Cutting, Ripping, and a Little Bit of Stitching

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  And Happy 2026!

Quilt production here in the Treadlestitches sewing room has slowed WAY down during the holidays, and now I'm working on some now-sewing jobs, like cutting up the scraps in the photo above.

Blue is the assigned color for January for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and boy do I have blue scraps!  Small pieces, big scraps, and lots of pre-cut pieces in my "Part Department" have been spread out all over the room while I'm trying to find just the right piece.

This week I'm working on my Half Log Cabin blocks.  I drew up this pattern back in August to help me use up some of the 2.5 in. wide strips that are crowding each other out of the drawer.  

As I write this, it's only Day 2 of the new year, so I'm still keeping my New Year's Resolution to plan my RSC quilts instead of just madly making blocks.  I am not famous for keeping resolutions, so we'll see how the other months turn out.

This is the fifth block, the one I made back in August.  It's just a variation on a traditional quilt block, but I'm happy to give you the measurements if you'd like to make some.  Like almost everything I make, it's very very easy.

Half Log Cabin Block  

9 in. square finished

Fabrics:  Four different prints of one color.

Cutting:

Color 1:  Cut 1 3.5 in. square.  (I enjoyed finding novelty prints for this.)

Color 2:  Cut 1 rectangle 2.5 in. x 3.5 in. and 1 rectangle 2.5 in. x 5.5 in.

Color 3:  Cut 1 rectangle 2.5 in. x 5.5 in. and 1 rectangle 2.5 in. x 7.5 in.

Color 4:  Cut 1 rectangle 2.5 in. x 7.5 in. and 1 rectangle 2.5 in. x 9.5 in.

If you're cutting from 2.5 in. wide strips, Color 2 needs a minimum of 9 inches, Color 3 needs at least 13 inches, and Color 4 needs 17 inches.

Sewing:

Sew the 2.5 in. x 3.5 in. rectangle to the right of the square.  Add the 2.5 in. x 5.5 in. rectangle to the bottom of the square+rectangle piece.  Keep going like this, sewing the smaller piece of each color on the right and the matching larger piece on the bottom.

I'm planning on setting the finished blocks side by side.

These little blocks are not for the RSC, but just happen to be blue.  I'm trying to use up some small rectangles and squares in two sizes.  They're my leaders/enders project at the moment.

I did not sew even one stitch on either of these quilts, but I'm ripping out stitches like crazy.  These tops were donated to our guild, but already had binding sewn on them.  This doesn't really work for our long arm quilters, so volunteers like me are carefully ripping the binding off.  The one on the left is a Christmas quilt, and the one on the right will make a nice baby quilt.

These two bright tops are more my style!  I love the fabrics.  Only one more little Christmas quilt to go, and then I'll go back to just ripping out my own mistakes.  (Tragically, this happens almost every day.)

Tuesday we went back to the same indoor playground as last year.  This time our daughter could come too, and the grandkids were thrilled to have their mom playing with them.

There was a dark room with a mirror ball and the boys were dancing around.  They say they remember Grandpa dancing in there with them last year, but he will neither confirm nor deny.

It's cold outside, but Lizzy (on the pillow) and Snicky (looking at you) are cozy and warm in the guest room, cuddling up on quilts.  Oh, the perks of being quilters' cats!

I hope you're cozy and warm or cool and comfy as we start another journey around the sun.  Have a wonderful week, and happy quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday