August is Aqua

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Well, look what "grew" in my garden this week!  It's a little nine patch quilt, ready to be donated.

Most of the 2.5 in. (unfinished) squares came from a bag I picked up on the free table at our quilt guild.  There were lots of solid and print squares, so it made sense to combine them.  I call this one Nine Patch A and B, because there are two kinds of blocks.  Block A has 5 solid squares and 4 print squares, and Block B has 5 print squares and 4 solids.

The border is a Sesame Street print.  This is what was left after I used it on a previous quilt.  Big Bird, Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Zoe are skating and jumping rope etc., having a good time outside.

The binding is made from a scrap!  I had to piece seven strips together for a quilt 36 in. x 42 in., but it was worth it to use up the scrap and get this color.  From now on I'm calling this shade Elmo Red.  The back came from the big sale at the museum.

The quilting is my usual serpentine stitch in a two inch grid.  Mrs. Pfaff and I are on a roll finishing up some small tops.

August is aqua!  It's the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  My aquas seem to divide into greenish ones and blueish ones, so I made blocks of each.  Above are the greenish aqua Bright Hopes blocks, 6 in. finished.

These are the blueish Bright Hopes.  Lots of fish, bugs, frogs, and even Hello Kitty.

There were some fun fabrics to piece into big bowties, too, like dinosaurs and Scooby Doo.

More fish here, even Baby Shark (sorry if that brings up an earworm for you like it does for me!).

It was just like potato chips, I couldn't stop making Bow Ties.  Some of these were not strictly aqua, but it won't matter when they're put into quilts.

Favorite block of the week:

I had never seen this fabric before.  I just love that frog with a banjo.  You never know what fun prints you're going to find when you collect scraps!

My little rascals went to Vacation Bible School this week.  They're posing in a pretend magnifying glass.

After VBS on Thursday we went to a park with lots of structures to climb on.  Buddy is getting ready to launch himself onto some monkey bars.

Little Guy got into the act, too.  It was good for them to get out and get some exercise, after being stuck indoors due to the rain on Wednesday.

I'm glad to have made some inroads on the UFOs and RSC blocks this week, since I don't know how much I will be able to do next week.  I have unfortunately acquired a summer cold.  I rate it 0/10, would not recommend.  Avoid it if you can!

Have a lovely week!  I hope it's filled with all the things you love to do.  Including quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Free Table Quilts and 3-D Flying Geese Tutorial

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Look what I found on the free table!  Some assembly required, of course.

Does your quilt group have a free table?  At our guild, the free table is a place where people can bring items they no longer want and other people can take them home.  These lap quilts started out as bags of squares several years ago.  I don't even know who brought them.

Here's the brown quilt displayed on the fence around my strawberry bed.  There were hundreds of squares in the bag, some brown, some off-white, and some a dark red.  Very conveniently, they were cut 2.5 in. square.  During the pandemic, when I needed a leader/ender project, I started making nine patches from the squares.  This one finished at 38 in. square.

I had fewer red squares, so I added a paisley border to the red quilt.  I set the nine patches in vertical rows with a staggered sashing.  This one is 36 in. square.

Both quilts have this plaid backing from my stash, and were quilted in a 2 in. grid with the serpentine stitch.  Batting leftovers were just the right size for both of them.   I even used leftover binding from another quilt to finish off the brown quilt.

 These projects have been languishing in my UFO pile for literally years.  I even had the border for the red quilt chosen, but not added, until last week.  It feels great to move them out at last.  They will be donated to a local nursing home.

So, what's next?  I have lots of Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks to join into quilts, and I'm thinking about what I want to do for next year's RSC.  What about flying geese?

All the Canadian geese flying overhead and honking made me think of this, but I was seriously inspired by a book I bought on the sale table at the library by late quilting great Mary Ellen Hopkins.

Mary Ellen Hopkins was an absolute hoot!  I was lucky enough to attend a lecture she gave back in the 1980s.  There was nothing dry about her lectures, we were laughing half the time!  She had lots of clever ways to cut and piece, and was an early adopter of the rotary cutter.  She also is probably the inventor of what we sometimes call "flippy corners".  This book has some of her fun ideas.

This is the one that excited me.  She calls it Loose Goose.  It's a technique for making 3-dimensional flying geese.  With just one seam, not kidding!

The directions were a little confusing, but I finally figured it out.  Here's how I make them.

For each unit, you need one rectangle, 2.5 in. x 4.5 in., and two background squares cut 2.5 in. x 2.5 in.

1.  Fold the rectangle in half like this.

2.  Turn the folded rectangle like this, with the fold at the top.

3.  Lay the folded rectangle on top of a background square, lining up the bottom edges.  There should be about 1/4 in. of background square showing the the top.  (If the background square has right/wrong sides, it should be right side up.)

4.  Lay the second background square on top.  If it has right/wrong sides, put it right side down.  Now sew a 1/4 in. seam on the right through all layers.

 This is the result.  It looks weird, but trust me, this is right.  

Now for the tricky bit.  Use your fingers to open up the "goose" and move the fold to line up over the seam.  The points will go into the corners of the background squares.  (It's hard to describe, sorry.)

And here's what you end up with!  It needs to be pressed to hold its shape.  I press the seam on the back open to reduce bulk.

From here you can make all sorts of patterns.   If you like, you can baste the bottom of the unit together, or just catch it in the seam when sewing it to other units.

So that's my first idea for RSC 2024.  Thanks, Mary Ellen!

Here's a weird question for you.  I found this fat quarter in a bag of fabric I bought at the guild's silent auction.  Have you ever heard of this fabric?  Would you use it in a kid's quilt?  What if I cut it up so it's not as recognizable?  Or is there something else you'd do with it?  (Zipper pouch for Snoop Dogg??)

In other agriculturally related news, we took our little guy to the apple orchard this week.  He was so excited when the lady gave him an apple.  Half a bushel of apples came home with us for applesauce.  We also bought pumpkins for the porch and for pie, and pears.  So I've got some canning to do this weekend, and better get started.

Have a lovely day, and a wonderful week!

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, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 

Cynthia at Oh Scrap
 

 

 

Rainy Day at the Pond, and Happy Blocks

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for dropping by!

I have a finish this week!  It's a baby-sized quilt, made mostly from scraps I bought second-hand.  I'm calling it "Rainy Day at the Pond".  Please excuse the gloomy outdoor photos, it's been overcast and/or raining for a couple of days now.

Here's the quilt laid out flat, a little crinkly after washing.  The blocks are 6 in. nine patches, in either green or a bluish aqua.

Here's one of the green ones, with very happy fish.  The alternate blocks are striped fabric in aqua, green, white, and a little black.  The light squares in the nine patches have a design that looks like raindrops to me, hence the name.

Check out these frogs swimming in inner tubes.  One of them even has sunglasses.

This was not a quilt I planned far in advance.  In fact, most of these fabrics met on the cutting table.  In June, I went to a local garage sale at a quilter's home, and bought lots of the cute prints, including the frogs and fish above. 

 The very next day was the big sale at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts, where I found this striped fabric in several smaller strips.  It had both green and aqua in it, and I had green and aqua scraps, so this happened.  I think now there really isn't enough contrast for the green nine patches, but live and learn.

The inner border, outer border, and binding were all bought at flea markets or rummage sales.

Here's the back, a Frog Prince print!  I found this on clearance at the local quilt shop and bought enough for two quilts.  Frogs are fun!

So that's a little donation quilt, ready to go.  Plus there's aqua in it for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month!

Isn't aqua a pretty color?  Even the aqua trash looks good.  By the way, I snagged out that larger piece and cut a 2 in. square out of it.  Must have fallen in by mistake!

Time to make the aqua Happy Blocks, to go with all the other colors!  Some were more green, some more blue, which is the way it goes for aqua.

Flip flops for the last days of summer (maybe?).  This week we had days in the 90s (F) and days in the 60s.

Cats.  Always tasteful for any occasion.  (Source:  My cat Snicklefritz.)

Minions remind me of my little minions, the grandsons known as Buddy and Little Guy.

Buddy is very into fishing, so I included this square at his request.  There are canoes and paddles and even the word "Fishing".

Here's an aqua-filled photo from our recent visit to the Milwaukee Public Museum.  Buddy was very excited to see these lake dwelling fish on display, since he knows them well from catching or not catching them with his dad.

Little Guy enjoyed the museum, too, but mostly from the comfort of his stroller.

Buddy loves hamming it up for the camera (can you tell?).

I'm glad we took that little excursion.  Now that school is back in session, I'm already missing time with the kids.  Buddy is only here after school or on days off.  Little Guy is still here more, but is going to preschool part time.

All the blocks for Buddy's new quilt are done, but we haven't done a layout yet.  Maybe next week?  In the meantime I'm going to work on getting used to the new schedule, and maybe get some more quilting done.

Have a happy quilty week!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy