Oops! Not Really A Stretched Star

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

How are your Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks coming along?  It's great seeing what everyone is doing with them each week.

This week I put together some of the "stretched star" blocks I made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year.  When I did, I discovered a BIG MISTAKE.  You might be able to see it in the photo above. 

The big pieces in the blocks are 5 in. squares.  White squares go across two of the corners to make the blocks.  The resulting white triangles are supposed to touch. Mine can just sort of wave to each other. 

Why?  Because I cut them one quarter inch too small!! (Sound of hand smacking forehead).

This is what they were supposed to look like.  I cut my white squares at 2 1/2 in. x 2 1/2 in.  The RIGHT way for a 5 in. square is 2 3/4 in. x 2 3/4 in.  I was off by a quarter inch.  Ack!

Now, I am not a newbie.  I have been making quilts for more than 40 years.  Yeah, I admit I'm bad at math, but maybe I should have thought to test out how the blocks went together before I made nearly 200 of them?  (Sigh).  Ripping is not an option, since I cut off the corners underneath after stitching.

Anyway, once I realized what I had done, I went ahead and finished this little donation quilt.  Kids and their parents are probably not going to know or care about the goof up.  

On the plus side, every block has a different print, which I hope will be fun for kids to look at.  There are lots of space-related squares, like Marvin the Martian and other cute aliens.  

On the back, robots!  I've had this fabric a long time.  Originally I thought I'd cut out the robot squares/rectangles, but I didn't want to make Swiss cheese out of it.  Plus it would need more MATH, and I'm kind of skittish about that now.  Yeah, on the back works just fine.

By the way, have you noticed all the interesting designs on selvedges?  The robot fabric had these tiny rockets.  It's just something fun and extra, and I love it.

Lesson learned!  You can bet I will definitely double (or triple) check next year's RSC blocks for accuracy.

I have plans to use the rest of the blocks, don't worry, but not as stretched stars. 

Buddy and Little Guy love to put puzzles together.  This one was 100 pieces, just right for their ages.  We all had a good time after school yesterday, and they couldn't wait to show their mom when she came to pick them up.

Our Christmas cactus is blooming again, and it's a joy to see.  The last time it bloomed, Snicky the cat was a kitten, and he chewed all the blossoms off.

The following is political, so feel free to skip it.

My mom reminded me of a quote yesterday, that I believe applies to the darkness that is coming in my country.

Martin Luther King said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."  

Let us be the light.

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Black Cats, Multicolors, and Books

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

The black cats are here, in plenty of time for Halloween!

I made 20 black cat blocks as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  These little kitties told me they wanted their own quilt, so I said okay!  The border fabric came from a flea market, and I used up almost every last bit.

I convinced Snicklefritz, my very own black (and white) cat, to pose on the quilt for you.  

The back is a panel I bought at the quilt show rummage a couple of weeks ago.  

It's a cat print!  I had to add a couple of strips of stash fabric to make it wide enough.  I'll be donating the quilt to a good cause.

Do you have "too many" RSC projects?  I know I do!  I tend to get carried away, especially when I always choose such easy blocks.  Most of my quilts are made to donate to children, and I typically use bright colors and seldom include black, gray, beige, or brown. 

What about multicolor fabrics?

 Back when I first started with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, there was a month that called for Multicolor fabrics.  I hadn't yet started this obsession with novelty prints and didn't really have any multicolor scraps.  Boy, has that changed!

Since I have so many, I'm going to add them to my RSC projects through October.  Above are my Stretched Stars with multicolor centers.

Check out the Halloween print in the upper left!

Oh, dear, there's another headless dinosaur.  Ron and Ginny Weasley are looking on in horror.

The potato chip block got the multicolor treatment too.  Multicolor prints make some happy crazy chaos.   I apparently have cat prints everywhere, wonder why that is.

In other news, some new-to-me quilt books followed me home lately.  Do any of you remember Georgia Bonesteel?  She had a PBS show many years ago, and was famous for Lap Quilting, which at the time meant hand quilting using a hoop instead of a floor frame.  I eagerly watched the show and bought her books, but I had never seen this particular book before.  It's called Scrap Quilts from Georgia Bonesteel.  Good for inspiration, but the techniques are not what we are used to now. 

American Patchwork is a collection of true stories by quilters, and A Country's Call is a recent book (2019) of patterns for Civil War quilts by Mary Etherington and Connie Tesene of Country Threads fame.  They include short bios and pictures of real women from the Civil War.  

Lots of great reading ahead for the fall/winter months!

Speaking of fall, here's what I found at the Farmers Market this morning!  I could hardly believe we still could get local green beans at the end of September.  I'll freeze them and can the tomatoes later today, and just enjoy the broccoli and sweet peppers.

These Bartlett pears will be good eating, and they're a good size for the grandkids.  So funny that there's just one green one.

The grandkids and I are playing outside lately while the weather is nice.

Little Guy is even better at posing than Snicky!

Have a wonderful week!  I hope you have time for all the things you like to do.  Like quilting!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with these Wonderful Bloggers:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

A Small Quilt Top, and A Tale of Two Quilt Shows

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

This week in sewing, I've been drifting from one project to another and not completely finishing anything.  Maybe I'm just distractible lately, or maybe I've just had some fun distractions like quilt shows.  Anyway, I got this small top together as a donation quilt.

I didn't even make most of the blocks!  A kind person donated them to our quilt group, and they were passed along to me because many of them used kid prints, like the Paw Patrol block.  And you know how much I love kid prints!

I separated the kid blocks from the rest and made 6 more.  I thought I had never seen this block before at first, but upon further inspection it's a Disappearing Nine Patch variation.  The squares for the nine patch are cut at 3.5 in.  Then the block is cut down the middle vertically and horizontally, and the resulting 4 squares are reassembled into this block.  Tricky when using one-way prints, but fun. 

The top is approx. 40 in. x 48 in., and I hope to quilt and bind it soon.

The sashing and border are dark blue--does that count as dark for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge?

The black Stretched Stars definitely count.  I don't usually use black prints in my donation quilts for kids, but I need to rethink that.  There are so many cute fabrics.  Just one more way the Rainbow Scrap Challenge has pushed me to think differently about color.

Now on to the Quilt Shows!

On Friday Sept. 6 I met a friend at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show in Madison.  She and I have a long-standing tradition of seeing this show together, even back when it was called Quilt Expo.  In the last few years Covid and other health concerns got in our way, but we were back at it this year and loving it.

The quilts on display were, as always, amazing, and were made by quilters from all over.  I took lots of photos for my own use, but I will restrain myself from including any here out of respect for the makers.  Photos from the 2024 show are not yet up, but you can click HERE to see a gallery of the winning quilts from previous years.

Here's what I "won":  fabric!  All the fabric I bought was $8 per yard or less, which seems a lot like winning to me, especially when it usually retails for $12 per yard and up.  I roamed from vendor booth to vendor booth, scooping up the sale fabric.  Even though I am being more careful with buying new fabric, I'm not going to bypass cute prints at these prices!  I am already putting some of it to use.

I bought these 4 prints at a unique booth called Sew Renewable.    The fabric is all "pre-owned".  As they say on their web page:

 Our fabric is sourced primarily through purchases from estate sales, estate auctions, and donations by friends who no longer sew.

Keeping fabric out of landfills is a major goal of our  business.  

I love this!  They travel to quilt shows around the country.  They also have plans to sell directly from the web site, as they have apparently done in the past.  Click HERE to check them out.

Of course the quilt show was much much more than shopping.  It's even more than just viewing the jaw-dropping quilts!  We had time to talk and visit and participate in something we both love.  What a wonderful day!

So that was ONE quilt show.  Just yesterday (Friday), I went to the SECOND one.  It was a smaller, local show held at the county fairgrounds.   Two quilt shows in two weeks!  I am so lucky.

The local show creates these patterns, that they call "Seed Packets", and they hand them out for FREE with admission every year.  They are well written, and I have even made a quilt or two from them in past years. 

The quilts themselves were amazing!  Again, I can't publish the photos, but I took pictures to look at later and enjoy.  All kinds of styles were present, from traditional to modern and back again.

This was something new:

Every year this show has an area called "Granny's Attic", where they sell fabric, notions, etc. donated by their members.  Usually some items are priced individually, and most fabrics can be purchased by the grocery bag for a set price.  This year, however, shoppers were allowed to choose whatever they would like and give a donation of money in whatever amount they wished.  I have to admit, it was kind of hard to figure out what I owed them.  In the end, I guessed, basing my guess on how many grocery bags' worth I estimated I had.

This is what I ended up taking home.  There are yards of cottons and flannels, a small unfinished quilt that I plan to finish and donate, and some lovely piles of scraps.

Today I am washing the fabrics (but not the little scraps!), and hanging them outside in our beautiful sunny weather.

We are so lucky to have quilt shows to attend, from the big national/international ones to the local ones put on by guilds, who do all the hard work for free out of love for quilting.  There are always new things to learn, too, from classes and from viewing inspiring work by fellow quilters.  I would go even if there wasn't any fabric on sale!

I have less time with my youngest grandsons now that they're both in school full time, so we make the best of what time we have.  Almost every day we go out into the park.  They asked me to take this picture of them at the playground.

I hope you have as much fun as my grandsons and I have had this week!  Take care!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Summertime Blues (and Aqua)

Welcome to Treadlestitches! 

Is it summer where you live?  Here in Wisconsin, you can't get much more "summer" than yesterday, the 4th of July.  Happy Independence Day, America!

Hanging on the clothesline today is a child's quilt, 36 in. x 42 in., freshly finished and ready to give away.

All sorts of bugs and other creepy crawlies are enjoying the good here weather too. Even on the border of the quilt!  The bug print came from a rummage sale last summer.  The colorful scraps all came from the box of 2.5 in. x 3.5 in. rectangles.  I used 90 of them in the blocks, and probably still have enough to make 2 more quilts.  Scraps are forever lol.

I don't know an official name for this block.  (If you do, please tell me!)  I call the 2.5 in. x 3.5 in. rectangles Little Bricks, so I named this block Little Bricks Ladder.  I'm hoping there's a cooler name somewhere in quilt blog land.  The three bricks are sewn together, and then 2 in. x 6.5 in. white strips are sewn on each long side.  Easy peasy.

Here's the back, made of two different light prints.  I'm trying not to be so fussy about the backs, I just need to use up what I've already got, and both these prints are cute.  Kids are probably not going to care about this anyway.  The quilting is a 3 in. grid in serpentine stitch.
 

Now that it's July, I have finally caught up with June's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  These are my 1800s repro hexagons.  I absolutely adore indigo blue, and it's getting harder to find it in stores.
 

What if I added in the red ones for a patriotic look?  Hey, this would make a great quilt!  But I've already got mine planned to include ALL the colors.  I didn't start this project at the beginning of the year, so I'm catching up on the RSC colors I missed.  I don't think I'll have many hexagons in aqua for July, it's an unusual color for reproduction fabrics, but I'll hunt out what I have.

Aqua kid prints aren't hard to find!  Some of these are old favorites, and a few of them came as ready-cut charm squares from the big museum sale last month.  I'm going to need a lot of these stretched star blocks per quilt since they're small, only 4.5 in. finished.

Speaking of aqua, check out this vintage quilt I saw at a flea market last Sunday.  Star blocks with a pink background alternate with aqua blocks with pink centers.  I always love looking at antique quilts.  Frequently you see things you've never seen before.

It's been fun having the grand kids around more this summer.  Here's Buddy, just hanging around.  Hang on, Buddy!  He had to hold the pose while waiting for me to take the photo, and I was kind of slow.  He's not angry, just straining to hold on.  Sorry, Buddy.
 

Our black raspberries are ripe, and the little boys love picking and eating them, which is what Little Guy is doing here.  We have also had lots for eating on cereal, etc., and a few pints for the freezer.  Snicky the cat wants to go out whenever we do, so he's learning to walk on a leash.  Or maybe I'm learning to go wherever he wants to go.  But we will not be chasing any birds or rabbits!

And you know where I want to go--the sewing room!  I'm getting some sewing time in this long weekend, but there are errands and other jobs to do, too.  

I hope you have a happy peaceful week ahead, and some time to do the things you love to do.

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Cats and Stars and Potato Chips

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I've been spinning the treadle wheels this week, happily piecing blocks from scraps for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.

It's blue month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and boy have I got blue scraps!  It's fun making these potato chip blocks.

We're doing any/all shades of blue this time, so I got to use my medium blue scraps as well as light and dark.  All these pieces came from my box of 2 in. x 3.5 in. rectangles.  I wish I could say I used up most of them.  Actually, I didn't make a dent.  Can you tell I love blue?

Dark and medium blue stretched stars were pieced from charm squares.  Did you catch Marvin the Martian?  I always liked him in the cartoons.  Which is weird because he was always trying to blow up our planet.  I guess I knew Bugs Bunny would prevail.

These stretched stars are on the lighter side.

Not a big fan of caterpillars in real life, but on fabric they're kind of fun.  Maybe just a bit creepy?

Cats are never creepy!  Ok, maybe they're not blue either.  I'm thinking more of stuffed animals with these blocks.

I honestly cannot tell what color the background is on this Laurel Burch print.  Blue or purple?  What do you think?  When I put it next to purples it looks blue, and vice versa when I put it with blues.

 It's raining cats and dogs on this print!  The cat is the smart one here, wearing flippers and a snorkel.

There were a few more pink cats to finish from last month.  I just love that Hello Kitty background fabric.

I'm calling this whole project Rainbow Kitties.  These rainbow fabric kitties wanted to be made right now, for Pride Month.  I might find a few more rainbow fabrics as I go along.

The grand kids are done with school and are here more, which is part of the reason I'm not getting much sewing done.  I'm okay with that, they're important.  This week they built this castle and village, and we're leaving it up til next week.

They've got everything, from dragons and monsters to minions and smurfs.  I'm glad they found something absorbing to play inside, since it's been raining a lot.  Even when we go outside, everything is wet and muddy.  Better weather is on the way, I hope.

In other news, I cut the rhubarb and made a pie.  Rhubarb always makes it feel like summer.

How is your month coming along?  I always look forward to seeing everybody's projects at the linky parties.  Have a lovely week!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap