Rainbow Stars Baby Quilts

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I've said it before, I love the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  The only thing more fun than making blocks from colorful scraps every month is putting them together into finished quilts.

These little quilts were made from blocks I call Four Patch Stars (they have a 4 patch in the center).  Throughout the year I made 4 of these blocks per month, until I had a total of 36.  

Twenty of the blocks went into this quilt.  These are the red, orange, green, light blue, and dark blue ones.

For sashing, I used 2.5 in. squares.  You might think this would make a dent in my squares.  It probably would for normal people.

This is how many I had left AFTER making the quilt.  (No worries, I've got another quilt planned for these!)

Here's the back, made wide enough by a strip of home cut charm squares.

The main fabric on the back is a bug print!  I'm not a fan of real bugs, but somehow I find bug prints irresistible.  I hope the child who gets this quilt likes bugs.  It measures 42 in. x 52 in., and will go to Project Linus.

So what happened to the other 16 blocks?  Girl quilt!

For this little quilt, I used the pink, purple, aqua, and yellow blocks.

The sashing is a print of tiny stars (cut 2 in. wide),

the backing is a different star print,
 

and the 3 in. finished border is of these happy, fun-loving cats, bought at a quilt shop on our vacation.  The purple polka dot binding came from last month's Granny's Attic sale.  Altogether, the quilt is about 42 in. square.

The quilt weren't the only things flying in the breeze yesterday when I tried to take a picture.  Little Buddy and I looked up from our board game to see kites flying in the park.

This rainbow one was our favorite.  We went outside to look, and wave at the kite flyers.  It was like a gift for us to see.

Gifts of joy are everywhere.  Here's another gift, a book I bought years ago and found in the basement when straightening up.  It's Tasha Tudor's Heirloom Crafts, by Tovah Martin.  As you may know, Tasha Tudor was a children's book author and illustrator.  Despite the cover, it's not a quilting book.  In fact, at the time the book was written she had been working on this quilt for ten years.

I really enjoyed re-reading it this week.  Ms. Tudor had a very unique lifestyle, living as though it was still 1830.  The photographs are wonderful, and it is absolutely amazing how many things in her life were made by her own hands.  She died in 2008, at the age of 92.  By the way, there are no instructions, it's more of a coffee table book.

Some of us just can't give up on Halloween!  Little Buddy had fun dancing with his skinny friend.

Baby Buddy's friend here is our geriatric cat.  The cat loves the kids, even when Baby Buddy forgets and grabs his tail.  

Just being with these little guys is joyful every day.

I'm wishing you gifts of joy this week, and every week!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red, White, and Blue--and Pink!

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  I hope you're enjoying your weekend.  I know I am!

Look what I found!  I was taking advantage of the time off from babysitting to do some straightening up in the sewing room, and found 4 star blocks I made for Covered In Love last year and never sent.
Covered in Love is "a quilting charity that provides comfort quilts for families of people who have passed away in the hospital".  Kat of Kat and Cat quilts has block drives every two months or so, and then Kat and other volunteers make quilts from the blocks.  I must have made these blocks in July or August last year.
I'm embarrassed to have never sent the blocks, but good news!  Kat is running the same block drive for July and August this year.  The theme is Red White and Blue stars, and you can read all about it HERE.  You can make any star block you like, that ends up measuring 12 in. finished.

I'll definitely send in the 4 blocks from last year, but it seemed like a good time to make some more.  I love to get out the patriotic fabrics on the 4th of July.  I have a total of 8 blocks done, with 2 more cut to piece later today.  Monday morning Little Buddy and I will go to the post office and actually mail them off.

One of the nice things about making these particular stars is how easy they are to sew, and how all the pieces can be cut from 3.5 in. strips.  I use the Easy Angle and Companion Angle rulers to cut the triangles.  All the fabrics are from my scrap bins.

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month is pink.  Honestly, it's never been my favorite color, but I'm trying to warm up to it.  This is one of our peonies about a month ago--the blooms are all gone now.

I didn't get as far as sewing any of the pink blocks yet, but I did pull out pink strips that will work for the zigzag quilt.  There are some good novelty prints in here--boots, Matryoshka dolls, sheep riding bicycles, etc.  I get a lot of these fabrics second hand, and it's great to do something with them.

With all the rain we've had lately, we really haven't had to water the garden much.  The rain barrel is full! Little Buddy really loves to fill his watering can and "help" me when we do give the veggies and flowers a little drink.

Have a lovely weekend, and a happy week ahead.
Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

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



 

Memories for Memorial Day

This past Monday was Memorial Day, a holiday designed for remembering our soldiers, especially the ones who are no longer with us.  This was the push I needed to finish this top.  I did the last of the sewing on Monday, thinking about the soldiers in my family. 

I started the quilt back in March with a pattern from a book I found on the free table at a quilt group meeting.  This is the simple block for this quilt.

Here's what happens when you set the blocks side by side.  Red, white, and blue stars, woven together like the fabric of our country.  The country my grandfather fought for in World War II.

Sections like the one shown above make up the inner border, and carry the design out beyond the blocks.  It was a challenge getting these going right, but I ripped til I got it.  (That's what we have to do, right?)

When this top is quilted, it will go to a Veteran's Home, to be used on the veteran's bed.  When he or she passes away, the family will get to keep the quilt.

My mother's father spent his last years in what used to be called the Indiana Old Soldiers' Home.  He died and was buried there.  I know from family letters that he was glad to be there, even before he became ill.  He was a soldier in World War II.
Mom remembers being at the movies on Sunday, December 7, 1941.  The movie was suddenly stopped, and a man came out to announce the attack on Pearl Harbor.  On their way home, my mother's parents talked about how my grandfather would eventually have to join the army.  He was 31 years old, with a wife and two children.  Nearly two years later, in 1943, my grandfather enlisted.

No less patriotic, my grandmother worked in a shipyard, where the landing craft used in the D-Day invasion was made.  My grandfather's sister looked after the children while she worked.  Mom remembers everyone working together, and celebrating joyously when the war was finally won.

I like to think of my quilt as a very small thank you to a veteran from a grateful country, for whatever service he or she gave, in honor of the soldiers in my family.

My dog Bella had to help me take this photo.  She's great for moral support, but can't sew a stitch.

In other news, I've been to two flea markets in the past two weeks, but didn't buy any fabric!  Here's what I bought instead.

Braided chair pads for my ladder back chairs.  They are kind of old and worn, but I love them.

And a rag rug for just inside the front door.
Hmm...all of these things are made from fabric scraps!  Could this be why I like them?
I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, and are enjoying the lovely summertime.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
Linking up with  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Busy Hands Quilts.
Also linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for her last link up of the summer.  We'll miss you, Amanda Jean, but we know you need time with your family.

Found On the Free Table

Does your quilt group have a free table?  You know, where group members put things they don't want anymore and other members can take them home for free?  Above are a few of my recent free table finds.

Relax and Quilt is an Oxmoor House book from 1998.  It came home with me after the January meeting.

Look what's on the inside cover!  It's a Friendship Ribbons quilt, made by Kitty Sorgen of Newbury Park, California.
We had just been talking at the meeting about making quilts for a local veteran's home.  This seemed like such a good pattern, with a little tweaking of the colors.

So this is what I made.  These are 15 of the Friendship Ribbon blocks on my design wall, which is really just a hunk of white flannel tacked to the wall.

There's a lot going on here.  The light triangles make the "ribbons", the dark triangles and squares make the stars, and the red or blue triangles in the corners made a secondary design.
I've seen something similar before, and thought the pattern was incredibly complicated.  And to be honest, some of the similar patterns I've seen on the internet made my head spin.
Not this one!  Check it out.

This is the block pattern. I am making A blocks (with red points and blue corners) and B blocks (with blue points and red corners) and alternating them in the quilt.  The construction is the same for both A and B blocks, only the colors are different.

This is a 9 in. finished block.
For each block,
cut 1 3.5 in. square for the center, in either red or blue.
make 4 half square triangles in blue/light and 4 in red/light.  These should finish at 3 in.
Arrange as above for block A.
This star is tricky!  I have to look at a finished block every time to make sure I'm placing the star points correctly.

There is also a pieced border that carries the design out to the edge of the quilt.  I'll post about it when I get there.

I'm so glad somebody donated this book.  There are actually TWO MORE quilts in it that I want to make!

Coming Attractions:

Here's a glimpse of what I'm quilting now.  My back has been hurting this week, so I haven't been doing any quilting, but I hope to get to it on the weekend.

This one is a surprise.  It's the same backing as my Split Nine Patch, but underneath is a baby quilt.  I hope to post it next week, with the pattern.
Take care this week!  I'm off to the theater to see my oldest grandson in a play.
Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Busy Hands Quilts.

Summer Stars

It's summer in southeastern Wisconsin.  Winters here are long, but the beautiful summer tries hard to make up for it.  This is our lilac bush, out by the driveway.  (The blossoms look white here, but they are light, well, lilac-colored.)

This week I've been spending some time sitting at the kitchen table, binding my Summer Stars quilt.  Most of the week was sunny, and I even had the windows open in the afternoon.

I finished the binding around midnight last night, just couldn't stop til it was finally done.  I blogged about this quilt back in April (see post HERE) when I was quilting it.  As usual, I pieced it on my Singer treadle and quilted it, in two sections, on my electric Pfaff.

The star points were leftovers from the first mystery quilt I ever did online--Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice.  These points were meant for the pieced border, but I changed the size of the quilt AND ran out of orange, so that left these pieces without a home.
I made them into stars with some hsts, added the alternate blocks, and finished with a three strip border and 6 in. stars in the corners.

The alternate blocks were made with a light fabric I bought more than 10 years ago, and a more recent repro I bought yards of on sale.  There's not much left of it now, I have loved it so much.

It's hard to see in the upper photo, but this one shows the quilting in the plain blocks better, mainly because you can still see the pencil marks.

It's not a big quilt, not even a regular twin size, but it is big enough to curl up under.

Here it is in my husband's office.  He's a retired chemist, hence the microscopes.

The quilt is done, we're back to gardening again, and I'm happy dancing all over the house.  I'm using the rain barrel to water the plants, and still admiring the design painted on it by a local high school student.

I think it's going to be a good year for raspberries!  Like all other gardeners, I live on hope.
I'm wishing hope and happiness for all this week.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Don't forget the linky party at Crazy Mom Quilts!