Lap Quilts, Orange Scraps, and the Big Sale

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

It's two for the price of one today!  These little lap quilts are ready to be donated to a local nursing home.  They are twins, made from the same blocks and the same scrap bags.  I call them fraternal twins since the colors are opposite.

The block is rectangular.  I got this idea from Cynthia at Oh Scrap.  Each block is just one square and one rectangle.  The squares were cut 4 in., and were in a bag of scraps donated to our guild.  The rectangles came from a similar bag, and were originally 2.5 x 4.5, but I cut them down to 2.5 x 4 to match the squares.  There were only a few squares of this farm animal print.  Isn't it sweet?

Quilt A (above) is made from dark squares and light rectangles, all from the scrap bags.

Quilt B is made from light squares and dark rectangles.  I had plenty of rectangles from the scrap bag, but I did have to add in some light squares cut from my scraps.  The border, backing, and binding are the same on both quilts, and came from my stash.

The cat in this square reminds me of Little Lizzy, our shy kitten.  She's shy around people, but goes chasing through the house with her big brother Snicky.

Speaking of Snicklefritz,  our Little Guy asked me to take this picture with him.  Little Guy loves Snicky, but we are still working on teaching him that cats don't like hugs.

Quilt guild meeting was last Wednesday, and I picked up a few more scraps from the free table.  The squares in front are Halloween prints.  I love the ones with black cats!  In the back are squares and rectangles made from strips.  Lots of great orange variety!

Time has been short this week, but I was able to use my orange scraps to make some hearts for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

As always, some are more successful than others, but all will be put to good use in kid quilts.

I have two favorites this week!  Birthday candles and monkeys, and two Dr. Seuss prints!

Sometimes people ask me where I get all these novelty prints.  One answer is the big sale at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts, which happened on Thursday.  It's always a highlight of the summer for me.  Above is the flannel I bought, some novelties and some "calmer" fabrics as blenders.

Here's the rest of it, the quilting cottons, plus a Sock Monkey panel.

I like these cat and dog prints best!  I can't wait to start sewing with them.

Also, lots of scraps!  They had a scrap section outside, where you could fill a bag for a set price.  I filled a kitchen trash bag for $5.

I always think of this sale as a Win-Win-Win-Win-Win.  The museum wins by raising money, and those of us who donate fabric etc. win by cleaning out our stuff.  Shoppers like me win by saving money.  The charities I give quilts to win, and the last win is keeping fabric and scraps out of the landfill.  Plus it's so much fun!

As of this writing, all the new-to-me fabric has been washed and put away.  I must admit, some of the bins are pretty full!  (I will not be buying any more flannel for a long time.)  Everything I bought will either be useful for the quilts I sew, or will be passed on to others.

It's a lovely summer day here, but a heat wave is forecast for the whole weekend.  Perfect weather for sewing in the air conditioning!  But isn't it always perfect weather for sewing?  Have a wonderful week!

Cheers 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

Anything Goes

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  This week I pushed through a rotten cold to finish two little donation quilts.

One of the ladies at my quilt group made the tops from donated fabric.  I quilted and bound them.

They are just the right size to keep someone's lap warm.

I was very happy to use up some of my scrap fabric on the backs and for the binding.  More stuff out the door, and for a good cause.

This backing had a date on the selvedge of 1999!  The quilting is a 2 in. grid, that Mrs. Pfaff and I sewed using her built in walking foot.

Check out some of the variety!  This lizard/snake fabric was in both quilts.  So was the poly/cotton gingham, which reminds me of making dresses for my daughters in the 1980s.

Here we have millennium fabric from 2000, a pheasant print, modern prints, batiks, and a Christmas print.  Truly, anything goes!
These little quilts will probably go to a local nursing home, where they will be warm and comforting.
In other news, still green!

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge has been great for helping me use up scraps of all sorts.  As usual, I have a project just for my 1800s reproduction fabric.  These shoo fly blocks are cut from 3.5 in. strips.

I have more dark strips than light, so I settled on this configuration.  I will use two fabrics (at least) for each color (in this case, green), and two fabrics for each light.

They are simple little blocks, fast and easy to make, which I am going to need this year as my life gets busier.
This was the week that was.  (Anybody remember that show?)

For a while now, I've been enjoying the quilts people make that mark each day in a year, such as temperature quilts, etc.  After some head scratching and scribbling, I decide to record the days in 2020 like this.  Each small block represents a week, and each strip is one day.
New Year's Day was a Wednesday, so the top strip represents the sewing I did that day, especially making green RSC blocks.  The next strip has hearts for visiting family, and Clifford is for my little buddy's new book.  Saturday is a serene aqua, Sunday is a bright yellow, Monday has the dinosaurs we're always playing with, and Tuesday is a books print to represent our weekly trip to the library.

My plan is to keep going all year.  The block for each month will be made of  4 of these weekly blocks, BUT when there are more than 28 days (which is every month this year), I will split the strips in the last block as needed.  It's kind of my own Block of the Month.
There's a ice storm outside today, with snow to follow, so we are happily snowed in.  My DH is watching a ball game, and I'm going to get some more sewing done.  Well, after I take a nap.
Have a lovely week, and watch out for cold germs!
Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:
Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday
Angela at So Scrappy
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Officially Fall

I don't set much store by the calendar definitions of seasons.  We're told it's spring when there is still snow on the ground, and by the time the calendar gets around to making winter official, there is snow again.  In between, there's summer, and fall.
It has started to feel like fall this week, and we even had frost on the grass this morning, so this time the calendar seems right.

I finished this little lap quilt this week.  I "won" it in a silent auction at our quilt group last year.  It could have said "some assembly required" on the package, but everything except batting was in there.  The printed pattern was included, the blocks were pieced, the strips for sashing and borders and binding were cut (and labeled!), and the backing was there as well.

All these beautiful leaf prints are very appropriate right now, and the colors are so good.  When I take it to our quilt meeting this month, I want to thank the person who donated it to the auction.  I'm donating it as a lap quilt, probably for a nursing home resident.

Here's the book the pattern came from.  The quilt is named "Greta", and is the last one in this book.

I'm trying to finish canning and freezing vegetables and fruits before it's too late.  This is a half bushel of tomatoes that Little Buddy and I got at the Farmers Market on Wednesday.

While he was watching Mickey Mouse, I got them canned.  There are 14 pints of tomatoes (only one didn't seal).  When the kettle is down to mostly juice and a few tomato pieces, I can that in the taller jars as soup starter.
I'm thinking about maybe getting some more tomatoes, since I don't think this will last the winter, but we are really getting to the end of tomato season now.

How do you baste your quilts?  Here's what I was doing Sunday.  I spread out a batting on the floor, and cut out the batting for 3 small quilts.  I like doing this on the carpet, as the batting clings to it and thus lays flatter.  Once I get the batting cut, I layer the quilts on the kitchen table and spray baste them.

This is the stack, ready to be quilted.

September is almost over, and all my blue blocks are done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I did find this blue picture in my files.

My youngest grandson, nicknamed Little Buddy, loves blueberries.  I bought a lot of them this summer, at the store and at the farmers markets.  When we got home from the grocery, I would wash up some blueberries, and give Little Buddy a small bowl of them to eat while I got the groceries put away.  It's a good snack for a little guy, and keeps him busy.
Sadly, all our blueberries are in the freezer now.  But that means yummy muffins and pancakes this winter.
I'm so glad the sun is shining brightly this morning.  It's the wedding day for my daughter's best friend, and the ceremony is outside.  My oldest grandson is an usher (he's 13), and I can't wait to see him all dressed up in his new suit.  I'm looking forward to this happy occasion for the young couple.

I hope you have happy occasions this week, big ones or small ones.

Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Angela at soscrappy
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Cynthia at Oh Scrap