Bowtie #5, and Princesses Take A Trip

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  I hope you're having a good week.

It has been fun sewing these Bowtie blocks I made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year, and even more fun making them into quilts.  Above is Bowtie #5, posing next to my Willcox and Gibbs treadle.

This is a little one, 38 in. x 46 in., made with just 20 blocks.  This time I arranged the colors in diagonal rows of aqua, purple, pink and yellow.  It will be donated to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee, for a baby or toddler.

When making the blocks this year, I tried hard to find light fabrics that were just as much fun as the dark novelty prints.  These pears are definitely a little weird.

The aqua fabric reminds me of phonograph records (remember those?).  I have had the cat fabric in the background for years, and will be very sad to finally use it up.

This block is my favorite:  unicorns and rainbows!  I have to admit, I'm not hating pink anymore.

The back is this 1990s print, which I used on the first Bowtie quilt I finished this year.

So, to sum up the Bowtie quilts:

#1 was a pink baby quilt, used 20 blocks, is a finished quilt

#2 I called You are Loved, used 48 blocks, I will donate it as a top.

#3 I called Bowtie Trip Around the world, used 48 blocks, I will donate it as a top.

#4 was the one with the cats in cups border, used 30 blocks, is a finished quilt.

#5 is today's, used 20 blocks, and is a finished quilt.

So that makes 166 blocks!  Good grief, I really did get carried away.  

These 4 blocks are all that's left.  Anybody got any good ideas for what to do with orphan blocks?

It is finally dawning on me that I might need a plan for the RSC quilts BEFORE I make the blocks.  Hmm.  

Remember this picture?  A friend at quilt guild donated these Princess Life charm squares to me.  There were 335 total.  (Amazing!  Thanks, Laurie!)  She had planned to make a quilt for her niece (I think?) but changed her mind.

Here's what I did with some of them.  Trip Around the World was on my mind (thanks to Bowtie #3) and I had enough squares of each print to go this far.  This quilt will be donated as a top to the CAC, to eventually be given to a kid in foster care.

All the squares in the quilt came from the charm packs, even the pink and blue prints.  I set them 11 across and 13 down, using 143 squares.

I like the diversity of princesses.  I especially like the one wearing glasses.  Not a princess here, but I've worn glasses since I was in second grade so I like seeing kids in prints wearing them.  I bet glasses-wearing kids like that too.

It's probably hard to see, but the purple print in the corner and the darker blue print have crowns as the design.  They are my favorites from this collection.

The blue border is from my stash.  It's a print of sewing threads and needles, with hearts and swirls.  To me it says Sewn for You With Love.  That carriage print was a little odd.  If the carriages were right side up, the frogs were usually upside down.  And blue frogs?  Maybe they were cold?

Speaking of cold...Yes, it's definitely winter, no matter what the calendar says.  Last Saturday's snow is still here, and we got another dusting last night.  The roads are clear though, as well as the parking lots, etc.  Wisconsin knows how to deal with this stuff.

This is a view from one of the sewing room windows.  Check out the icicles!  We don't need to buy icicle Christmas decorations.  They are melting in the sun today, even though it's still 20 degrees F or so.

I don't mind the cold, mostly because I'm snug and warm in my sewing room!  Here are some things I'm hoping to work on this week.  More princesses of course--I still have 192 squares!  This pattern might work, at least for some of them.  I have a plan for the pink hearts, which was really difficult because I have hardly any pink stash.  I bet I could fix that lol.

Have a wonderful week, everyone.

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia at Treadlestitches  

Check out these fun linky parties, hosted by these terrific quilters.

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday 

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

  

Bowtie Quilt #4, Happy Hearts, and Horton

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge is the gift that keeps on giving, isn't it?  I've been putting my RSC Bow Tie blocks together for the last few weeks, and this is Bow Tie Quilt #4.

It's snowing this morning, so all pictures are inside.  Not much accumulation yet, but we're expected to get 10 to 14 inches.  I'm glad we don't need to go anywhere.  All our company for Thanksgiving was local, so they're safe at home too.

This time I arranged 30 of the blocks more or less randomly.   The blocks are 8 in. finished, and the quilt comes out to 46 in. x 54 in.  That's about as big as I feel comfortable quilting on my domestic sewing machine.

To get a good balance of colors, I actually had to make more bowtie blocks!  The orange eyeballs, blue Dalmatians, and red reindeer prints are new.

For the border, I chose this cute print of cats in cups.  A couple of them look suspiciously like my Snicky.

The backing is this yarn print.  I did very simple quilting as usual, this time stitch in the ditch.

One more new block is this blue one featuring Horton from Dr. Seuss's books Horton Hears A Who and Horton Hatches the Egg.  The fabric was left from the border of Bowtie Quilt #3, which I showed last week.

Lizzy the cat gives this quilt the snuggle seal of approval.  (Don't worry, I will wash it before I donate it!)

One more bowtie quilt is coming next week!

In other news, Heart quilt #1 for this year's RSC is a top.  I'm calling it Happy Hearts.

Snicky really wanted to pose on it.  You know how cats are, I can't persuade him to pose, but he will if he wants to.  This time I actually had to encourage him to move along to other cat activities after I took the pictures.

I finished the top yesterday.  After having a wonderful family Thanksgiving the day before, Friday was a good day for sewing.  Plus we had plenty of leftovers, so no cooking!  

The heart blocks are 6 in. finished.  I framed them with solid strips (cut 2 in. wide) which enlarged them to 9 in. finished,  and set them side by side.  There are 7 rows of 5 blocks each.

And who is that in the blue border?  It's Horton again!  That kind elephant is one of my favorite children's book characters.

This top is 53 in. x 70 in., too big for me to quilt comfortably, so I will donate it as a top.  Both Happy Hearts and Bowtie #4 will be going to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee.

If we're snowed in this weekend I might get more sewing done!  This is my sewing room In/Out box.  Right now I have 2 sets of blocks plus a pattern and squares for a princess quilt.  I like to have lots of choices of which projects to work on.

I hope all who celebrated had a good Thanksgiving.  We certainly did!  My husband always takes two photos of all of us, one at the table...

and one on the couch.  Little Guy was acting goofy, which is why I'm holding him.  I feel so lucky and thankful to have all our kids and grand kids living close by.  (I don't know why Buddy always takes off his shoes and socks when he comes in the house, even in winter!)

Have a good week, everyone!  I hope you have time for the things you love to do.  Like quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So scrappy, home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Bow Tie Trip Around the World

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

This is the third bow tie quilt in my quest to use up blocks from this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I wanted a different set for this one.  Isn't it dramatic?

I only had 4 orange blocks left, so that worked out for the center.

The border is a cute Dr. Seuss print from the clearance section at the local quilt shop.  I never pass up Dr. Seuss!  

Thanks to the RSC, I used up lots of scraps this year, like the jeep on a green background.  (And yet, there are more scraps than ever.  Must be a law of physics or something.)

The blocks are 8 in. finished, and this quilt took 48 blocks set 6 x 8, with a 4 in. finished border.  It's a sort of lap size/small twin, 56 in. x 72 in.

I will be donating this one as a top.  It will go to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee after it is quilted.

So the bow tie quilt count is up to 3.  Still more coming!  (But the end is in sight.)

In other news, I have started assembling the heart blocks I also made for the RSC.  There will be multiple heart quilts also.  The first one I will call Happy Hearts.  I'm framing the 6 in. heart blocks with 2 in. cut strips to make 9 in. finished blocks.  I've made a quilt like this before, a long time ago.  Other ideas for setting the hearts are floating around in my head.

Right now though I'm working on what I'm calling The Princess Problem.  A few months ago, a friend at quilt guild gave me a stack of Princess Life charm squares.  I had them out this week, thinking about how to use them.  Wednesday night at this month's quilt guild meeting she had found another huge batch of these same blocks, and gave them to me.  There are 335 squares! 

 

So what's the problem?  How best to use them to make quilts for little girls.  This is a great problem to have.

So far I have made a chart and a graph and planned one quilt.  Seems like a good start, but it uses less than half of the squares.  Time to drag out my charm square books.

That's what I'm working on.  How about you?

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may have noticed I'm not posting as many pictures of my youngest grandsons Buddy and Little Guy.  That's because their mom is between jobs, so I'm currently not babysitting them.  I miss seeing them every day!  We do still get together but I often forget to take pictures (Ack!  sound of hand hitting forehead).  I'm sure I'll be babysitting again sometime soon.

For now, here's a photo from last summer of my daughter and all three of her sons.

Have a wonderful week, everyone!  Happy Thanksgiving, fellow Americans!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with these great parties.  Come join us!

Finished or Not Finished Friday

So Scrappy

Oh Scrap

 

Bow Tie Rainbow/You Are Loved

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

 Somehow I got carried away making Bow Tie blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year.  Maybe it was because they are so fast and easy to make, or because I had so many cute scraps I wanted to include.  At any rate, it got out of hand, and now I'm putting the blocks together into quilts.  Last week I showed you my little pink Bow Tie quilt all finished.  This one is just a top.

Like most of the kid quilts I'm making, this one will be donated to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee.  The organizer accepts tops as well as finished quilts, and they have a real need for bigger quilts.  I am happy to make the larger tops, but they are hard for me to quilt on my domestic machine, so I donate them as tops, like this one. 

The blocks finish at 8 in. square, and the quilt comes out to 54 in. x 70 in.  It's a smaller twin size.  There are 8 rows, each with one color of blocks.  So you can see why I call it a Bow Tie Rainbow.

So what about "You Are Loved"?  Take a close look at the border above.  The words "you are loved" appear over and over in the print.  I'm not sure where I got this fabric, probably from a used fabric sale, and I never knew what to do with it until now.  It seems like a good message for a quilt donated to a child in foster care.

More Bow Tie quilts are coming!  Watch this space!

In other news, I finally got around to binding this quilt.  It started as a not-quite-complete kit I picked up at a guild meeting.  I finished the top all the way back in June, and turned it in to our charity committee. 

It was quilted right away by the Fabulous Joy.  Didn't she do a great job?  She has done at least 80 donation quilts this year.  That's right, 80!!!

I agreed to do the binding, using the same blue solid as the sashing.  I have to admit I procrastinated a bit, plus I was out of town for a funeral and then to visit my wonderful Mom.  Yesterday, I finally pulled up my socks and got to work on it.  It's all done now (hurray!).  The guilt is gone, and the quilt can be given to someone who needs it.

I forgot to post this from Halloween!  The pirate captain is my youngest daughter, and her kids (that I call Buddy and Little Guy) are the Pokemon characters.  They had a wonderful time trick or treating.

Have a wonderful week, everyone! 

 

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with these lovely bloggers:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Sunflowers, Rainbow Blocks, and a Tale of Two Quilt Tops

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I'm back from a quilt history retreat, and getting settled into fall quilting.

Since the very beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the sunflower has been the Ukrainian symbol of resistance and democracy.  Blocks and quilts made in the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag are being sent overseas by hundreds of American quilters.  We're showing our support, and providing some measure of physical comfort to refugees and to Ukrainians still living in harm's way.  (By the way, the section above was photographed before the quilting was finished.)

Recently, our quilt group met at the library to put donated blocks together.  I couldn't stay to help (due to a very cute 2 year old at home), but the ladies fixed me up with blocks, sashing and cornerstones, border, and backing, which I brought home to work on.
 

I couldn't get to it right away, and then I had an issue with the machine while quilting it, leading to extensive ripping and possibly extensive grumbling, but it's all done now, and will soon be on its way.  Along with my hopes for an end to this terrible war.

In more mundane sewing, I've got the extra Split Nine Patch blocks done.  Next I'll be trying out my idea for setting them.  I think I'm going to end up with a twin sized quilt if my math is right.  (Ha!  Any odds on how far off I'll be?)

Thank goodness I've got this guy to help me! 

Hey!  Where did he go?  Is there somebody hiding under that old quilt top?  (He ran away giggling, so now I can tell you about this month's antique quilts.)

On the last Saturday of each month in 2022, I'm showcasing some of my antique quilts.  This week it's A Tale of Two Quilt Tops.  Judging from the fabrics, both of them were made in the 1930s era.

First up is this orange and green basket quilt.  I bought it at a flea market several years ago.
 

The blocks are made of an orange solid base, orange basket "feet", two solid green background pieces, and scrap triangles.  The blocks are set on point with solid green setting squares and triangles.  The scalloped border alternates orange and green solid pieces.  As you can probably tell from the photo, the border does not fit very well.

Although most of the fabric in the print triangles dates from the 1930s, there are some pieces from an earlier time, such as this maroon floral, which was popular in the 1880s.  There are also some cadet blues (a light blue with white figures) and some indigo prints mixed in.  The quilter may have been using a few leftover pieces from a relative's scrap bag, or from her own if she was quilting for a long time.

The blocks were hand pieced, and set together by machine, which is very common.  The fraying on the tiny seams tells me the top itself was washed in the washing machine, which is not a great idea, since it can ravel out the seam allowances.

Now for the second quilt top, a Bow Tie.  It's from the same time period, but in a simpler design.  I think it came from an antique store. (?)

Most bow tie blocks have the center square matching the print pieces.  In this top, the centers are the same as the solid color pieces, so they look like solid color bow ties on a print background.

There are a few novelty prints in this top!  Can you see the toys in the pink print?

This is my favorite block.

 Check out the print--it's the Scarecrow and the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz!  I think the fabric was probably inspired by the books, not by the movie.

These blocks were also pieced by hand, but set together by machine.  Thankfully, this one has not been machine washed.

 I bought both of these tops very cheaply, to study the fabrics as I was learning about antique quilts.  I have enjoyed having them.

People often ask me if I plan to quilt any of my vintage tops.  Being so far behind on quilts I've made myself, it doesn't usually occur to me.  But if I was going to quilt them, only the Bow Tie would be suitable.  It's in good shape, has adequate seam allowances, and isn't anything rare or of historical interest.  I would take off the bottom row (since these blocks are made of 1960s fabrics), and add a border before doing some simple quilting.

The poor basket quilt would never be worth the effort to quilt.  Honestly, the blocks are badly pieced with tiny seam allowances that have also frayed.  No two blocks appear to be exactly the same size, and all that extra green fabric would not quilt well.  The border ripples like the ocean and is faded in the middle.  No matter, I still love it!  And I'm thinking seriously about drafting the pattern and making my own version.

 Collecting antique quilt tops actually makes me feel better about all the quilt tops I've made that are yet to be finished.  If despite my best efforts, I don't finish all of them, maybe there will be somebody someday who would like them anyway.  Even if they aren't perfect!

Have a good week, and Happy Halloween on Monday!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finshed or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap