Farm Quilt and Green Crumbs

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

The Farm Quilt is a top!  The wind died down enough yesterday afternoon to take a photo outside.

Isn't this farm print fun?  I knew when I picked it up at a quilt guild meeting that it could be a good border.  It came from our guild stash, which is donated to us.  Check out the date:  1999!  With proper storage, good quality cottons can last a long time.

The blue fabric with chickens was also from the guild stash.  I originally wanted to have a narrow border of the blue between the main part of the quilt and the red border.  Unfortunately, when I did the math I didn't have enough of the red for that option, especially if I wanted to show most of the repeat of the farm print.  I will make the binding from the blue.

Here's what I meant about the border repeat.  These borders were cut at 4.5 in. and you still can't see the whole scene.

The framed blocks were cut from several different farm and/animals prints.  I have a bag of farm themed fabrics and scraps that I used to make the 16 patch blocks.  And to no one's surprise, even after all these blocks the bag is STILL not close to being empty. 

 I counted 8 different tractor prints in the bag, both scraps and yardage.  They were mostly John Deere but also International Harvester, and some generic ones like the block above framed in dark green.

The blocks are 8 in. finished, and the top measures 49 in. x 65 in.  It will be donated locally.  I don't plan to quilt it myself as I know others can do a better job.  It will either be quilted by someone in my quilt guild, or by Lynn with the Children's Advocacy Center.

Tomorrow is the last day of February, and that means the last day of green month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I finished these crumb type blocks just in time!  I'm making them from leftover small pieces and strips.  After making a Duckworth quilt as a guild challenge, I've changed how I make this kind of block.  Now I'm working from the center, kind of like a log cabin, instead of a less organized approach.  It's fun to learn new things!

While I had the green crumbs and strips out I made a few more things for an eventual village type wall hanging.  There's a big green house with a Green Bay Packers strip, some green grass for the little blue house, and a couple of trees made from scrap triangles.  I'm not really happy with the big tree, I think it looks less like a tree and more like a big green tent, but it might be better when I add a trunk.

In Progress

New Project Alert!  Multicolored string blocks are under my treadle's needle today.  I went through my bags of strings and pulled out bright strips of all the colors.  I'm sewing them to batting scraps.  This will end up being a quilt for another guild challenge.

Check out this orange strip!  It's from a scrap of Halloween fabric I got from the free table at guild a while back.  The whole verse on the fabric says: 

Trick or Treat

Smell my feet

Give me something good to eat.

Rude, right?  I'm glad the manufacturer didn't include the rest of that rhyme that the kids at school used to say!

Here's a little more green for the last day of green month.  That's me, standing outside our hotel in Arizona in January next to the tallest cactus I have ever seen.

Time to go cut up more batting squares and do something about the scrap pile on the cutting board.

Have a good week, everyone, and happy quilting!

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Baby Charms and Blue Crumbs

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

Every January several local businesses partner with a TV station to sponsor a Community Baby Shower, which donates baby supplies etc. to families in need.  Today is the last day to drop off donations so I rushed to finish this Baby Charms quilt and got the binding on Thursday morning.

I made a quilt in this pattern in 2023 (Click HERE for that post.)  The pattern probably came from somewhere on the internet.  (If you know where it came from, please tell me and I will update.)  The white strips are cut 2.75 in. and finish at 2.25 in., which is half of what the charm squares finish (4.5 in.) so the math works out.  I don't think I would have thought of that on my own!

There are 48 charm squares in the quilt, 3 each of 16 prints.  Four of those are bunny prints!  These bunnies are dressed up and carrying Easter baskets.

These sweet little bunnies seem to be playing with a blanket.  Or a leaf?

I think these bunnies on the green background are taken from the book Guess How Much I Love You, by Sam McBratney.  I love those chubby little ducklings too.

Even the border is a bunny print!  I got this fabric at our last guild meeting.  It had been donated to our group.

The back is a solid pink from my basement stash.  It's a little darker in real life than it appears here.

Baby Charms, the Purple Princess quilt from last week, and the last two heart quilts will all be going to the Community Baby Shower drop off today.

You would not believe the mess in my sewing room when I was cutting out the Baby Charms quilt.  Piles of scraps and fabrics were everywhere.  (The cats love when I do that.  They sleep on the fabrics.)  Since everything was out, I cut two quilts, one with pink (the finished one above) and one in just blues, greens, and yellows.  I had enough of the white fabric for both quilts.  The second quilt will eventually be a leader and enders project.  It can be donated to next year's Community Baby Shower, unless it's needed somewhere else before that.

Can you believe it's already the last day of January?  Soon we'll be making blocks in a new color (green!) for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

This is my last RSC set for January,  6 in. crumb blocks.  (Crumbs are small scrap pieces.)  I also use strings (skinny strips) in these.

Leftover triangles are fun to add, too.  I make these blocks free form, without any foundation.

Somehow (maybe because of those leftover triangles?) these houses just came together when I was making the crumb blocks.  Maybe I'll keep these going all year in all the RSC colors.

In Progress:

In 2023 I used my weekly grocery store receipts as foundation paper, and pieced crumbs and strips to them as one of my RSC projects.  (Above is the back.)

I'm finally doing something with these pieces!  I cut them in 6.5 in. lengths and am setting them together with 6.5 in light squares and solid cornerstones.  I was inspired by Angela at So Scrappy who is doing something similar.  (Thanks for the inspiration, Angela!)  I'm liking the project, but taking the paper off is a pain.  Plus it's such a mess!  The cats and I are tracking little pieces of paper all over the house.  (Hubby is safe, he doesn't come in the sewing room much.)

Mr. Snicklefritz REALLY needed some attention when I was sewing those pieces together.  So I stopped for some cuddles.  When he was satisfied that he was indeed the center of the universe he curled up under the ironing board and fell asleep.

I hope everything is peaceful and pieceful in your universe this week.  Happy February!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with these fun linky parties:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

I Heart Aqua Prints, Crumbs, and Old Projects

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

How are your aqua blocks coming along?

What with one thing and another I did not get much done in the sewing room this week except for a few blocks.  These hearts are aqua for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.

I was a little surprised at how many aqua scraps I had, especially in novelty prints.  (The top right heart is a dinosaur bones print.  How often do you see something like that?)

I have had some of these scraps for literally years, like the cat print on the bottom right.  Someday I will use the last scrap of it, and I'll be sad.

Favorite block:  Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too.  I still have a lot of this fabric, mostly in smaller pieces.  It will probably turn up in aqua blocks for the RSC for years to come.

Does this ever happen to you?  Sometimes I'll be working on a project and find I've used up all the pieces for the leaders and enders project I'm doing at the same time.  Then I'll be hunting around in the sewing room for something else to use as leaders and enders, and accidentally (!) start a new project.  

That's what these crumb blocks are.  I have a small bin on my cutting table for "crumbs", those small bits that can't be cut into any of the pieces I save.  For me, that means anything smaller than a 2 in. square.  

When the little bin gets full, I sort the pieces by color, and store them in a small bag inside a larger bag of strings the same color.  (The aqua crumbs are getting out of hand!)  I start the crumb blocks with the little pieces, and finish them with strings from the bag.  I only got three made this week, but they were fun to do.  Plus they used up small scraps and strings!  This will be a long term project, with no pressure to finish soon.

I still have lots of block sets I made for last year's RSC, like these 3-D flying geese.  (Click HERE for the post with a tutorial.)  It was still in the block bin because I couldn't decide what I was doing with them. 

I ended up going back to my original idea and putting them together like this.  It's aqua month, so I did aqua blocks first of course.  Maybe I'll get a couple of 2024 quilts done before we start putting together the 2025 RSC blocks.

It's been hot here this week, 92F yesterday, so we've done some inside things, like crafts.  Buddy had fun making these Minecraft and Super Mario items from Perler beads.  They're assembled on a hard plastic base and melted with an iron.

My hubby made this one.  Do you think he might have been influenced by living with a quilter?

Whatever the weather at your house, I hope you are having a good week, with time to do the things you love.  Like quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

  

Hello, Yellow!

