Home and Away, and Orange

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

We're back from visiting the natural wonders of northern California.  It was a foggy morning when we stood on the bank above the Pacific ocean, inhaling the sea air and listening to the waves.

The tiny person at the base of these redwood trees is me!  Everything was so amazing and overwhelming.  I ran out of adjectives by the second day.

But don't worry, I never plan to run out of fabric!  There was more than just fabulous scenery, there was also a friendly quilt shop in Redding, California, called Sew Simple.  My hubby understands the importance of balancing hiking/sightseeing and fabric shopping on a vacation. 

 BTW, did you notice the ORANGE fabric?  August is orange month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I couldn't be happier.

When I got home, I picked my easiest RSC project, and made these blocks in the mornings, while waiting for my grand kids to arrive. 

I can't believe I still have a scrap of this cheeky dinosaur fabric.

Orange aliens got to come out and play.

And I just love these joyful minions.

This little squirrel in Mariposa Grove in Yosemite reminds me of my recent take off on Sew Preeti's Positivity 2022 quilt tutorial.

I'm using Preeti's method, which is great fun, but making the blocks with scraps.

I start with two matching dark and two matching light charm squares.  I also cut 2 strips 2.5 x 9 in. of a different dark (orange here) and two strips 2.5 x 9 in. of a different light.  Then I make these two blocks:

Once they're sliced into fours, I put them together just like the directions say,

 and end up with two identical blocks.

I'm not totally happy with these two, and I think I know why.

Take a look at the rest of my orange blocks.  Which of these blocks is not like the others?  Three of these look good to me, and the one in the upper right looks a little weird.  

 I'm going for a kind of twist look, and I think for that I need less contrast between the dark fabrics.  So, lesson learned.  I'll still use all the blocks of course.

Because the blocks remind me of the chewing gum wrapper paper chains we made as children, I'm calling the quilt I'm making Gum Wrapper Twist.  The weird ones can represent all the chains I folded wrong. 

Our busy level around here has ramped up to 11, but we're still having fun with our little boys.  

This week we've been watching American Ninja Warrior on TV.  If you haven't seen it, amateur athletes try to complete a series of difficult obstacles.  I'm not a big sports fan, but I like how all the fans and competitors root and cheer for every contestant. Our Buddy wanted to try out his moves on the playground.  He's not bad!

Our Little Guy is pretending the slide is the warped wall the athletes run up.  He loved when we cheered and yelled "Beat that wall!"

Summer is going to come to a close soon, and most of the grand kids will be going back to school.  Until then, we're going to just enjoy the weather and being together.

Have a lovely week!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with

 Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

 Angela at So Scrappy, home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge