Saturday, March 12, 2022

Little Bricks, A Free (Very Easy) Pattern

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!


Can you stand another baby quilt for Hands 2 Help?  I'm calling this one Little Bricks. 

This is a stack of bricks.  Quilter's bricks, of course, rectangles measuring 2.5 in. x 4.5 in.  I first learned about them from Bonnie Hunter, quilter and teacher extraordinaire, who has used this shape in many quilts.  When I'm cutting pieces for a quilt and only have a small amount left of a 2.5 in. strip, I cut it into a brick.

If I don't have enough left for a brick, I often cut these pieces.  I call them little bricks, and they measure 2.5 in. x 3.5 in.  They can also be cut from short (or long!) 3.5 in. strips.

It's great to have both sizes of these rectangles cut ahead and ready to go.  And I'm always looking for new ways to use them.

My two youngest grandsons, whom I now call Little Guy (he just turned 2) and Big Buddy (formerly known as Little Buddy, he's in kindergarten), love to build with Duplos, the Lego bricks for toddlers and above.  These colorful bricks inspired me to design this little block.  I'm going to share the simple pattern with you.

Here's the block, done in yellow in honor of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  It measures 6 in. finished, 6.5 in. unfinished.

For each block, you need:

3 Little Bricks (2.5 in. x 3.5 in.) in a color of your choice

For the background, all the pieces can be cut from a 2.5 in. strip at least 11 in. long.

2 Little Bricks, 2.5 in. x 3.5 in., in the background color

2 small rectangles, 2.5 in. x 2 in., in the background color

The sewing is simple, as seen above.  I finger press towards the darker fabric.


When the blocks are done, the two wide seams can be pressed either up or down, which is helpful if you set the blocks side by side and want the seams to nest.  (By the way, it's extra fun to put a tiger in the middle.)

I made 25 blocks, set them 5 x 5, added a 5 in. cut border.  The finished quilt is square, and is approximately 40 in. x 40 in. (a little less after washing and some crinkly shrinking.) 

If you've seen my quilts before, you know I'm fond of a diagonal rainbow of colors, and lots of novelty prints.

The back is a colorful dot print that I LOVE, and the orange binding is just for fun.  It will go to Little Lambs, to be given to a child entering foster care.

If you make a quilt from this pattern, I'd love to see it.  

In Rainbow Scrap Challenge news, I made a few 16 patch blocks with solid yellow and multicolor prints.

Puzzle pieces,
 

happy flowers,

and stripes, like this print cut from an unfinished shirt, are all fun fabrics to use for this quilt.

I made a math mistake when cutting out this one (not that unusual for me!), and ended up making two blocks instead of one.  Not sorry, though, both will be used.

This has been a busy but happy week in our family.

Our Little Guy had a train-themed birthday party, and we were able to celebrate with extended family, almost like before the pandemic.  (BTW he's trying to show me a star toy, that's what's in his hand.  After this he ran gleefully off and no more photo opportunities were offered.)

Our oldest grandson, Teenager Guy, had the ACT test and a couple days off school for teacher inservice, so he hung out here with us.  (No photos, as per his request!)  The kids had dinner with us one night, too, before heading off to activities like play practice and wrestling.
 

Plus Friday was Grandparents Day at Big Buddy's school, so I got to spend a morning with him and his friend.  There were lots of fun activities, plus a book fair.  We had a great time.

Have you heard of Peptoc?  If you're ever feeling down or in need of a little encouragement, there's a free hotline called Peptoc with recorded messages from elementary school students to help.  Big Buddy and I tried it out yesterday, and it was lovely.  The kids' voices are very sincere and kind.  You can choose what kind of message you need.  We chose the kindergarteners', of course.  They told us to "keep going!"  It's a project of a school in California, and the phone number is 1-708-998-8410. Could be something to keep in mind when a quilt just won't come out right.

I hope all your projects are coming together perfectly, this week and every week!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Cynthia at Oh Scrap


 


 





 









29 comments:

  1. Love that Brick quilt! Have you ever made one from flannel! I have a bunch of baby/kid flannel that needs to be used up! I think it would work!
    What fun to go to Grandparents Day! And thanks for the news about Peptoc! Nice!

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    1. Flannel--that's a good idea! I think I have some kid flannel in the basement. Maybe a bin. Or two.

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  2. Love that Little Bricks pattern!! it makes such a great quilt!!! Nice job!

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    1. Thanks, Alycia! And thanks for Finished or Not Finished Friday every week.

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  3. I love your brick blocks, and will definitely try them, Sylvia! I often cut leftover scraps into 2,5 inch squares, but hate to toss that leftover bit if they are 2.5 by 3.5 or so. Now I'll know to keep them! Happy Birthday to the Little Guy! I bet you enjoyed Grandparents Day, too.

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    1. I used to only cut 2.5 x 4.5 or 2.5 in. squares, but I'm liking these little bricks now. And I had a whole drawer full of squares.

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  4. I like rainbow quilts. They always make me smile. Good job.

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  5. Thanks so much for sharing the bricks pattern. I like to work in 2.5in strips, so that would be a great idea. Nice ro see a photo of you with the grandies, I often wonder who I'm talking to.

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    1. You're welcome, Jenny! Yeah, I'm not fond of seeing myself in photos. Kids are cuter!

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  6. Love the Brick block the quilt looks so pretty.
    Here, Grandparents' Day is celebrated on July 26th.
    Glad to hear you celebrate at Big Buddy's school. Congrats

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    1. Obrigada, Ivani! I think there is an "official" grandparents day in October in the U.S., this is just when the school invited grandparents to come in for the morning. They do it every year, except when there's a pandemic.

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  7. love those brick blocks and all that you show - have a great day

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  8. Little Brick is awesome! It's totally you: bright and cheerful. Thanks for the tutorial. I appreciate. How fast the grandchildren grow is amazing. Enjoy! ;^)

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    1. Merci, Chantal! I am so lucky to be spending time with these little people! (But I am not looking forward to potty training the littlest one!)

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  9. Love your brick pattern. Thanks for sharing the tutorial. It's a perfect pattern for the charity quilts I like to make.

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    1. You're very welcome. I'm always looking for quick patterns for charity quilts.

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  10. Congrats on your lovely little rainbow donation quilt finish, Sylvia, and happy birthday, Little Guy!!

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  11. Another happy quilt finished. I love how you placed the colors. Thanks for sharing with Oh Scrap!

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    1. Thanks, Cynthia! I look forward to Oh Scrap every week. Such a friendly party, with such great eye candy!

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  12. I love your patterns!!! Found you through Mari, the Academic Quilter's blog.

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    1. Thanks, Tehachap! It's so kind of Mari to take over the Hands 2 Help drive this year.

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  13. I have boxes of those bricks, What a great idea - thanks for the tutorial.

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    1. You're welcome, maggie! I've got a couple of other ideas for these, will post them in a week or two.

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  14. Great use of bricks!!! Your GSs are so cute!!! Great time spent with them! I tried the Peptoc line but it was says it is "restricted or unavailable". Sounds like a great idea though!

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    1. Thanks, Nancy. I am definitely a lucky grandma. Sorry about the Peptoc line, maybe it was getting a lot of traffic? NPR ran an article about it recently.

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  15. Superb blog with fantastic content. block bricks

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