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  What's going on in your world today?

February's color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge has really been brightening up my sewing room.  I've been sewing mostly in the morning before my baby grandson gets here, and the treadle wheel has been flying.

Every month I'm making 3 hearts from strings and the little scraps we quilters call crumbs.  These are so much fun to make.  These just happen to be timed right for Valentine's Day tomorrow.

Friendship stars are next.  I'm using up all sorts of yellow bits and pieces.

All four little yellow triangles in this block are made from the crumb triangles cut off when making the hearts.  Waste not, want not!

I have to admit, the ice cream cone blocks are my favorite.  I've gone so far as imagining what flavors these would be.  Left to right, cherry/French vanilla, lemon-citrus swirl, banana, and vanilla custard with sprinkles.  Yum!

Last week's Bright Hopes baby quilt is bound and washed, ready to be donated.

I wanted to use a different color on the binding, but I didn't have enough of it.

So I chose this crazy print.  Isn't it a hoot?  I just love these chickens.  The print isn't really visible in the small slice of a binding, but the colors are good.  I like all the little pops of yellow.

Okay, who ordered the snow every weekend?  No wonder I'm surrounding myself with bright fabrics.

And bright faces!  Baby Buddy likes sweet potatoes, can you tell?

We made chocolate cupcakes (with sprinkles!) on Thursday, and Little Buddy got to lick the beaters.

Here he is with a clean face, pretending to be a fierce dinosaur.

My lovely little orchid is blooming again.  It's a sign of hope.  Spring is coming.  Well, eventually.

In the meantime, let's get some sewing done!

Have a great week, and stay safe!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Quilts

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Fun, Fabric, and Friendship

It has been so much fun making these sawtooth square blocks, as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2019.

In addition to the crumb scraps that make the centers, I got to use some way cute fabrics for the saw points.  Like these bats and moons.

I really love this background fabric!  Sadly, I only had a small piece of it that I bought secondhand.

This cheeky little blue dog is peeking out of the center.
As I said, I really enjoyed making these blocks.  I'm almost sorry they're all done.

Twenty-five blocks seem like just enough for this quilt.   I made 3 blocks each of orange, yellow, aqua, light blue, dark blue, green, and purple, plus 4 red blocks (I had lots of tiny red scraps.)  It will be donated to a child when it's done.  I left out pink for two reasons--I don't have very many scraps of pink, plus using pink narrows down the recipients for the quilt.  Most kids, boys and girls, like bright colors, but boys seldom want quilts with pink.  Every so often, I make a mostly-pink quilt, just for the girls.

Now I have to decide what to use for sashing and cornerstones, and a border, so I can get this one finished up.

Don't worry, I have lots of fabric on hand to pick from!

Here's a stack I bought last Saturday at The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show (aka Quilt Expo).  Can you see the purple fabric on top?  It's the only 1800s repro fabric in the pile.  The rest are light prints, bright prints and novelties.  These were all pre-measured, and priced at $5.99 per yard. (Woot!)

Here's more purple fun from the quilt show!  I bought this scrap bag from Primitive Gatherings, a wonderful quilt shop in Menasha, Wisconsin.  (I am a sucker for quilt shop scrap bags!)  I think I see a string quilt in my future.

More loot!  This is a transfer, printed on linen.  Look--the Eiffel Tower!  It had to come home with me.  It's a souvenir from Paris via Wisconsin.

And of course, I love this one even more.  What's better than antique sewing machines?  I'm picturing a wall hanging to showcase these linen pieces.
The linen transfers came from L'Atelier D'Isabelle.  I don't have any other information, sadly.

As much as I love looking at amazing quilts and shopping for fabric, I probably wouldn't have gone to the show if it hadn't been for my friend Debbie, who lives in Madison.  We wore ourselves out, and had a wonderful time.
Everything is better with a friend.

This week, I'm wishing the joy of friendship for all of us.
As the Girl Scouts say, Make new friends, but keep the old.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:
Angela at So Scrappy
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Alycia at Alycia Quilts Finished or Not Friday
(Check out her churn dash quilts!
Cynthia at Oh Scrap