Loose Ends and Layouts

Welcome to my blog.  I hope you are having a lovely weekend.   I know I am--I'm sewing!

All my blocks are done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, so I'm starting to put them together into tops.  This is rows 1-3 of the Mary Ann's Baskets quilt, made from reproduction fabric scraps.  Surprise, I'm not following the layout in the book exactly.  I want a rectangular rather than a square quilt.  (The book is Classic & Heirloom Quilts, by Betsy Chutchian).
Even though I've been quilting for over 40 years, I haven't made very many diagonal sets, at least not recently.  So I'm having to lay it all out and work on it carefully so as not to mess it up.

I'm not sure why I decided to make three Rainbow Scrap quilts this year.  Maybe I just couldn't make up my mind?? (That would not be unusual.)  So I'm also working on this top.

The pattern for this quilt is in the same book.  Ms. Chutchian calls her quilt White Rock Creek, but another book calls these blocks Wagon Trail. They're also made from repro scraps, that I've been sewing all year.  I did add in some brown and black scraps (colors not on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge list this year), which would be appropriate to this time period.
Surprise again, I'm doing a slightly different set.  I'm setting it together in two sections.  Then I'll add borders (not sure what color yet), and quilt each section.  I want to quilt something pretty in the open spaces, and that will be easier if the quilt is in two pieces.

So these quilt tops have been on my to-do list for a while, and I'm glad to be at least starting to get them together.
But--squirrel!

I couldn't help it, I started these blocks last week, and just kept going until I had enough for a child's quilt.  The block is called King's Crown, and the centers are crumb blocks made from the snippets in my scrap basket.  There might be a bit too much red and blue in it, but you work with what you have.  No hurry on this one, it will be a charity quilt sometime in the new year.

I did actually finish a little wall quilt this week, but it was more than half done last week.  Now it's been bound, washed, and hung on the wall, ready for Thanksgiving.

Did it snow where you live this week?  We got a little dusting here Thursday night and Friday morning.  Little Buddy and I made this:

It's his first snowman!  He was so excited about it, even though it's not even as tall as he is.  He couldn't wait to show it to his big brother and mom.

Do we have lots of fun around here?  You betcha!

I hope you had fun this week, too.

Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up this week with:
Angela at soscrappy
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I Get A Whoop Whoop)
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework (Oh Scrap)

Inchworms, Misfit Pickles, and Wagon Trails

Red is our color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month.  It's another red week here, smack dab in the middle of July.  Our little flag is still flying, even though my Little Buddy keeps taking it out of the flower pot, waving it like he's in a parade, and jamming it in again.

There's red inside the house too.  The windowsill in my living room is no longer the Dead Plants Society it was at the end of the winter.  Old plants are cleaned up or tossed out, and new plants are growing and blooming.

We're still picking raspberries, red and black, and we're finding some stowaways on them.  Can you see the little green worm in the bottom left of the photo above?  It's an inchworm.  Who knew they were fond of raspberries?  Both Little Buddy and his 13 year old brother were interested in watching the inchworms move.  I get them out of the raspberries with a leaf and put them back in the yard.  Science lesson in disguise.

My favorite science is cooking, and I'm doing some small batch canning this year.  After all, we don't need huge amounts of canned goods now that there are only two of us living here.  These three jars of sweet pickle relish were made from "misfit pickles".  I buy them from a vendor at the West Bend Farmers Market, and that's how he labels bags of slightly less than perfect pickles.  They're often oddly shaped or small, but are perfectly good.  The misfit label makes me smile, and my mind goes back to the Island of Misfit Toys in the old Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Christmas special.

We had good nap times this week, so I got my Wagon Trail blocks done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  This is 8 of them, side by side.

Can you see the dogs in the light print?   I used this twice in my Wagon Trail blocks, as it's a favorite of mine because ...

it looks like my dog Bella!  She's a classic hound, like the dogs in the conversation print.  This is a photo from Christmas, when she was looking out the window, anxiously awaiting the rest of the family.

There will definitely be more red around here this month.  I'm making 3 RSC quilts this year.
I'm looking forward to seeing what everybody else is doing with their red scraps.

Have a lovely, red-letter day!
Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
Linking up with
Scrap Happy Saturday (at Soscrappy)
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop
Oh Scrap

Pink Plus

I've never been a big fan of the color pink.  Growing up, I wasn't a girly girl, just a nerdy girl that loved to read.  As soon as they would let us wear pants at school (high school years), I ditched my dresses and skirts and never looked back.
But I LOVE double pink reproduction fabric.  So it was fun to make the blocks for my reproduction quilts from my repro scraps in pink, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  Above is Eileen Trestain's book Dating Fabrics:  A Color Guide, 1800-1960, open to the 1880-1910 pink pages.  It's a great book for anyone making reproduction quilts, or collecting antique quilts and blocks.

These are my Mary's Basket blocks for this month, posing with an antique Willcox and Gibbs treadle sewing machine.  So far there are only four, but I might add to their number.

My second RSC quilt is made from these Wagon Trail blocks.  Again, only four so far.

If I had to pick a favorite, this one on the right is it!

When it comes to my third RSC quilt (THREE RSC quilts?  Yes, I know, I have a problem!), I chose a different path.
I make lots of children's quilts for charity.  If you put pink fabric into a child's charity quilt, that automatically makes it a girl's quilt.  In my experience, boys and their parents will not choose a quilt with pink in it.  Several charities I give to have said they get many more "girl" quilts than "boy" quilts.
Because of that, I generally make quilts with bright colors and leave out the pink.  A girl can choose a bright colored quilt, and so can a boy.
So I'm not adding any pink to my third RSC quilt, Fly Away Home, since it's eventual destination is as yet unclear.
But I still have lots of pink scraps.  So...

I made a pink baby quilt.  The blocks are 6 in. finished nine patches, with the colors arranged like a plus sign and a purple square in the middle of each one.

The large fabric squares between the nine patches is printed with what looks like models of atoms, that we used in science class back in the days before computers.  I love the idea of a little girl scientist sleeping under this quilt.

The blocks are a mish mash of all sorts of fabrics with any claim to pink.  There are bunnies, fish, flamingos, giraffes, frogs, turtles, bugs, castles, rain boots, hearts, flowers, dots, and so on.  Oh, and don't forget Dora the Explorer.

The back is a dotted print.
So that's a lot of pink!  My pink scraps are seriously diminished.
Thank goodness for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.
I hope you're "in the pink" this week, and every week.
Cheers for reading this,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
Links to Busy Hands Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts, and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Bright Yellow Sunshine

This was a good week for family times, but not so great for sewing.  My only finishes this week are my blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.
Yellow--what a good color for April!  It may not be warm here yet (high of 36 F today) but the sun is shining and my yellow/gold blocks are done for the month.
Above, Mr. Biddy checks out my piecing on my Wagon Trail blocks, which are using up the 1800s reproduction scraps.

I had some pretty good yellow fabrics this time, but it was hard to decide on the second print.  It needs to contrast with the yellow and the plain background, but seem harmonious.  Hmm.  I'll keep trying.

When it came to making the Mary's Basket blocks, I decided the yellows needed another color to play with.  Red and blue were naturals, and the golden brown worked out, too.

I admit it, I have a favorite!  The yellow center in the blue block above has been in my stash forever.  It can finally find a good home.

Now for the bright scraps!  I made 6 of the easy blocks and 5 of the flying geese ones for my Fly Away Home quilt.  Biddy is checking out the bug print block in case any of the bugs try to run away.

Nope, all the spiders and beetles are accounted for.
I have had a couple of quilts to lay out, but my usual space in my husband's office was taken.

Hubby set up all the train sets in there!  It was so much fun for the grand kids this week.  Big brother was home from school for spring break, and the cousins came on Tuesday.  Little brother (above) starts every day wanting to go see the choo choos.  I don't know if Grandpa is going to be able to take the trains down any time soon.
In the meantime, I'll lay out quilts on the bed or in the family room and count myself lucky to have such a wonderful family.
I hope it's warm and happy wherever you are.
Have a great week!
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts, So Scrappy,  and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Green Grow the Quilt Blocks

Hello and welcome!  This is my week for making Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks, in this month's color of green. 
The blocks I've been working on since January are Mary's Baskets and Wagon Trail, in 1800s reproduction fabrics.  I'm trying to make a dent in my repro scraps.  What a hope.
Here are the green Mary's Baskets:

and the Wagon Trail blocks:

Do you see the odd one in the lower right corner?  I found another purple strip, so I added it in.  You can never have enough purple.
This was all I was planning to do with the RSC this year.  Last year was so much fun.  I really looked forward to each new month.  And it did help tame down my scraps a little.
But last year I had two projects with two different kinds of scraps--1930s repros and bright colors.  I was really missing the bright colors this year.
So I started yet another quilt!

It's called Fly Away Home, by Kate Henderson, from her book Strip Savvy.

It's a cute book, with lots of good ideas.
Fly Away Home is a two block quilt.  Block A is this simple one:

Since I didn't start this quilt at the beginning of the year, I'm catching up on 3 months worth.  I've got January's light blue, February's purple, and March's green blocks done.
The alternate block is this one:

It's a cute little flying geese block, which gives the quilt its name.  I only put one block together, since I don't want to have all of the blocks with the same colors.  As the months go by, I'll make more flying geese and add them into blocks.
So much fun, so little time.
The only things I finished this week are two pillowcases.

My little buddy went with me to drop them off at the quilt shop, where volunteers were hard at work making lots of pillowcases for National Quilting Day.  (You can see photos of the ladies sewing and cutting as soon as I get them up on the Ties That Bind blog.)
This is my third year of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and for me it just keeps getting better.  I can't thank Angela enough for hosting it!
Have a wonderful rainbow-filled week.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
I'm linking up (late!) with So Scrappy, Busy Hands Quilts, and Can I Get A Whoop Whoop.