Sunshine and Shadow

 Welcome to Treadlestitches! Happy Last Day of 2022!

To me, every year is like the old quilt pattern called Sunshine and Shadow.  Both light and dark, good and bad things happen.  Remembering the sunshine when a shadow descends helps me keep going.  (The photo above is a half log cabin quilt I made years ago.)

 The Rainbow Scrap Challenge is one of the bright spots of sunshine in the year, and I always enjoy it.  This year I had 4 RSC projects  which resulted in 5 quilts.  Three of them were done earlier, but I'm down to the wire on the last two.  I really wanted  to get all my RSC quilts done before starting new ones in January.

Yesterday, I finished the 16 patch.  It's 61 in. x 69 in., sort of a lap robe or small twin.

The back is this blue plaid I had in the stash.  I bought it at a booth in an antique mall several years ago.

I quilted a 2 in. grid with the serpentine stitch on my Pfaff, and bound it with a dark blue solid.

The Split Nine Patch (that I'm calling Rainbow Streak of Lightning) did get its borders, but I don't think it will be quilted by midnight tonight.  Maybe by the end of the weekend?  It's a true twin size, at 72 in. x 81 in.

The border fabric is this green star print.  I bought a nice big piece of it at a flea market last summer.  I'm not sure why, but I usually use blue fabric for borders.  Other colors can work, too!  I need to give them a chance.

These are the other 3 RSC quilts, and I've blogged about them earlier.  The zigzag ones are called Razzle Dazzle (click HERE to read about them), and the Crayon quilt can be found HERE.  All of this year's RSC quilts will be donated to children's charities.

The end of the year is a good time to look back and take stock.  I use this little notebook to keep track all year.  When I finish making a top, I record it here.  Then when it gets quilted, I record that date as well, and check it off.

Here are the stats for this year.

Quilts finished: 27 total:  21 Baby-sized quilts, 6 medium to large

Tops made, not yet quilted: 5 total:  4 small, 1 twin (the Split Nine Patch above).

Now, that doesn't count tops finished in PREVIOUS years.  The backlog is SERIOUS.  I'm just trying not to add to it, and I actually have a plan for tackling the UFOs this coming year.

Starting tomorrow!

I hope all who celebrate had a happy holiday.  This little Snicklefritz keeps climbing in the Christmas tree and knocking down all the ornaments.  Thank goodness my hubby weighted the base so he can't tip it over.

I'm wishing more sunshine than shadow for you, and all of us, in 2023.  Happy New Year!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Crayons, Dogs, Christmas, and Planning Ahead

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Sorry for no blog last week.  I caught whatever rotten cold was going around.  Thankfully I'm feeling better now.

The crayon quilt, one of my Rainbow Scrap quilts for 2022, is quilted and bound.  My dog Bella was happy to pose with it.  Actually, she wouldn't get off the quilt, so I just made the best of it and took her photo.

I think she's feeling jealous of our new kitten and needs a little extra attention.

The back is this colorful print from that chain fabric store, and the red binding is a scrap from a recent sale.  So now it's ready to be donated.

Here's what I'm using for leaders and enders--triangle squares I made last year and never got around to doing anything with.  It's amazing what kind of stuff turns up in the sewing room when I'm needing a secondary project.

Here's what's left to do.  I wonder if this will be all I need to finish the next top, or if I'll have to go hunting for another unfinished project.  Either way, stuff gets done, right?

It's that time of year again!  My Little Guy helped me unpack and put up decorations, and Little Buddy helped hang ornaments on the Christmas tree after he got home from school.  The wall quilt above is one of my oldest quilts, a piece I made after taking my first quilt class back in 1986.  It's very amateurish, but I'm still fond of it.  And it's hand quilted!  I got a little carried away with the French knot snow in the night sky, though.

This week, I made this little table topper with Christmas fabric scraps.

I only had this one square of dog Christmas fabric, so it went in the star center.

I guess this week is all about the dogs!  I still had a strip of this Boston terriers print, so it went on the border.

The back is this Grinch print, a remnant from that chain store.  How the Grinch Stole Christmas is still one of my favorite Christmas stories.  Christmas comes to Whoville even without all the gifts and trappings that always seem so important.  And a curmudgeon's heart grows 3 sizes!

Have you thought about what to make in 2023?  It's just over 2 weeks away!  I can hardly believe it.  I'm going through books and patterns, thinking about what quilts to sew.  Above is my stash of Missouri Star's Block magazine, most of which I bought in second hand book stores or at flea markets.  Even though many of the Missouri Star patterns are available free as You Tube tutorials, I really like having the print version.  I can refer to it easily while I'm sewing.  Plus as a retired librarian, I admit I'm partial to print media.

Doesn't our Little Guy look serious?  He's enjoying learning about slates and erasing.  We're going to have some fun this week drawing and coloring, reading library books, and making ornaments from kits the library gives away.  (We have a great library here, as I have said before!)  Tomorrow all the cousins are coming to make cookies for Christmas, hang out together, and play with  Snicklefritz the kitten.  It will be a happy fun day.

I hope whatever you are doing this weekend, holiday related or not, is just what you'd like to do.  I'm wishing you good health, too.  Stay well!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap 

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

 

 

Little Bricks, Skinny Little Bricks, and Crayons

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

How is everything in your quilty world?

I am feeling like this little minion today!  I have finishes and an almost-finish to share!

First is this little 8 patch quilt I started back in the summer.  It's an idea I stole from Cathy at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting.  (I get a lot of good ideas that way!  She's a scrap genius!  Thanks, Cathy!) 

The blocks are made of 8 rectangles that measure 2.5 in. x 3.5 in. cut.  These are the pieces I call Little Bricks, and I have a whole box of them.   I often cut them from the last bits of a 2.5 in. strip.

The block itself is 6 in. x 8 in. finished, which makes for some interesting math when figuring out the layout.  I set my 30 blocks 6 across and 5 down, which made the little quilt 36 in. x 40 in. before the border.

Here's the back, a kid print from the stash.  I honestly don't remember where it came from.  It might have been in the amazing basket my quilt group gave me.  It can be hard to use prints like this that have straight lines in them, but may not be printed exactly straight, and can look wonky.  However, they are perfect for backing.  All of these adorable kids are saying, "Let's play!"

On to Finish #2.

This is a Bright Hopes variation.  I started making these blocks to use up my stack of 2 in. x 3.5 in. rectangles (I call them Skinny Little Bricks.)

Each of the big blocks is made up of 4 smaller ones.  Each of the small blocks has a light 2 in. (cut) square center and 4 rectangles surrounding it, and finishes at 4.5 in.  After I had a lot of them made I started arranging them like this, putting pieces with the same color together to make a sort of pinwheel in the middle.  Sometimes the pinwheel is easy to see, sometimes there's not enough contrast.

The blocks are set with a narrow sashing and green print cornerstones.  I did very simple quilting (as usual) with the serpentine stitch on my machine.

The border is this odd print.  It looks like illustrations from a 1930s children's book.  I loved that it said "Sweet Dreams".  I said that to my kids when tucking them in at night, and back in the day my mother said it to me.

Simple quilting again.  For binding, I chose a blue/green from my solids stash.  The backing is this cozy flannel.  I love flannel on the back of a quilt.

When I go to sales or flea markets, etc., flannel is always something I look for.  This pile came from the sale room at a recent quilt show.  I piled it all in a grocery bag for $10.

I got this box of flannel at our guild's silent auction last month.  Solid colors are always useful, but the ducky prints are the best!

So on to the almost-finish.  Back in October, I was trying to put my Rainbow Scrap Challenge crayon quilt top together.  I had gotten this far, but it didn't look finished, and I really didn't know what to do.  

Some readers had really good suggestions.  I also asked a couple of other quilters at the retreat two weeks ago.  I ended up making a row of small crayons for the top (thanks, Bonnie Jensen!).  I also cut down the original borders so I'd have enough to use that colorful print on the sides as well.  And I had just barely enough of the print left for the top border.

Here's what it looks like now.  It's definitely unusual, but it feels more balanced to me.  And bonus, it's now a rectangle, measuring 53 in. x 55 in.   I'll bind with a solid color after I quilt it.

The small crayon row is very similar to the big crayons.  I used the Tri-Recs tools to make the points and rectangles to make up the rest of the crayon.

I might make a whole quilt from these little crayons someday.  They're easy and fun to make.

We like to have fun around here!  My Little Guy is in charge of licking the beaters when I make icing.  He takes his job very seriously.

When we get our chores done, we can play with toy dinosaurs stomping in play dough.  

I hope you're having fun this week.  Treat yourself to a good time!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Crayons, Fall, and Cupcakes

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  I hope you're having a wonderful day.

The end of the year is coming up fast (how does it do that every year?), so I'm starting to put my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts together.  First up were the crayons.

Each crayon has a solid tip and 18 rectangles.  I didn't have enough green for two months, so I made a black crayon for October.

I don't use black much in children's quilts, so I was kind of surprised at how many black novelty prints I had.  (Oops, somebody's sock got in the picture!)

Pink is another color I use less often, but I made sure to include it.  My grandson (Buddy) loves pink, and it's been his favorite color since preschool.

Crayon quilts tend to have a problem.  If you have lots of pieced crayons (I have 10) and set them side by side, the quilt ends up being wider than it is long.  Some quilters fix this problem by setting the top like this:

Which is cute, but not really what I wanted.  I like them set the other way, just as you'd see a real box of crayons when you first open them up.  I admit it, I love a new box of crayons!  All those possibilities, and even that slight waxy smell!

So I oriented my little top like the first photo, and I added borders to just the top and bottom, from the last of this Eric Carle fabric.

But now I'm stuck.  The quilt is square, and that's okay, but does it look finished?  Should I add borders on all 4 sides now?  And if so, what?  Maybe a solid color?  Could the binding function like a border, and tie the quilt together?  I would love your opinion on this.

In other news, we're enjoying a beautiful fall here.  The trees in the park are starting to change color, and most nights we have a frost.

My Little Guy and I sometimes collect leaves on our visits.  Soon there will be too many, and we'll just crunch up the dry brown ones as we walk.

It's still warm enough after school for Buddy to play on the playground awhile before we go home.  (That's our Little Guy at the bottom in the dark shirt.)

All the Halloween activities are going strong.  Little Guy and I went to the library this week, where they had this "scary" clown tree.  He wasn't scared at all!  It was his first time at story time (mostly due to COVID), and he absolutely loved it.  I think the best part for him was playing with other kids.  We can hardly wait for next week.

Here's something completely new, at least to me--a Sprinkles cupcake vending machine!  I saw this in the Chicago airport on my way to the family reunion.

Yesterday was a day off school for Buddy, so we made our own cupcakes, with possibly too many sprinkles.  The kids like helping, but especially love to lick the beaters.  Well, who doesn't?

I snapped this photo the other day of these two guys "reading".  Our Little Guy insisted on looking at his book by himself and having Grandpa look at his own book.  Little Guy loves to be read to, but sometimes he just wants to look at the pictures by himself.  He is two, after all.

Have a wonderful week, and don't forget to visit the linky parties!  It's an eye candy fiesta!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap