Rainbow Scrap Challenge Quilts, 2020

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It's the very last Saturday of 2020 (thank goodness!), and Angela has asked us to share our RSC projects for the year.  This is my little stack above.  The only one finished is my Shoofly quilt, made in 1800s reproduction fabrics. 

I have three basic categories of scraps:  1800s repros, 1930s repros plus vintage fabrics/feedsacks, and bright colored newer fabrics, which includes lots of novelty prints.  For the last few years, I have tried to make three RSC quilts, one in each scrap category.  I say "tried" because other projects always seem to invite themselves along for the ride.

This year was no different.  I started out with 3 quilt ideas--the Shoofly, a 1930s house quilt, and a bright colored quilt from a Kim Brackett pattern called Text Me A Quilt.

I put the borders on the Text Me A Quilt top yesterday.  It's a large quilt (for me), 76 in. x 86 in., seen here on a queen sized bed.

The border is a print I've used lots of times on kids' quilts.  The prints is butterflies, appropriate for this year since butterflies stand for hope.  This will be a donation quilt.

The 1930s house quilt is in progress.  I'm quilting it by the block (tutorial to follow, hopefully soon).  The first two rows are quilted, and ready to be joined together.  It's actually fun to quilt this way.

The last RSC quilt for 2020 didn't get started until the year was half over.  My daughter's maternity leave was extended due to the pandemic, and since she didn't need me to babysit I spent some time cleaning up old projects in the basement.  I came across this partial top I had bought at a flea market years ago.

It looked like a rainbow!  How could I not include it?  

There was no way to match the old sashing, so I took it apart and changed the layout.

And that's my last RSC quilt for this year, a double nine patch set with a green solid.  I will quilt this one myself, and we will probably keep it.

 

Of course I'm thinking ahead to next year.  How about you?

 

I just want to say "Thank you!" to Angela for hosting the RSC and keeping things going, with her busy teaching schedule and the pandemic besides!  Making colorful quilt blocks and sharing them has been a mood lifter through this whole year, and I really look forward to Saturdays, when I can see what everyone else has been up to.

 

And now for a little Christmas cheer.

Here's Little Buddy, showing off a paper airplane he and Grandpa made.

  

And here are all 3 of my buddies, wearing the hats I knit for them.  

We had a little celebration Christmas Eve with the people in our bubble, and a quiet Christmas at home yesterday.  In the morning, I took a virtual trip to Jane Austen's house in England HERE.

I especially enjoyed section entitled The Twelve Days of Christmas, which has short readings from Ms. Austen's books and letters, plus recipes and Christmas traditions.  

Have a lovely weekend, and stay safe!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 

and Cynthia at Oh Scrap.

 

Inch by Inch, Row by Row

 Welcomed to Treadlestitches!

How are you doing in this crazy busy season?  Before the Christmas tsunami hit, I got a good start on quilting the house blocks, my current quilt as you go project.  I made these as one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts for 2020.  I didn't know when I started how appropriate houses would be as a symbol of this year, when we spent more time at home than ever.

I'm working on a tutorial for the quilting, taking pictures of each step.  I hope to post that the first of the year.  My method combines ideas from lots of ways I've tried, with a couple of tricks of my own.

Meanwhile, there's shopping, wrapping, decorating, baking, etc.  I have had some good helpers.  Hubby and I finished up shopping for the grandkids, Little Buddy and Big Buddy were my Christmas ornament hanging team, and my older daughter and her kids made the delicious cookies above.  (There were more in there before Little Buddy had a snack!)

Last Sunday, we had a lovely socially distanced visit with our older daughter and our grandkids, Mr. H. and Miss E.  We took a walk in the park, and Bella the dog got to come, too.  (Bella was thrilled!)  With the virus so bad now and asthma in the family, we are being very careful.

Sometimes, you just have to get your sillies out!  It was Little Buddy's idea to get out all our silly hats one day after lunch.

Baby Buddy wasn't sure what the fuss was about, but he liked the tassel on this one.

Thursday morning this happened!  Little Buddy was so excited to give me a balloon for my birthday.

For many years, I just felt overwhelmed by Christmas.  There was so much to do, and my life was already so busy.  It's been much better since I retired, and since I gave up the idea of the "perfect" Christmas.  I'm also learning to break all the Christmas jobs into smaller parts, and just do them one at a time.  Quilters definitely know how to do that!  Inch by inch, row by row, we get there in the end.

This week, I'm wishing Happy Holidays to all who celebrate, and happy quilting to everyone.

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Rainbows in Winter

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

We've got a snow storm this morning.  By springtime, we'll be tired of snow, but for now it makes the neighborhood look like a Christmas card.

Outside, the weather may be frightful, but it's warm and cozy inside.

Not much sewing got done this week, but I did finish the Shoofly quilt, one of my projects for this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

I chose a warm brown binding from my stash.

There were some places that needed a little more quilting, but I wasn't sure how to mark them.  Then I hit on this idea, which I should have thought of before.  My machine has a quilting guide.  I set the guide on a finished line of quilting, and quilted the next line.  Eureka!  I will have to remember this trick for other Baptist Fan quilting projects.

This came in the mail.  My family had no idea why I was so excited about it. 

Thirty yards of 96 in. wide cotton batting!  I've been having to go to the store for batting too often, especially with the pandemic getting worse all the time.  Now I won't have to go for quite a while.  And I have no excuse for not finishing more tops.

All the sashes and cornerstones are cut for the next RSC project, my 1930s style house quilt.  I'll be using up batting scraps for this one, instead of the new batting, because I'm going to quilt it by the block.

Speaking of the RSC, are you planning what to start in the new year?  I've been thinking about Lemoyne Star blocks.  This one was just a practice block.  It turned out okay, which is weird because I did everything wrong.  Maybe this will be a good challenge for me.

I wasn't going to make yet another Christmas quilt, but there was this bag of scraps...  How many times has this happened to me?  (Does this happen to you, too?)  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these pieces, maybe a string quilt.  But a SMALL one, like a wall hanging.

Guess who's hiding behind the balloon?

 

It's Little Buddy!

It's hard to get a picture of him when he isn't moving!  As his shirt says, he's a true original.

This week, I would like to ask you to do me a favor.  Please, do something good for yourself.  It's the darkest time of the year, and the news is mostly depressing.  Let's take some time this week to do something joyful.  Read a good book--even if it's what my sisters and I call a "trashy romance novel".  Watch something silly and fun on TV.  Dance around in your pajamas.  Take a break from all the stress, and just breathe.  

Every morning this week, Baby Buddy and I listened to classic rock music.  He bounces up and down, I sing along, and everything just seems a little brighter.

Have a great week, whatever you do.

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

On the Border

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  It's a frosty morning here for the first Saturday in December.  No snow yet, and I'm not complaining.  I'm sure we'll get our share this winter, as usual.

We've had a busy week with the grand kids, so not much sewing happened, but I did get the borders on my quilt-as-you-go Shoofly quilt, which was one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts for 2020.

I chose a red print from my stash for the border (locally sourced, as Preeti says!), and a stencil from my collection for the quilting.  The stencils hang in my sewing room closet as above.

I'm going to use this swag, so I measured the stencil and cut the border to be just a little larger.

The center of my quilt is already quilted.  This is how I add borders to it.

First, I add a border itself.  I position it right sides down on the right side of the quilt, pin, and stitch.  It might help to think "sew and flip" here.

Next I create a strip of backing to add underneath the border.  It needs to be wider than the border.  Because I use basting spray, which holds fairly tightly (it's glue, after all), I don't need the backing strip to be a LOT wider.  In this case, the border was cut 5.5 in. wide and the border backing was cut 6 in. wide.

I flip the quilt over, position the backing strip right sides together with the quilt backing, pin, and stitch.  I press this seam also.

Now I have a border and its backing, both sewn by machine to the quilt.  I need batting to go between these two layers.  I cut a long strip of batting slightly narrower than I cut the border.  In this case, the border was cut 5.5 in. wide, so I cut the batting 5  in. wide.  Today I used my ruler and a pen to mark the batting and cut it with scissors.  (I cut the ink line away so no ink gets into the quilt.)  Sometimes I cut the batting with a rotary cutter I use only for batting.  (Fun fact--because I use 100% cotton batting, I can press it with the iron if it's wrinkly.)

Now to add the batting to the border.  I pull back the top, and lay the batting strip down on the backing.  I butt the top edge of the batting strip against the seam.  I want to keep the bulk of the batting out of the seam so it lays nice and flat.  (It doesn't need to be held in the seam--the quilting will keep the batting in place.)  I spray baste the batting to the backing first, and then to the border.

Voila!  The border is ready to quilt.  Of course, this has to be done on all four sides.

Like this!  Because both the border and the border backing were sewn on by machine, there is no hand sewing to do here.  In fact, the only hand sewing on this quilt is the two seams joining the three sections, which I already did.  I'll be adding the binding by machine, when I get there.

But first, it's time to mark the swags and quilt!

Meanwhile, my leaders and enders are coming along.

And Baby Buddy is nine months old today!  (Please excuse the poor quality photo.  Sunlight was just pouring in yesterday.)

How are you doing in this very strange time?  We are hanging in there.  The holidays will be different this year, but we will manage.  I'm going to plan a big party for this summer, when we're all vaccinated, with lots of hugging.  LOTS OF HUGGING!!!  Can't wait!

Have a good week, and thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap