Pink Finish, Kits and Stash

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  How are your projects coming along?

Well, I'm a little late for pink month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but I did manage to finish this Disappearing Nine Patch before the start of July, though, so I guess that's something.

Not really a pink girl myself, but I've been lucky enough to acquire scraps from friends and second hand sales.  Lots of these are really cute!

Here's the back, originally from the local chain shop.  It's a plain cotton, not a flannel, but the same print also came in flannel and I've had some of that.  The binding matches the cornerstones, and came from an antique mall in Indiana.

The tutorial I used for this quilt came from Jo's Country Junction, by Jo Kramer.  She calls it the Self Sashing Disappearing Nine Patch.  (Click HERE.)

I posted about how I was making this back in May, but here's a quick run through.

First, you make a 9 patch block.  The cornerstone fabric square goes in the center, the sashing fabric squares go in the middle of each side, and the other squares go in the corners.

Next, you slice the block in half vertically and horizontally.

Obviously, you don't want a sashing and cornerstone on the end of the row, or the bottom of the last row.  Jo Kramer solved that by ripping.  I hate ripping.  

Instead, I made the pieces on the right of the photo below for the last piece in each row except the bottom row.

On the bottom row, I sewed another row of squares with sashing between.

 

 

 

This one is a little bigger than normal for me, about 44 in. x 55 in.  It will be donated locally.

Do you ever have this problem?  I get to the stage of setting the rows of a quilt together, and then have to look around for something to sew for leaders and enders.  (I blame the amazing Bonnie Hunter lol.)  What if I had a few kits cut ahead, ready to go?  

Here's the first one, a Windmill pattern in an 8 in. block.

The kit includes the directions (from the amazing Nancy Queen of Scraps at our quilt guild), a finished block, and all the cut pieces for 19 more blocks.  I also included my notes with my plans for the set, borders, etc., so I can refresh my memory if I forget.

I cut 2 more quilts, a Four Patch and a Tumblers.  So I should be set for awhile!

As for quilting plans for the weekend, I need to cut these repro fabrics up for my hexies project before RSC blue month is completely over.  Most comes from my stash, but the lights and the first blue were purchased at a quilters rummage sale yesterday.

I did a very scary thing.  Last weekend, I inventoried the stash.  (Have you ever done this?)   I should say, I inventoried just the stash in the sewing room, which I use to make mostly children's quilts.  Yikes!  Mind boggling.  Just putting away the new acquisitions from this month took some work.  This shelf unit houses the 1 yard or so pieces on the bottom shelf, half yards on the next shelf up, and fat quarters on the shelf above that.  I had to add 3 more smaller boxes on top of the others to fit everything in.

I also had to add another box for the larger-than-one-yard pieces on the shelf in the closet.  I was so lucky to find so many cute blue fabrics.

I'm well set up to not buy much of anything new for the next year, but we'll see.  That's the plan anyway.

So, off to press and cut and sew and quilt!

Have a wonderful week!

Thanks for reading, and check out the quilt blogs at the linky parties below.

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

 

This Pieceful Life

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

How are your projects coming along?  For me, I have nothing finished this week, but some progress has been made.  Sometimes that's the best you can say!

Pink rail fence blocks will be handy when making up Rainbow Scrap Challenge baby quilts at the end of the year.  The pink 2.5 in. strips are almost gone.  (Is that a good thing?)

The butterfly quilt I'm making from an unknown quilter's UFO is almost a top!  I need to add the pieced border of half square triangles and the outer border from the vintage blue print.

Rainbow Rails is coming along as my leader and ender project.  For my version, I need nearly 100 of these little blocks.  I'm up to 62.
 

I was gone for a week to visit my mom, and we had out of town company this week, so I'm behind on everything, but it was totally worth it seeing people we love.

Maybe I'd get something finished if these pesky squirrels didn't keep popping up!

Now you see it, now you don't!  Watch out, this nine patch block is going to disappear. 

Ta da!  Now it's four blocks, complete with sashing and cornerstones.  I'm following the Self Sashing Nine Patch Quilt Tutorial from Jo Kramer at Jo's Country Junction blog. 

It's a good pattern for using up some random charm squares and other pink scraps.  I wish I had more of this cute puppy print.
 

Oops!  I did discover a problem that can happen if you use novelty prints, which are often one-way designs.  Upside down unicorns look kind of weird.  I fixed this with the seam ripper, but it can be avoided by placing the novelty square in the upper left corner of the nine patch block.

There has been a lot of traffic through our backyard in the early morning.  One day this week we saw a mother mallard with 13 baby ducks (we counted!) walk right across our patio.  Today there was a hen turkey, just sauntering along.  Two robins are fighting (or mating?) almost every day.  And I have no photos of any of it sadly.  Spring is wild around here.

I was so glad to see this Little Guy and his big brother when I got back.  We've had some thunder storms and cooler days, but also warm days just right for playing outside and popsicle parties on the porch.

So how are your projects coming along?  I look forward to seeing all the wonderful quilting at the linky parties below.  Have a wonderful week, and Happy Mothers Day to all the American moms.

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Shades of Purple

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Purple scrap sewing is happening today!
 

I just love it when I open the sewing room door and immediately see the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  

The 2.5 in. strips are running low, I'll have to cut some more.  Does that  count as using up scraps?  Or am I making more scraps?

Purple is one of my favorite colors, but I sometimes have a little trouble putting different shades of purple together.  For example, above is our scraggly little lilac bush, whose flowers are a lighter shade.

The star points on the right are more lilac or even lavender.  The star points on the left are a deep purple (not to be confused with the British rock band of the same name).

So do all shades of purple go together?  What do you think?  Maybe I should just relax about this.

Who could relax around here with all this noise?  School is out for Little Buddy, and we're all enjoying the summer together.  These guys like to bang on pots and pans after breakfast.  I wonder why we keep buying toys.

You can tell it's summer in Wisconsin when the Farmers Markets open up.  It's early days yet, but I did get some spinach, asparagus, and a pint of honey.

Look what I found lurking around the back porch!

Maybe that's what scared off this American goldfinch, caught on camera as she was flying away.  

On the agenda for today is this little project, left over from last month.  I've even got it all organized.

I laid it out last night when I should have been getting ready for bed.  The pattern is Fun and Games, by Jo Kramer and Kelli Hanken.  Many of you probably know Jo from her excellent blog, Jo's Country Junction.

The pattern is in American Patchwork and Quilting magazine, Issue #164, and the issue is dated 6/5/2020, exactly a year ago today.  Jo's version used yellow solid where I used red.  I also changed the size a bit.

I can't wait to sew this up.  It's been on the back burner for a while.

Summer is going well here so far, and I hope it is for you, too. 

Have a lovely week!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Check out all the fabulous quilts at the link parties below!

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap