Am I Blue?

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Am I blue?  No, I'm happy, cause I'm making light blue Happy Blocks!

We're digging into our blue scraps again for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and this time I'm working on using up the light and medium blues.  I always have more blues than any other color, so there are no shortage of squares and strips!

My personal favorite block--this one, of course!  

Coincidentally, these little quilts also have light blue in them!  They were pieced by two nice ladies in my quilt group for a project we called March to May for Mothers Day.  We donated 31 finished quilts to Project Linus after our May meeting.  (There are only around 45 members in the guild!)  Several more tops were donated, and I volunteered to quilt two of them.  I knew I had backing and binding in the Endless Stash that would work.  

As you can see, the quilting I did is very simple, just serpentine stitch on the diagonal making an X in each square.  The batting is more of the soft poly from those gigantic rolls, split in half.  Aren't these fun prints?  Lots of classic florals.

Backing and binding are classic prints too.

This guy thinks he should pose whenever I lay a quilt down.  (I really just snapped this photo to distract him from playing with the computer cord.)

The second quilt is this sweet flannel one, in soft baby colors.

Adorable sheep print!

Of course I had lots of flannel to back and bind it!  And again the quilting is very simple, just serpentine stitch on the seams.

More to be happy about and to celebrate this week!  Our eldest grandson formally graduates from high school tomorrow.  It's hard to believe that little baby boy is nearly 18 years old.  We are so proud of him.

Check out the sign at Buddy's elementary school:  Parents-- Tag, you're it!  Yesterday was his last day.  He was not joyful about it, though.  He has loved his class this year, and doesn't want to go on to the next grade.  I think he'll change his mind when school starts again.

My little guys posed behind the sign.  Little Guy was also sad about his "school" ending.  He has been going to speech class twice a week, and now he won't see Miss Jenny til fall.  God bless all the wonderful caring teachers (including my eldest daughter!).

Can you believe the size of the strawberry Little Guy is holding up?  It's real!  I bought a pound of strawberries in the grocery store, and there were only 8 berries in the package--all of them were huge! They were shipped here from California.  Sadly, these were not very flavorful.  For now, they're okay, but I'm looking forward to local berries later this month.  Some will be very local, from our own little patch.

I hope you find many things to be happy about this week.  Including quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Follow the Rainbow

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Happy New Year, everyone!  Can you believe it's 2022 already?

Like I always say, I love the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I got carried away this year making blocks from my kid-friendly scraps, but it's all for a good cause.  These small quilts will go to Project Linus to comfort children in tough situations.  It's a lot of work, but I regret nothing.

(Oops, too much sunlight!  That is usually not the problem around here, sorry!)  I made two baby quilt tops from the log cabin RSC blocks, and got this one quilted yesterday.

The blocks were made from 2 in. cut strips.  I used up most of these strips.  (That's the idea, right? Then why does it make me a little sad?)

I tried something different with the quilting on this one.  Using a stencil (remember those?) I drew lines on the front with a purple disappearing quilt marker and quilted right over the blocks.  As soon as I finished the quilting, I washed the quilt in cold water, and all the purple came out.
 

On the back is a cute carrot print I got at our guild's recent silent auction.  With these quilting lines, I can imagine a carrot field after the tractor went through.  I bound it with orange, of course.

Today I'm quilting the other log cabin.  This is a more pastel rainbow.  Carrots on the back here, too.

After these two are done, there are only two more, and they are layered and basted, ready to quilt.  That will make 20 baby quilts from Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.

So what are we going to sew for the RSC this year?

I have a lot of 3.5 in. squares, triangles, and strips in bright colors and novelty prints.  Not sure what I'll do yet, but these need a quilty home.

The RSC has helped me make lots of progress with most of my scraps, but these multi-color ones keep piling up.  I need to think of a project for them.

And back before Christmas, I bought some new Accuquilt dies.  I can't wait to try them out!

I don't do New Year's Resolutions, but I make an annual More or Less list for my quilting, which is kind of similar.  On it go 3 things I want to do More of, and 3 things I hope to do Less of.

More in 2022:

Cleaning the sewing room.  It's so easy to just sew when I have time off, but stuff piles up and the amount of thread on the floor is ridiculous.

Quilt As You Go.  Big quilts are often intimidating to quilt on my domestic machine, but QAYG works fine.  And I actually like doing it!

Organizing the stuff in the basement.  I tend to just pile stuff up there, too.  It's a horror show.  No pictures.

Less in 2022:

Buying fabric.  I know, everybody has this one on their list!  I have an insane amount of fabric.  I need to buy fabric for specific projects, not just because it's fun.  Exception:  second hand fabric.

Starting new projects just because I ran out of leaders and enders.  Have you ever heard of a sillier excuse for starting a new project?  I have lots of old projects that could get closer to being done if I used them for leaders and enders.

Watching TV without a handwork project. I actually like handwork, but you couldn't tell it by the quilts I finish.  This rule is suspended for suspenseful shows, but fully in force for baking shows and news.

So, Happy New Year!  It is a joy to look ahead and think about our hopes for this year, even given how difficult the last couple of years have been.  In the days and weeks ahead, we can look for ways to make things better for all of us.

Many, many thanks to Angela for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (a bright spot every week!) and to all the quilters and bloggers that make this corner of the internet such a friendly place to be.

Happy Holidays from our little Santa and his elf!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

Kid Stuff

I'm back from a quilt retreat weekend (that's why no blog last week), and Max the bunny is helping me show what I got done.  It's all fun stuff for kids.

First, doll quilts!  You may have heard of the Spread the Love campaign, to make doll quilts for the kids who are receiving dolls from A Doll Like Me.  (If not, HERE is the post from Bernie at Needle and Foot.)  I made two little quilts from orphan blocks and squares.
After making two of these blocks a few weeks ago, one red and one blue, I just sort of fizzled out, so it was nice to put them to good use.  The center block is 12 in., and the quilts are 24 in. square.

Here's the red one.

And the blue one.  I did a better job of keeping the red one flat.  Max doesn't care, so I hope the kids won't either.

Next up--dinosaurs!  I had a pack of dinosaur charm squares I bought at a quilt show a couple of years ago (I think).  I used more bright colored 5 in. squares plus rectangles cut 5 in. x 9.5 in. to make the quilt.  There are only 3 pieces in each block--two squares and a rectangle.

Here it is, on its side.  I am having an argument with the camera today.  So far, I'm losing.

These fabrics were so much fun to sew.  The pattern is called The Long and the Short of It, and is by Barbara Esposito.  You can find it HERE for free on the Moda Bakeshop.  The pattern calls for 30 blocks, but I only made 20 for a smaller quilt.

Check out this crazy backing fabric!

The quilting is just lines across the quilt.  They are mostly straight and mostly parallel.  Well, mostly.
This quilt will be donated to Quilts for Kids.

When I got to the retreat, I already had this little flannel quilt pieced, layered, and spray basted.  It didn't take long to quilt it simply and bind it.  It will go to Project Linus.
Lastly, I finally finished and bound my second Pixel Hearts quilt.

There are so many fun fabrics in here.
Wait til you see the back.

Monsters!  or Aliens!  or both!  So strange and goofy.  I love it.  It was on the Clearance table.  Can you believe it?
It is so much fun to make kid quilts with these fabrics, and it's fast and easy to finish them.
I hope you're having fun this week, whatever you are doing.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Busy Hands Quilts.

My Heart Belongs to Project Linus

This wasn't the best week for getting quilting done around here.  My 20 month old grandson has not been reliably taking his nap, which is my sewing time.  I think we've got it straightened out now, and he slept like an angel on Friday, but we'll see what happens next week.

I did manage to get the pink and purple Pixel Hearts quilt finished.

Here's the back.  I haven't done a lot of pieced backs, so this was fun. 

The quilting was done using the edge of the presser foot for the most part, and masking tape for the lines through the alternate squares.

Here's one of my favorite blocks.  I just love these goofy farm animals.

Speaking of goofy, how about this Yo Gabba Gabba fabric? Yo Gabba Gabba was literally the weirdest kid show ever, back in the day.

You gotta have cows!  Especially Holsteins.  This is the dairy state, dern it.

When I made the blocks for the pink quilt, I also made blocks for a blue quilt.  Some of them are the same, for instance Yo Gabba Gabba and the cows.  I finished the blue top this morning.  Did you catch my shadow as I'm taking the photo?  I've got such mad photography skills.

The border is a bug print I have used over and over.  It's almost used up now, and I'm sad to see it go.  The robot print block is made from scraps I had left after making my oldest grandson a pillow case.  The robots were the border.

It's a lovely day for January here in Wisconsin.  After I took these pictures the dog and I went for a walk in the sunshine.

I'm wishing sunshine for you too this week.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches
Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts and Crazy Mom Quilts (as usual)
and with Oh Scrap for the first time.  Join the party!

No kidding, these are done!

I wish I knew what had got hold of me these last couple of weeks.  Maybe it's spring cleaning fever.  That usually doesn't last too long!  Before it wears off, I at least got more baby quilts finished.

I was able to hang them outside Wednesday, but the wind was fierce.  The pattern for this one is called Just Because, and comes from Fons & Porter's Scrap Quilts magazine from Spring 2015.

Here's a photo of it inside, on the floor.

I had so much fun choosing the novelty prints for these blocks.

The back is just a floral from my stash.

Next up is a flannel quilt, made from tumbler shapes cut with the Accuquilt cutter.

Not too exciting, simply pieced and simply quilted.

The back is a wild flannel print.  This quilt won't be very useful until it gets extra cold again, but flannel is great in the winter.

Here's an easy one--an I Spy quilt made from a panel.  All I did was add the blue print border, and quilt and bind it.

I think this one will be lots of fun for a child and a sibling or parent.  The inner border lists things to find.  Some of them are very tricky.  I didn't find the basket of kittens until I was laying the quilt out today to take these pictures.

The back is an alphabet print, with toys sprinkled through.

Finally, this little triangles quilt is done.  I cut the pieces with the Accuquilt cutter, and everything seemed okay until I was adding the orange border.  The bottom row was off kilter, so I set it aside.   When I decided to finish all these little quilts, I pulled it out, and just took off the messed up row.

It's a good size now, and is full of bright prints.

The back is this adorable print with ducks and frogs and horses and alligators.

All these little quilts except the flannel quilt will go to Quilts for Kids, to brighten up hospital rooms and bring a little comfort to some sick kids.  The flannel quilt will go to Project Linus.

As if that wasn't enough to celebrate, my orchid started blooming!

First one bloom...

now TWO!

I really believe I am the luckiest person in the world.  I have a happy, healthy family, and time to quilt.

What brings you joy this week?
I'm linking up with some joyful linky parties at Crazy Mom Quilts and Busy Hands Quilts.  This post is also linking to Sew Some Love, a weekly posting at Kat & Cat quilts for charity quilts.
It's more fun if you join in!