Little Brick Ladders Finished, and Aqua Sisters Choice

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Do you remember this little quilt?  I posted the top almost a month ago.  It's quilted at last, and ready to be donated.

Lizzy and Snicky are posing for me here.  Just after I took this photo, they were wildly attacking each other under the quilt.

I call this pattern Little Brick Ladders, because I call the small rectangles in the blocks (2.5 in. x 3.5 in.) Little Bricks.  Most of them are leftover pieces from 2.5 in. or 3.5 in. strips.

It was fun choosing which pieces to use.  There are 42 blocks of 3 bricks each, so if my math is correct that's 126 pieces.  I don't think I repeated any prints, so it's an absolute chaos of novelties.  The aqua Dr. Seuss print in the border is a nod to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.

For the backing, I used the same jelly bean print from the front.  The quilting is my usual serpentine stitch done by Mrs. Pfaff, still going strong after coming home from the repair shop.  For a binding, I chose a darker aqua polka dot from the big scraps basket.

I discovered an embarrassing amount of larger batting scraps in the basement, which is leading to more Franken-batts.  This quilt and the last one I finished both were made with them.  I find I like to piece them by hand at the kitchen table while the grandkids are playing or supper is cooking.

My aqua blocks this week are Sisters Choice.  I divided the scraps roughly into greenish and bluish aqua.

One more greenish one.

Now the bluish ones.

and

Question for you quilters:  If you had a quilting assistant, what would you have them do?  This week I was vaguely remembering a magazine article from a long time ago.  The lady in the article was an art quilter who had received a grant to hire an assistant.  She was wondering what she should have her/him do.  It made me think about what I would choose.

I have lots of small piles of scraps lying around.  The squares and rectangles in the background were cut from some 2.5 in. x 5 in. rectangles I was saving with no real purpose.  Now that they're cut into either 2.5 in. x 4.5 in. or 2.5 in. squares, they need to be sorted by color and filed.  An assistant could do that!

The pile in the front came from the big sale at the museum.  I bought a plastic shoebox of 3.5 in. strips.  Some of the strips were really short, so I set them aside to be trimmed into 3.5 in. squares, etc.  An assistant could do that!

While rummaging through my multicolor fabric drawer, I noticed how messy it was.  An assistant could sort this.  But--I don't have an assistant.  So I sorted it myself, and I am now more familiar with what's here.

I'm also going to sort the small pieces in the previous photo, and cut those 3.5 in. chunks down too.  Maybe I'm my own assistant?  I need to take time to do the non-sewing jobs that make the sewing go smoothly.

Guess what I was doing this morning instead of writing this post?  You're right, I went to the West Bend Farmers Market, and here's the loot I brought back:  12 ears of corn, 2 large green peppers, 10 small to medium cucumbers, a bag of Crimini mushrooms, a bag of fresh green beans, and a bundle of rhubarb.  We are so lucky to have all of this produce near us.  This whole pile cost $31.00.

The cucumbers and peppers will go into my annual pickle relish canning.  The rhubarb will make a sweet/tart pie.

So I guess I bought myself some more work!  Well, it's worth it. 

We're all safe here from last week's flood, although some roads were closed and lots of basements were flooded.  It kept raining on Monday, which meant the kids were indoors too long and we all got cranky.  Thank goodness the sun finally came out, and life is mostly back to normal.

Take care this week!  I hope things are even better than normal for you.  Happy quilting!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

I Heart Aqua Prints, Crumbs, and Old Projects

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

How are your aqua blocks coming along?

What with one thing and another I did not get much done in the sewing room this week except for a few blocks.  These hearts are aqua for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.

I was a little surprised at how many aqua scraps I had, especially in novelty prints.  (The top right heart is a dinosaur bones print.  How often do you see something like that?)

I have had some of these scraps for literally years, like the cat print on the bottom right.  Someday I will use the last scrap of it, and I'll be sad.

Favorite block:  Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too.  I still have a lot of this fabric, mostly in smaller pieces.  It will probably turn up in aqua blocks for the RSC for years to come.

Does this ever happen to you?  Sometimes I'll be working on a project and find I've used up all the pieces for the leaders and enders project I'm doing at the same time.  Then I'll be hunting around in the sewing room for something else to use as leaders and enders, and accidentally (!) start a new project.  

That's what these crumb blocks are.  I have a small bin on my cutting table for "crumbs", those small bits that can't be cut into any of the pieces I save.  For me, that means anything smaller than a 2 in. square.  

When the little bin gets full, I sort the pieces by color, and store them in a small bag inside a larger bag of strings the same color.  (The aqua crumbs are getting out of hand!)  I start the crumb blocks with the little pieces, and finish them with strings from the bag.  I only got three made this week, but they were fun to do.  Plus they used up small scraps and strings!  This will be a long term project, with no pressure to finish soon.

I still have lots of block sets I made for last year's RSC, like these 3-D flying geese.  (Click HERE for the post with a tutorial.)  It was still in the block bin because I couldn't decide what I was doing with them. 

I ended up going back to my original idea and putting them together like this.  It's aqua month, so I did aqua blocks first of course.  Maybe I'll get a couple of 2024 quilts done before we start putting together the 2025 RSC blocks.

It's been hot here this week, 92F yesterday, so we've done some inside things, like crafts.  Buddy had fun making these Minecraft and Super Mario items from Perler beads.  They're assembled on a hard plastic base and melted with an iron.

My hubby made this one.  Do you think he might have been influenced by living with a quilter?

Whatever the weather at your house, I hope you are having a good week, with time to do the things you love.  Like quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

  

August is Aqua

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Well, look what "grew" in my garden this week!  It's a little nine patch quilt, ready to be donated.

Most of the 2.5 in. (unfinished) squares came from a bag I picked up on the free table at our quilt guild.  There were lots of solid and print squares, so it made sense to combine them.  I call this one Nine Patch A and B, because there are two kinds of blocks.  Block A has 5 solid squares and 4 print squares, and Block B has 5 print squares and 4 solids.

The border is a Sesame Street print.  This is what was left after I used it on a previous quilt.  Big Bird, Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Zoe are skating and jumping rope etc., having a good time outside.

The binding is made from a scrap!  I had to piece seven strips together for a quilt 36 in. x 42 in., but it was worth it to use up the scrap and get this color.  From now on I'm calling this shade Elmo Red.  The back came from the big sale at the museum.

The quilting is my usual serpentine stitch in a two inch grid.  Mrs. Pfaff and I are on a roll finishing up some small tops.

August is aqua!  It's the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  My aquas seem to divide into greenish ones and blueish ones, so I made blocks of each.  Above are the greenish aqua Bright Hopes blocks, 6 in. finished.

These are the blueish Bright Hopes.  Lots of fish, bugs, frogs, and even Hello Kitty.

There were some fun fabrics to piece into big bowties, too, like dinosaurs and Scooby Doo.

More fish here, even Baby Shark (sorry if that brings up an earworm for you like it does for me!).

It was just like potato chips, I couldn't stop making Bow Ties.  Some of these were not strictly aqua, but it won't matter when they're put into quilts.

Favorite block of the week:

I had never seen this fabric before.  I just love that frog with a banjo.  You never know what fun prints you're going to find when you collect scraps!

My little rascals went to Vacation Bible School this week.  They're posing in a pretend magnifying glass.

After VBS on Thursday we went to a park with lots of structures to climb on.  Buddy is getting ready to launch himself onto some monkey bars.

Little Guy got into the act, too.  It was good for them to get out and get some exercise, after being stuck indoors due to the rain on Wednesday.

I'm glad to have made some inroads on the UFOs and RSC blocks this week, since I don't know how much I will be able to do next week.  I have unfortunately acquired a summer cold.  I rate it 0/10, would not recommend.  Avoid it if you can!

Have a lovely week!  I hope it's filled with all the things you love to do.  Including quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap