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

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

 
 

Two Tops and Three Blocks

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

Hello, fellow quilters!  How was your week?  Mine was a bit crazy.  I'm reorganizing all my quilt stuff and IT'S A LOT!  The top above was in the Quilt Tops in Pieces bin.  Instead of sighing and putting it away (AGAIN) I spent about an hour sewing the final five seams.  Progress!

The pattern is called Beachside Bungalow, and is from the book Scrap Basket Beauties by Kim Brackett.  It's been in the UFO pile for at least 10 years.

Here's the quilt from the book.  I made my background pieces light instead of dark.  Most of the scraps in the quilt came from a bag of batik scraps I bought at a quilt show.

The sewing was easy, but on-point settings sometimes make me feel off-kilter.  I'm so glad I finished the top even if it did take years.  My version is the same size as the one in the book:  57 in. x 68 in. It will be quilted by a volunteer, and donated to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee.

But Wait, There's More!

The pieces for this top were in the same bin as the one above.  This is my Jane Austen quilt.  Back in 2014, quilt historian Barbara Brackman ran a block of the week called Austen Family Album on her blog.  Every week for 39 weeks she featured a 12 in. block to make, and told us more about Ms. Austen's life with family and friends.

I got to use my collection of early 1800s reproduction fabrics to make the blocks.  It was great fun opening the blog on Sunday mornings to read the article and start on the new block.  I wrote about it on Treadlestitches in May of 2014 when I made the first five blocks.  (Click HERE to view that post.)

Good news!  The Austen Family Album posts are still up!  All you have to do is click HERE for the first block post.  To get to the other posts:  Scroll all the way to the bottom of the first post (it's a long post) until you see the Blog Archive list on the left.  Starting with April, click on each month to find the blocks. 

I had originally planned to machine quilt this top myself. (What was I thinking?  Far beyond my talents!)  I was doing a lot of quilt as you go then, and had assembled the blocks in three sections, including the borders.  When I pulled it out of the bin this week I realized it only needed two seams to become a complete top.  So I sat right down in the messy room and sewed them!

While it's bigger than I usually make anymore, it's really just a twin size at 75 in. x 90 in.  One of the wonderful long-arm volunteers will quilt it, and it will be donated locally.

Whew!  Two UFOs off my list!

I am loving all the orange blocks on Angela's blog!  So many people are finding such cute orange prints.

This week my orange blocks are the Dawn Chorus pattern from Pam and Nicky Lintott.  I only make 3 of them, so I'm showing them all.  This one has a Kaffe scrap and some funky happy flowers.

Halloween cat print in this one, plus dog bones.

And lastly, bats, eyeballs, and batik.

In Progress

The center of the little Friendship Star quilt is sewn, but the borders still need to be attached before I can quilt it.  Maybe I'll have more time this week to work on it.

Look, it's Benjamin Franklin!  He's being portrayed here by Buddy.  He and his classmates learned all about someone in history, created a display board will facts and illustrations, and gave a speech to the class.  Yesterday the school gym was set up as a "wax museum", and the students told us about "themselves".  

Adults were welcome to come, so my daughter (Buddy's mom) and I went.  Buddy did a great job.  I also enjoyed learning some new facts about people like Milton Hershey, Amelia Earhart, Rachel Carson, and Isaac Newton.  Although the student portraying Isaac Newton thought perhaps Newton's father died in a car wreck.  In 1642.

Today is a special day for Hubby and me.  Fifty years ago today, on May 15, 1976, we were married.  He is everything I ever wanted in a husband, and we are so lucky to still be here together.  (OMG we are so impossibly young in this photo!)

The weather is beautiful today, sunny and 70s, my favorite.  I hope it's nice where you live, too.  Have a lovely week!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap