Color Block Stars and Stack It Up

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

Good morning and happy Saturday!  The Color Block Star top is done and hanging on the clothesline.  I added the border on Wednesday and the weather cooperated for a sunny photo yesterday.

It was really too big for the clothesline at 54 in. x 68 in.  Twelve inch blocks really add up!

 In addition to two of each of the "regular" colors I made two black blocks and two multicolor ones.  I forgot how many fun prints I had in black and multicolor.

I bought this colorful alphabet on the border at the museum sale.  I guess blue is my favorite border color.  I use other colors but I always go back to blue.  Do you have a favorite border color?

Every block has 15 print squares plus one white one.  That makes 300 squares, right?  So why do I still have a full box of 3.5 in. squares?  (Magic?)

The top will be donated to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee.

The Color Block Stars pattern is available for free HERE.  It was part of a block drive last year for Many Hands Many Hearts on the Oh Scrap blog.  (Thanks, Cynthia!)

  

Working on the top reminded me to get started on some blocks for the current MHMH block drive.  We're making these easy "potato chip-ish" blocks in complimentary colors.  I'm a little short on red and green prints (except for novelties of course!) but I had some orange/blue and yellow/purple to get started on.

Now for some pastels!  Well, mostly.  This time they're green, and they'll be part of the pastel baby quilt I hope to finish before the end of the month.

In Progress

As you can see, I'm treadling again!  My treadle is now in the dining room right under the window.  It's a good place to sew, especially when I'm waiting on supper to cook.  The jungle outside the window is a tangle of black raspberry vines, now with baby green raspberries ripening in the sun.

Once I finished the Color Block Stars top I went digging in the kits, block sets, etc. for the next project.  I chose a partial kit I cut a few weeks ago to make Stack It Up, a Lori Holt pattern.  

Last winter I really got into watching Lori Holt's videos on YouTube.  She has so many fun ideas for scrappy quilts.  Click HERE for the video for her 4 in. finished Stack It Up.  I wanted slightly bigger blocks, so I scaled mine up to 6 in. finished by cutting all the pieces from 2 in. strips.

So that's all the sewing news from our house.   But there is something even better than happened.

Our eldest daughter finished her Master's degree!  That's quite an accomplishment while working full time as a first grade teacher and looking after her husband and two teenagers.  We're very proud of her!

Have a good week, everyone, and thanks for reading this!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Not Finished, But Making Progress

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

Woohoo!  I got back from Oklahoma just in time for the big rummage sale at the Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts in Cedarburg, WI.  This is the loot I scored, over 33 yards of bright cotton fabric, most with cute kid-friendly prints.  I can hardly believe how lucky I am.  Many many thanks to all the people who donated fabric and the volunteers who organized it all.  Yippee!

Some of that loot will be made into Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks, now and in the future.  These yellow blocks are part of this month's pastel challenge.  Some of them are a little bold, I know, but I'm using up what I've got.

It's fun to put them with last week's light blues and test some possible layouts.  I'm interested to see what everybody else is doing with this challenge, since it's a new one.  (Check the link ups below to see for yourself!)

In Progress

What is your favorite thing about finishing a quilt?  Mine is picking the next project!  Last year I made Color Block Stars for the Many Hands Many Hearts Block Drive at the Oh Scrap blog.  I loved them so much I also made blocks for a quilt to donate locally.  I set them aside due to other deadlines, and in my head I thought I had made 20 blocks, which would made a nice sized top.  Imagine my surprise when I opened the bag and found only 12 blocks.  Oops!  Well, that's a problem I can fix!  So now I'm making 8 more.

Click HERE for the directions from Many Hands Many Hearts.

Here's my current sewing set up.  We're moving some things around in the house, and I can't use my beloved treadle right now.  Luckily I have an adorable Featherweight to sub in.  Don't worry, treadling will be restored, probably this weekend.

I had such a good visit with my Mom and sister in Oklahoma last week.  One of the highlights has to be the Oklahoma City Senior Follies.  Wonderfully talented senior guys and gals entertained us royally with singing, dancing, comedy, and screaming guitars.  It was great fun, and the show raised $20,000 for the Alzheimer's Association.

Of course I did a little quilt-related shopping while I was there!  Mom and I went to a new-to-me store called B Sew Inn.  Most of the shop was devoted to Baby Lock machines, but two charm packs came home with me.  Check out all the cats!  I especially love the prints with tuxedo cats like my Snicky.

The second pack had these bright prints which will be great in my kid quilts.  The colors are brighter in person.

As excited as I am to go visiting, I'm always happy to come home again.  These guys are just two of the reasons why!  It's full summer here now, alternating between warm days and thunder storms.  Buddy and Little Guy love cooling off with ice cream.  Me too!

I hope you're feeling well and having fun this week, doing things you love to do.  Like quilting!  Have a great week, everyone!

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

Friendship Stars, Pastel Blocks, and Oklahoma

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

Here's what's happening this week.

The little Friendship Star quilt has moved from In Progress to done.  I was so glad to use up a handful of leftover hsts to make the star points.

The alternate blocks are made of a cute construction print.  I bought it from the Sew Our Stash shop at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts.  It was part of an unfinished kit that someone had donated.  (Thanks, unknown donor!)

The center squares and light squares were supplied by my "parts department".  I can't imagine running out of 2.5 in. squares ever by the way.  How about you?

There's a narrow inner border of red solid, and a larger border of the construction fabric.

For the back, I used this print from my stash, with words like beep and vroom and rumble rumble.  I was planning to use the red solid for the binding, but I made a miscut and didn't have enough, so the red print had to do.

The quilt will be donated to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee.

Just by chance I even had a pastel blue star.  Pastels are our colors of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  On it!

In Progress:  Pastel Baby Quilt

As you might guess from this blog, I love bright colors, and that's what I have the most of in my stash and scraps.  But I do have a small bin of "baby" fabric scraps in pastel shades of blue, green, aqua, and 

yellow.  I also had some strips of 1.5 in. light prints to go with them to make blocks like this.

So, now I'm making a baby quilt!  I'll make some blocks every week, and try to get the top done by the end of the month.  These scraps deserve to come out and play too.

The block is just an uneven nine patch.  

Here's the recipe:

Cut four 3.5 in. squares from a pastel print.

Cut four 1.5 in. x 3.5 in. rectangles from a light print.

Cut one 1.5 in. x 1.5 in. square from a pastel print.

Sew as for a nine patch.

In other news, I'm in Oklahoma, visiting my mom.   This is Mom, posing with our buffalo statue friend.  We were visiting the Oklahoma History Center.  We had such a good time!  The highlight was the exhibit about the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! which we both had always loved.  Visitors are even encouraged to sing along with the theme song.  Which we did, of course!

The History Center museum gift store had a section of books for only $2.00 each, which of course drew me like a magnet.  I bought the little book above about Woody Guthrie and I'm enjoying reading it.

Buddy and Little Guy are having lots of fun going swimming and playing in the park.  My daughter sent me this picture of her boys, and told me they are missing me.  I'm missing them too!  I will see them soon.

I hope you're feeling well and having a good week, doing all the things you love to do.  Like quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Little Bricks and Squares

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

We're out on the porch this sunny morning, soaking up the sunshine!  I started this little quilt back in February, and finished it yesterday.

Sometimes I have an idea, and cut fabric to make a quilt.  Other times I decide what to make based on which "parts department" bin is overflowing.  This time it was the 2.5 in. x 3.5 in. rectangle bin.

I call those rectangles Little Bricks, and I have a couple of designs I use for them repeatedly.  This design is a new one.  Each block consists of two Little Bricks (blue above), one 3.5 in. (cut) light square (the bunny print), and one 2.5 in. (cut) light square (dots on white).  The block is 5 in. square finished.  I'm calling it Little Bricks and Squares.

By the way, that bunny print was one of the scraps I brought home from our trip to Edinburgh last September.  The quilt shop sold small bundles of scraps.  I bought as many as I could fit in my carry-on!

When the blocks are joined it looks sort of like a disappearing nine patch. 

The cat print also came from the Edinburgh quilt shop, and is a British fabric.  Wild cat colors!  I love it!

I matched up most of the block pieces just based on color, but this one has a nautical theme.

This one has two Route 66 prints, one for California and one for Arizona.  I matched them up with a cactus print.  I doubt if the child who gets this one will notice, but it was fun for me anyway.

The 56 blocks used up 112 Little Bricks, so that's a help for the bin.  

At 45 in. x 50 in., it's a good size for a toddler.  It will be donated to the Children's Advocacy Center.

Last Saturday for orange for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  I have really enjoyed this month.  Orange is such a nice bright color.  These are my Greek Cross blocks.

In Progress

Mrs. Pfaff and I are starting to quilt the Friendship Star quilt made from leftover hsts.  I set up shop in the dining room since we're moving things around in the house.

Snicky LOVES looking out the window at the birds while I'm quilting, especially if the window is open.  The black raspberry vines outside have buds and flowers already.  I think it's going to be a great year for them.

Our lilac bush is loving this weather.  It's really grown in the last couple of years, and smells so good every time we walk out the door.

Some major events have been happening here!

Buddy turned 10 years old!  Oh my goodness, he's starting to look so grown up.

And Little Guy graduated from kindergarten!  The ceremony was a hoot, especially when the kids were wearing sun glasses and dancing.  

The years just fly by.

It's a beautiful day here, and I plan to enjoy it, inside and outside.  I hope you have a great week ahead, doing all the things you love.  Like quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Another UFO, and More Orange

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

The weather is iffy again, so we're stuck with indoor photos.  This is my version of Pat Sloan's Children's Library Quilt, from 2017.   Click HERE for Pat's quilt. 

As a retired school librarian, I was excited to make this quilt and to use prints of book characters in it.  I changed some of Pat's blocks so I could put a square of one of those prints in the center.

When the blocks were done the quilt languished until I could decide on a setting.  I saw that Let's Read fabric in the store, and snatched up several yards. 

 

This was another one I was planning to machine quilt in sections, but could never figure out quite how I wanted to do it.  At some point I gave up that idea and sewed the sections together.  

I found the finished top as I was sorting my quilt stuff.

It's nearly twin-sized at 68 in. x 80 in.  As usual, it will be donated to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee, after volunteers do the quilting and binding.  I hope it goes to a child who loves to read.

Here's a fun quilty thing I got to do this week!  I did a short quilt activity with kids at Buddy and Little Guy's school.  A volunteer took this photo of me holding the quilt and the kids happily identifying the book (and TV) characters on it.  

For the activity I gave them papers with a 9 patch grid and asked them to glue (with a glue stick) 2 in. fabric squares in each of the sections in the grid.  The colors and patterns were totally up to them.  I'm guessing I brought at least 800 squares, laid out on a table in paper plates by color.  I still have lots left over, even after using approximately 468 squares.  The design above was made by Judah.

The kids enjoyed doing this.  Most of them asked for a second paper.  It was fun to see their color choices.  A few of them even created detailed patterns with the colors. 

One question they asked was unexpected.  They wanted to know if I had drawn the designs on the fabrics in the quilts!  They seemed surprised to learn that the fabric came that way from the store.

I'm still reorganizing all my fabric, projects, etc., which didn't leave much time for sewing this week.  At least I got my orange crumb blocks done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Two of the blocks were leftovers from another crumb quilt, so I only had to make four.  

Only one more week of orange!  I'll be sad to see it go.

Speaking of orange, this display in an antique mall really caught my eye!  Orange was a very "with it" color in the 1960s and 1970s.

In Progress

Right now my only project in progress is the Cabin Steps blocks I've been making as leaders and enders.  I have a total of 15 blocks done, with six more ready to stitch (the ones on the right).  I'm hoping to get a small quilt quilted and bound, but we'll see.

Hubby and I had a picnic and a walk in Rock Cut State Park in Illinois last Saturday.  It was an absolutely beautiful day.  Shortly after I took this photo we saw two bald eagles fishing in the lake.  It was a lovely weekend away for our anniversary.

I hope you have a lovely week this week, doing things you love to do.  Like quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap