looks purple with blue fabrics and blue with purple.  I call them chameleons.  It's a cat print, I think it's by the late Laurel Burch.  It won't matter what color it reads when it ends up in a scrap quilt.

I did get the peaches canned last Saturday.  We also had peach crisp and some for eating.  I already had peach jam from last year, so I didn't bother with it.

Yesterday we met our oldest daughter and her kids at a lake.  The boys would hardly get out of the water, even for lunch!

Buddy was looking for fish.  There were some very tiny ones.  He was too busy to pose.

All of us are well here, and I hope you are the same.  Have a lovely week!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Panel Pieces, Happy Blocks, and Bowties

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

  Yes, it's another Happy Blocks quilt this week.  I've actually lost track of how many of these I've made.  It's such a fun and easy design for a child's quilt.  This time it's a little different, because the centers are made from panel pieces.

Are you wondering what I mean by panel pieces?  Or do you also have a bag like this, full of off cuts and scraps of panels and striped fabric?  I was thinking about this bag after a conversation with my friend Joey brought up a stray thought.  What if I cut squares from the panel scraps and bordered them with solid colors?

I chose pieces from the bag that had similarly sized motifs and similar colors, in this case bright rather than pastel.  This animals panel was one of them.

This elephant came from that panel.  (Please excuse the loose thread I somehow didn't see when I snapped the photo!)

There were also a few striped pieces I could cut into squares.  This one had birds and butterflies and bugs and bees.

Here's how it turned out.

Two of my favorite panels/stripes got cut up before I thought of taking photos.  I love this cute little tiger and all his friends.  Even the snake.  The orange is brighter in person.

The tiger face in the aqua square was one of six animals in a panel scrap.  I'm not even sure where it came from.  I used all six.  I think kids will like them.

The blocks are 8 in. finished.  I'm not planning on adding a border, so the quilt will finish at 40 in. x 48 in.  I'm going to quilt this one myself and donate it to Project Linus locally.

Yellow month marches on lol.  I have loved making these big Bowtie blocks.

I had more fun yellow prints that I thought I did!

The dog square is my favorite.

I hope I'll have time to finish my yellow blocks this week, but I've started a big project that's taking a lot of time.  I'm doing a basement clean out of my quilting stuff.  This week it was the flannel fabric.  Above is a big bin with flannel pieces big enough for backing.  I've arranged them like this so I can open the lid and see just what I have.  (Thanks to Marie Kondo for the idea.)

Smaller pieces of flannels are arranged in these bins.  The small ones on the top hold strips and squares.  The rest are arranged by color within sizes of small, medium, and large.  I love seeing these bright prints, and I'm hoping it will inspire me to use them up.

This stack is less pretty.  More cut pieces on top, solid colored flannel in the blue bin, and scraps and larger strips in the green one.  Organized, and ready to use.  It feels good!

The cats are trying to "help" me.  Lizzie is inspecting a pile of wool fabric I'm re-homing.

Snicky worked so hard he had to go take a nap.

Yesterday I took Little Guy to the doctor.  He's had a cold and needed some meds for a potential ear infection.  It was the first time he ever wore a mask.  I thought he was cute, but he was not a fan.  I had to bribe him with Pokemon time to get him to keep it on.

Everyone with colds is on the mend, the weather is getting nicer, and spring break for my youngest grandsons is next week.  We're hoping good times will be had by all.

Including you!  Have a wonderful week!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with these lovely ladies and their linky parties.  Come join us!

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap