Another UFO, and More Orange

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

The weather is iffy again, so we're stuck with indoor photos.  This is my version of Pat Sloan's Children's Library Quilt, from 2017.   Click HERE for Pat's quilt. 

As a retired school librarian, I was excited to make this quilt and to use prints of book characters in it.  I changed some of Pat's blocks so I could put a square of one of those prints in the center.

When the blocks were done the quilt languished until I could decide on a setting.  I saw that Let's Read fabric in the store, and snatched up several yards. 

 

This was another one I was planning to machine quilt in sections, but could never figure out quite how I wanted to do it.  At some point I gave up that idea and sewed the sections together.  

I found the finished top as I was sorting my quilt stuff.

It's nearly twin-sized at 68 in. x 80 in.  As usual, it will be donated to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee, after volunteers do the quilting and binding.  I hope it goes to a child who loves to read.

Here's a fun quilty thing I got to do this week!  I did a short quilt activity with kids at Buddy and Little Guy's school.  A volunteer took this photo of me holding the quilt and the kids happily identifying the book (and TV) characters on it.  

For the activity I gave them papers with a 9 patch grid and asked them to glue (with a glue stick) 2 in. fabric squares in each of the sections in the grid.  The colors and patterns were totally up to them.  I'm guessing I brought at least 800 squares, laid out on a table in paper plates by color.  I still have lots left over, even after using approximately 468 squares.  The design above was made by Judah.

The kids enjoyed doing this.  Most of them asked for a second paper.  It was fun to see their color choices.  A few of them even created detailed patterns with the colors. 

One question they asked was unexpected.  They wanted to know if I had drawn the designs on the fabrics in the quilts!  They seemed surprised to learn that the fabric came that way from the store.

I'm still reorganizing all my fabric, projects, etc., which didn't leave much time for sewing this week.  At least I got my orange crumb blocks done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Two of the blocks were leftovers from another crumb quilt, so I only had to make four.  

Only one more week of orange!  I'll be sad to see it go.

Speaking of orange, this display in an antique mall really caught my eye!  Orange was a very "with it" color in the 1960s and 1970s.

In Progress

Right now my only project in progress is the Cabin Steps blocks I've been making as leaders and enders.  I have a total of 15 blocks done, with six more ready to stitch (the ones on the right).  I'm hoping to get a small quilt quilted and bound, but we'll see.

Hubby and I had a picnic and a walk in Rock Cut State Park in Illinois last Saturday.  It was an absolutely beautiful day.  Shortly after I took this photo we saw two bald eagles fishing in the lake.  It was a lovely weekend away for our anniversary.

I hope you have a lovely week this week, doing things you love to do.  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

 
 

Kids, Books, Scraps, and Quilts

It's a scraptastic Saturday around here, and I've got my blocks done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month.  August's color is neutral.  Hmm, can I do neutral? 

Neutral is tough with novelty fabrics, so I decided to go for fabrics with light backgrounds.  Here's my strawberry house.   Mmm, strawberries.

This one is nice and weird.  The main fabric is printed with bandaids, and for some reason there are bugs on the bandaids.  So the door has a bug, too.

Here's a house for me.  Save our flowers, save our pets, save our trees, save our planet!

A dotty house, sugary sweet with smiling flowers in the sky.

Three Pooh bears are peeking out of this house.  From the tropical sea shell print on the roof, we can see that the Poohs have left foggy England behind for sunny Florida.  They do need to work on their spelling.

And lastly, the orange house, probably also in Florida.  Or maybe California.
I decided the neutral theme really wouldn't fit with the Buckeye Beauty blocks, so I'm skipping those this month.
Making blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is the most fun I've ever had doing homework.

This homework comes in a close second--my blocks for the Children's Library Quilt, hosted by Pat Sloan.

The official block for August is this one.  I can't stop using Dr. Seuss fabric!  I got these scraps at the rummage sale at the quilt museum in June.  There's Clifford fabric in there, too.

I'm making 12 blocks for my Children's Library Quilt, instead of the 9 Pat is giving us, so I've been finding blocks elsewhere and using the book character fabrics to sew them up.  This block is modified from Cross Keys by Gina Gempesaw, block #573 in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, vol. 6.
I changed the center to a solid square, and put the Very Hungry Caterpillar in there.

Lately I've been doing more quilting, as well as piecing.  Here's something I actually finished.

It's a baby quilt, made of flannel, for charity.

I tried to get my youngest grandson to post with it, but he was just too busy.

He did curl up with it later on the floor.  Tired, but fighting sleep.

I washed the quilt after he went home, and it's even more cuddly now.

Clean and soft, and ready to go to a new home.

I am so lucky!  I get to enjoy the things I love most every week--kids, books, scraps, and quilts.
How was your week?
Join me at the linky parties at Busy Hands Quilts and So Scrappy.

Tulips and Rhubarb

It's springtime in Wisconsin!  The tulips aren't blooming yet, but the buds are ready.  The green leaves around it are on the raspberry canes.  I'm hoping for a good crop this year.

And here's the rhubarb!  The leaves are opening out, reaching for the sun.
As you can see, I've got a lot of outside work to do, raking and clearing up.

It's been a slow week for quilting, but I did get some piecing done.  Here are all my Flower Girl blocks, all laid out in my husband's office.

Nearly all of the blocks are made with fabric I bought second hand.

All the fabrics are florals, except for one.  See that purplish block in the center?  Those are grapes.  BTW, the brown is just the carpet.  I'm thinking about either white sashing, or a soft green.  What would you choose?

My ten month old grandson is taking his naps upstairs now, which makes it easier to sew in my upstairs sewing room while still listening for him.  Quilting is too noisy, so I save that for days when he's not here.  Meanwhile, I can catch up on my piecing, with the treadle just ticking away.

I'm making the Children's Library Quilt from Pat Sloan.  Above is my adaptation of Block #1.  I was an elementary school library media specialist for 13 years, so I was very excited to see a mystery quilt with this theme.  I always bought fabric with book characters whenever I could, so now I'm using my "collection" in the blocks.  Dr. Seuss is one of my favorite children's authors, silly and fun.  This block stars the Cat in the Hat.

Here's block #2.  The center is Eric Carle fabric from the book Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?

Block #3 has Clifford the Big Red Dog in the center.  He looks kind of squished!  Poor Clifford!

For block #4, I went back to Dr. Seuss for Sam I Am from Green Eggs and Ham.

Pat's design has only nine blocks.  I want my quilt to have 12 blocks, so I'm adding a few.

Here's block #2 again, this time with Curious George in the middle and the colors in different spots.

I also added in two more blocks from Quiltmakers 100 Blocks, Vol. 14.  I chose them because they had large center squares.  They are:

Gadabout, designed by Carolyn Beam, which I made with Berenstain Bears prints,

and Cross Ties, designed by Diane Nagle, with the Reluctant Dragon in the center of my block.

It's funny, but I make more mess making one block than I often do for a whole quilt!
I'm linking up with Myra at Busy Hands Quilts and Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts 
today.  Check out their wonderful work, and all the other links!

Happy Easter for those who celebrate, and happy quilting to all.
Cheers,
Sylvia