Happy Birthday, U.S.A.!

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

(Side note:  A weird thing has happened to some of the comments on former blog posts.  I tried to get rid of a few that were just advertisements, and other comments were inadvertently deleted.  They now say "This comment has been removed by a blog administrator".  If this happened to a comment you made, I apologize profusely.  I had no intention of removing your comment, unless you posted about a herpes cure or somebody called Dr. Lucky.)

I'm getting on board with the July 4th holiday two days early.  I'm in good company--John Adams himself believed we would be celebrating the "Great Anniversary" on July 2nd.  No matter the exact date on the calendar, we have good reasons to celebrate the founding of our nation, and its continued existence for 245 years.  In spite of Civil War, the Great Depression, a worldwide pandemic, and many other trials, we are still here, and I am very grateful.

Last year's Fourth of July was very quiet, due to the pandemic.  I spent the evening sewing the center of this quilt top.  The pattern comes from the estimable Bonnie Hunter, and is available for free on her web page (Click HERE).  As I sewed, I listened to a CD of the Hamilton musical.  A very patriotic evening.

I should note that I changed the size of the pieces in the pattern so I could use my 2.5 in. strips and squares.

I had the center completely pieced by August 1st, but had trouble deciding on the borders, especially since I wanted a rectangular quilt instead of a square one.  When I showed the top on this blog, Angela of So Scrappy suggested I add two more rows to the top and bottom before the borders, and that's what I did.  Then I added a wider white print border, and an outer pieced blue one.  The corners are red print squares.

So now, nearly a year later, I just need to get it quilted.  Probably not by this July 4th!  I just hope it's done by next year!

Meanwhile, I got a few blocks done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Blue is the color for July.  I'm using medium and dark blue scraps this month.  It's amazing to think we're more than half way through the year.

Another milestone of summer--our raspberries are ripening.  My little buddies love picking (and eating!) the berries every morning.

Here's a new way of watering the plants.  My Little Buddy is using a squirt gun!  A friend gave us some squirt guns that had belonged to her daughters a long time ago.  I've had to forbid him to shoot any of the rest of us, including his baby brother, as we're not big fans of having cold water in our faces!  I think we'll set up some targets next week.

Happy Independence Day to all Americans.  May we have many more!  And to everyone, have a lovely weekend.

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

 Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap