Rainbows

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Lately, I've been thinking about rainbows a lot.  It could be because it looks like this outside.

It's been a pretty mild winter so far in this part of Wisconsin, but the snow lingers on.  The view above is NOT a black and white photo.

Thankfully, there is lots of color indoors.

Like Little Buddy's markers for drawing and coloring,

and a colorful emoji puzzle.  (I had to explain to Little Buddy what emojis are.  He calls them "mojis".)

This was the perfect time to work on my Rainbow Quilt In A Box, which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.  

Over the last year or so, I have been cutting 2.5 in. x 4.5 in. rectangles from bright scraps, and saving them in this box.  I cut the pieces when I was cutting for other projects, and especially when I could use up a strip.

Back in April, I made the quilt below with some of the rectangles from a free pattern called Brick House shared by Jo Kramer of Jo's Country Junction.  (Click HERE for the pattern.)

(Oh, that's what spring looks like!)

Of course I had leftover pieces.  This week, I put them together like this.

It's a baby quilt, approx. 40 in. x 42 in., and will go to Quilts for Kids.  I don't really have a pattern for it, it's just a classic bricks quilt.

I had to make a chart to keep things organized and to know how many rectangles and squares I needed for each color.  There are two kinds of rows.  The odd rows just have 10 rectangles.  The even rows start and end with a square, and have 9 rectangles.  I made a total of 21 rows.

The rainbow binding came from  my 2 in. strips bag.  The back is this fun print of skates and skateboards and scooters and bicycles and even balloons.  (I love novelty fabrics, can you tell?)

I always learn something when I make a quilt.  This one taught me a couple of things.

1.  Contrast is important!  Some of these rows blur into each other because the colors are very similar.

2.  Having a chart really helps.

3.  I need more dark purple and aqua.  (I think I know how to fix that!)

Baby Buddy posed for me (sort of).  His toys bring a lot of color into the house.  He and his brothers bring the sunshine.

In other news, a baking experiment actually turned out okay!  I used some of my homemade mincemeat as the filling for cinnamon rolls.  Even the pickier grandson (I won't say which one) loved them.

We've got a long winter ahead of us.  In the weeks and months ahead, we're going to need our strength, our common sense, and our connections to each other.

I'm going to keep looking for the rainbows.  Have a good week, and stay safe!

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