Happy Halloween

 As the sign on my house says...

Welcome to Treadlestitches, Halloween Edition!

I didn't make any Halloween quilts this year, but there are little bits of orange and black in both tops finished this week.

This top has lots of black prints.  I started working on it two weeks ago, when I got the center (the six blocks and their tan sashing) from the charity committee to quilt.  Well, I couldn't leave well enough alone, and decided to make it big enough to fit a cot in the men's shelter.  I added the polka dot border (from my stash), and then made and added the piano keys outer border.

You never know what's going to come in handy.  Several years ago I bought a scrap bag at a flea market with lots of Route 66 fabric pieces, mostly squares and short strips.  It was fun to include them in this border.

I don't use a lot of black fabrics in my quilts for children, so I was glad I had these on hand.  There are also greens and grays, to go with the center squares.

Now it's ready for quilting.  I'm going to look around here and see if I can find enough flannel to back it with, so it's warm and cozy on our cold Wisconsin nights.

Does this ever happen to you?  Last month I needed a leader and ender project (read about what that is HERE), so I just grabbed some reproduction fabric squares and started sewing these 16-patch blocks.  Then, they took over!

When I got the blocks done, I had just about decided to put them together with an unpieced square of shirting fabric, but that seemed kind of ho-hum.  I had always liked a quilt made by Harriet Hargrave with this set, so that was the inspiration. 

Can you see which of the hourglass blocks is different?  I make my scrap quilts the way my foremothers did.  If I run out of one fabric, I add another similar one and keep going.

It's hard to see from the photo, but the border is a blue plaid.  It's a Marti Michel print from the 1990s, another flea market find.  How old does a fabric have to be before it's vintage?  

We're going to keep this one.  After I get it quilted, we'll use it on this twin bed, or curl up with it on the couch.  I'd like flannel backing for it too.  (Can you tell it's getting colder here?)

With those out of the way, I need a new piecing project.  Luckily, I have several (ahem! Understatement!) UFOs to choose from.  These blocks were finished in August 2020 and need to be set into a top.  I pieced most of them as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  

What about setting them with a pieced block?  It seems to be a theme with me lately.
 

How about this block?  It's number 2314 in Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.  It has several names.  I like Windmill best. Both blocks are 6 in. finished, so I'll need a lot of them.

Here's a preview of what it will look like.  Do you see the mistake I made?  Middle row, far right.

If it is possible to make a piecing mistake, I will make it.  This time, it was a cutting mistake.  The big pieces are not symmetrical, so they all have to be cut with the same side up.  I didn't always do that, so some of my blocks have a right twist and some have a left twist.  I'm not worried about it.

We have too much to do around here to worry about anything.  Baby Buddy and Little Buddy helped me cut out pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies.  The little guy was surprisingly good at it, all I had to do was keep him from eating the dough.

Don't be too frightened, but Little Buddy made this Haunted House for us from all the scariest toys and decorations he could find.  Some pretend dinosaur skulls got added in for extra creepiness.

Happy Halloween to all who celebrate, and thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Just the Scraps, Ma'am

Do you ever feel yourself getting sidetracked?  Last week I started making these blocks, two nine patches paired with two plain squares.  This was supposed to be a leaders and enders project while I finished assembling a different quilt top.  Instead, it completely took over.
I can't regret it, I had so much fun making these blocks!  The small 9 patch blocks are made from 2 in. squares.  All of it came from scraps.  The small squares came from the 2 in. strip drawer.  The larger squares are 5 in., and are from a box of charm squares I cut from reproduction fabric scraps.

Mostly, when I make scrap quilts, about 80% of the pieces come from actual scraps.  I usually cut the rest from yardage or big scraps so I can add in colors or types of prints.  This time, I went with 100% scraps in the blocks.  Scarcity makes for some interesting (weird?) pairings.
Check out the blue block above, with the flag squares.  I only had 4 squares of the original blue print, so I had to substitute a different indigo blue with larger white circles.  (Bet you saw that before I mentioned it!)

Sometimes I just had 1 square of a print, like the blue spools print here.  In that case, I cut 4 similarly colored prints from a strip, and put the odd square in the center.

I ran low on light fabrics right away.  In this blue block, all the lights are different prints.  (I love the rooster!)

This one is my favorite.  The center row in the black block above has two squares of light fabric printed with horses and riders.  This is just how the squares turned out when I cut them.  I sewed them like this as a little joke.  Is this an extremely long horse, or is the poor thing cut in half?  (Note: No horses or riders were harmed in the making of this block.)

Now I'm working on a piano keys border, and trying to decide what color squares to put in the corners.  I don't know why I'm even considering red and yellow, I usually end up with blue anyway.

These are the original piles of 2 in. scraps/strips, separated into light and dark.

And here's what's left after a week of happy piecing.  BTW, this is a small basket, usually known as a peck, which is one fourth of a bushel.
I'm not going to put any of this back in the drawer!  I've got my eye on another scrap quilt, and I'm going to cut up these strips for it.
It might end up being a large quilt.
In other news,

purple!  It's the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

I made 4 of each of the blocks for my quilts.  These are also reproduction fabric quilts, and I really don't have a lot of purple on hand.

In between piecing like mad, I'm quilting the second Pixel Heart quilt for Project Linus.  Check out the scraps under the table.  I think the operative word here is "overflowing".
Even though it's snowy outside, my sewing room is overflowing with scrappy quilty happiness.
And that's what I'm wishing for you this week.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
Link ups as usual with Busy Hands Quilts and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Purple Prose

Having skipped blogging last week, I am overjoyed to have two finishes this week.  Finish #1 is the quilt above, a baby quilt made with the Split Square pattern from Country Threads.

The quilt is actually finished, including binding, but my full-quilt photo turned out very blurry, and the quilt itself is still in the washer. 

The Country Threads Chicken Scratch blog, written by Mary Etherington, is using this pattern as a Christmas quilt-along.  You can find out about it in several posts, starting here.  I changed the pattern slightly, partly because I didn't have the book with the instructions.  My squares finish at 4.5 in. instead of 4 in., and I made 56 squares to make it big enough for a good-sized baby.

It was lots of fun to use a few charm squares leftover from another project plus my bright scraps to make this quilt for charity.  I am really starting to love purple prints.

Purple finish #2:  wool socks!  They are shown here on the closed top of my Minnesota treadle.  I make mine with worsted weight yarn, which makes them thick and warm for the Wisconsin winter.  These are for me.  The yarn came from a flea market, and has the look of Brown Sheep yarn.

I am also happy to report that my leaf quilt is no longer languishing, waiting for me to figure out what to do for a border.

I finally decided on a 6 in. finished piano keys style border, with a 6 in. leaf block in each corner.

It is shown here on my queen sized bed, which is where I want it to go when it's done.  It can be a warm celebration of fall every year.

The top is in two pieces, since I plan to quilt it on my domestic machine.  Now the real languishing will begin, waiting for me to get the quilting done.

Isn't this a cute lamp?  It was made from a mason jar.  I bought it (for $2!) at our quilt group's silent auction last month.  The previous owner put tiny fabric strings and scraps inside it.

Here's what it looks like under the shade.  The wires don't go inside the jar.

I changed out the scraps for vintage spools of thread, which I was storing in a drawer in the basement.

Now I've got a cute lamp, and more light.  (Does this count as a finish?  Well, of course not.  But it's still fun.)

I want to share this wonderful book I got at the library this week.  It is filled with amazing photographs of life through the seasons at Old World Wisconsin, the largest outdoor history museum in the United States.  The text includes snippets from letters and diaries of settlers and their descendants, and is very well written.  The photos are so good you feel transported to the 1850s.  There are a few quilts and quilts in progress scattered through, but it is mostly a clear depiction of pioneer life.  It was named to the Library of Congress 2015 list of 52 Great Reads, and would make a nice gift for someone who loves history.
To read about the author, go here.

I wonder how many of us did this last Friday morning.  This was my breakfast the day after Thanksgiving--cold pumpkin pie and a mug of tea.  Truly another small thing to be thankful for.

I wish you thankfulness this week, and calm and peace in this busy season.
Cheers,
Sylvia

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts today.  I think I'll just barely make the deadline.