Churning Through the Scraps

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I picked up the kit for these Churn Dash blocks at a quilt group meeting in April.  They were made from 1930s reproduction fabrics donated to the group.  I sewed the blocks on my treadle and put them together with yardage from my stash.  One of our volunteer long arm quilters will quilt it, and it will eventually be donated locally.

These colors and prints are so cheerful.  A quilt appraiser friend once told me the impression most people have of 1930s fabrics is lots of pastels, and there are plenty, but there was also widespread use of what she called "crayon colors", like red, orange, and dark blue.

The kit didn't include white squares for the centers, so I added the solid color ones.

Here's my favorite block, the one on the right.  It's made from a colorful fruit print, plus an orange solid square.  It's the only one like it in the quilt.

Orange is our Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month, and I am so glad!  I really love orange, and try to find orange fabric wherever I can. 

This week I pulled out all the big scraps, little scraps, fat quarters, etc. to start cutting.  (Does your ironing board collect mess like mine does?)

I started with Bright Hopes, since that's the easiest/fastest one.  The Hot Wheels rectangles came from Mr. M, who donated so much wonderful stash/scraps/etc. to our guild.

I'm having less time to sew now.  Want to see why?

These wild hooligans are off school for the summer.  Thank goodness we've been able to get outside most days to run off some of their energy.

I've also had a big project to work on:  cleaning out my quilt stuff in the basement.

Remember this from last week?

All of these vintage scraps have now been sorted.  Many of them were actually useless, just tiny scraps or low quality fabric, or had stains or other problems.  The bad ones have been trashed and the decent ones I didn't want/need were bagged up for the museum sale (drop off next week).

Here's what I kept:

The bag is full of feedsack strips for a string quilt.  The larger pieces of fabric next to the bag are left over from dresses I made for my oldest daughter back in 1979.  All the rest are scraps from 1930s to 1960s or so.

These are some of the fun fabrics I kept.  Bears in canoes, purple strawberries, and a floral print with what looks like the Liberty Bell on it.  I love weird stuff, old or new.

I also salvaged a rainbow of solid scraps.  They will be put to good use!

Every year, the Humane Society has a huge rummage sale at the county fairgrounds.  Last year I scored a vintage iron there for a dollar, and it lasted nearly a year.  This year I got this little G.E. iron for only 50 cents.  It's slightly smaller than my regular iron, and is a Dry Iron, so no steam.  This is perfect for me, I don't even use steam.  We'll see how long it lasts.  I feel like I've already gotten my money's worth.

The book I found at the sale is called Quilts From the Heart:  Quick Projects for Generous Giving, by Karin Renaud.  I had never seen this book before, but it's absolutely perfect for me!  Simple patterns, bright colors, and the author even loves novelty prints.  How did I miss this?  It was published in 2006.  I gladly paid 50 cents for it, and have already started one of the quilts.

Good news:  Mrs. Pfaff is back!!  My dear "coworker" and beloved sewing machine is back from the repair shop and sewing again.  I can't wait to get some quilting done.  But first I need to go to the Farmers Market, so I'd better wind this up.

Thanks for reading this long-winded spiel! Have a lovely week!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Check out all the great blogs at these linky parties!

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Charm Stars, Sisters Choice, and Hard Choices

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

A new quilt top is dancing in the breeze!  The pattern is Charm Stars and Four Patches, by Quilted Forest (click HERE for the Youtube video).  A little squirrel made me start this project a few weeks ago.

I was looking for a quilt to use up some of my charm squares, and this one really did the job.  Each star block uses 2 matching charm squares plus background rectangles cut from 2.5 in. strips.  The four patches use 4 charm squares each.  All told, I used 90 charm squares.  And I still can't quite get the lid on the box!

Each star is made from novelty prints.  I chose other fabrics for the four patches, prints like dots and plaids and stripes and a few florals.  The quilt measures 51.5 in. x 60 in. and will be donated to the Child Advocacy Center.

Here's one of the green blocks, with an adorable baby giraffe in the center.

More green blocks!  These Sisters Choice blocks are the last ones I'm making for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for May.  Yet another Green Bay Packers block.  I don't even like football.  It's just part of living in Wisconsin.

May has brought us lots of rain, as is usual here, but also lovely sunshine and the beginning of summer.  Buddy and Little Guy like to pose on the "picture bench" in the park.  They only have one more full day of school left before summer vacation.

Hubby and I went antiquing last weekend, and we discovered that many of the antique malls have changed, becoming more like thrift stores.  I was delighted to find more fun fabrics for kid quilts for excellent prices.

I'm trying to get some things done before I have more babysitting time with the boys.  Apricots were on sale, so I made a batch of jam.  I have several European recipes that use apricot jam, so now I'll have it on hand.

The basement cleanout of my fabric continues.  Lizzy keeps and eye on my progress from her perch on a pile of quilts.

 

This is my project for next week.

I have two bins and a bushel basket chock full of vintage scraps, from the 1920s through the 1960s.  The empty bin is for whatever I decide to keep.  And that's all!  The rest will go to the museum sale in a couple of weeks.  Hard choices are coming my way.  Wish me luck!

I wish you luck, too, in whatever you're working on.  Have a great week!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Check out the great linky parties below!

Finished or Not Finished Friday, hosted by Alycia

So Scrappy, hosted by Angela

Oh Scrap, hosted by Cynthia

Twin Tops and More Green Blocks

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I'm back after technical difficulties last week.  A big storm here knocked out our internet and cable last Friday night, and we didn't get it back until Sunday.  Years ago that wouldn't have seemed like such a big deal, but we are so used to all these modern conveniences now that we really missed them.  It paid to have books to read from our wonderful local library.

We still had electricity, thank goodness, for light and heat and so I could use the iron while I pieced on the treadle.  Some of the leftover Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks from 2023 finally got made into tops.  The first one is the one above.

Twenty-four Puss in the Corner blocks went into this top, which is destined for a young person through the Child Advocacy Center in Milwaukee.  Sometimes I set these blocks side by side, which can look kind of chaotic.  This time I opted to separate them with light print sashing, which makes a calmer quilt.  Life right now seems chaotic enough all by itself.

The border and cornerstones are the same fabric.  It's a print from author Eric Carle's book The Very Lonely Firefly.  (Don't worry, the firefly finds friends in the end.)  The block in this corner is made from a Minecraft fabric scrap leftover from making a pillowcase for one of my grandsons.

Each block is made from 4 charm squares:  two each of the novelty print and two each of the light print.  (Click HERE for some quick instructions).

There were STILL more Puss in the Corner blocks, so I put 24 more of them into a second top with the same layout as the first one.  I had less of the light sashing print and the border, so both had to be cut a little narrower.

The cornerstones and border are green in this one, which goes along with our RSC color for May.  It will also be donated to the Child Advocacy Center, to be given to a young person.

The green border is a novelty print (of course!) of Dr. Seuss characters.  As a retired elementary school librarian I love prints from children's books.  (I have been known to squeal when I see them, which can be a bit embarrassing.)

Two of the blocks are also made from Dr. Seuss inspired fabric.  Like this one, with Thing One and Thing Two.  Sometimes my youngest grandsons remind me of these guys.

I only had a scrap of this Seuss fabric but I loved including it.  Lots of us old folks enjoy seeing the names of these books that livened up our childhood.

The very kind quilter who organizes these quilts will do the long arm quilting on my tops.  When Mrs. Pfaff is back from the shop I'll start sending finished quilts again.

Oops, May is almost over!  I've got to push on and get my green RSC blocks done.

Last week I had these Radio Windmill blocks ready to go.  These 5 lean to the right, ...

and these 5 lean to the left.  Can you believe that 3 out of the 10 have giraffes in the print?

I'm not sure which imaginary land has green and pink giraffes.

Alligator or crocodile?  This guy is more realistic.  But not very scary.

The hearts are this week's effort.  Of course there had to be a Green Bay Packers block.

Isn't it amazing how many shades of green there are?  The numbers print is another an Eric Carle fabric.

My favorite heart block!  Great color, fun print, a scrap from my friend Joey.  (Note to self:  Press it again!)

Only one more Saturday in May!  I hope I made some progress with the green scraps.  How did you do?

We had beautiful weather on Mothers Day.  After lunch we took a walk in the park.  The kids call this bench "the picture bench", so we posed for a group photo.  Not pictured:  our son, who was working, a son-in-law who wasn't feeling well, and Mr. H the camera shy teenager who took the picture.

Here's a scary sight:  Little Guy driving around on a four wheeler!  He's a good driver so far.

I hope you're enjoying the merry month of May where you are, whatever the weather brings.

Happy Stitching!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Check out these great linky parties, hosted by wonderful quilters.

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Planning the Piece, Piecing the Plan

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  I hope there's sunshine in your life today.

We are having lots of beautiful weather here in Wisconsin.  I was able to hang this little top outside yesterday just minutes after I finished it.  Don't worry about the line across the middle.  It's just a shadow I didn't notice at the time.  

I blogged about these log cabin blocks when I was making them.  (Click HERE for that post, and scroll down.)  The centers were made from a 2 in. red square, and the shortest "logs" were either crumbs or strings.  The width of the logs varies, depending on the scraps I used.  

 

The center square of the quilt is cut from a fabric printed with two of the founding documents of the United States:  the Declaration of Independence and the U. S. Constitution.  I've had this fabric for a while, and it seemed important to include it in these troubled times.  This layout used exactly the number of blocks I had already pieced, so it was simple to set together.  I don't think I'll add a border, just a red binding.

This top was one of the items on my Piece Plan, a list of projects to work on while Mrs. Pfaff is in the repair shop.

BAD NEWS.  I won't be quilting this top or anything else for a while.  When I took Mrs. Pfaff to the shop, they said it could be WEEKS before I get her back!!!  ACK!!

So I guess I'll just get way ahead on my Piece Plan.

First on the Piece Plan list was the Churn Dash kit from my guild.  As of right now I have 25 out of 30 blocks done.  Shown here are the green ones.  Top row is a standard 30s green, bottom row is more mint.

I like this cute veggie print.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks are one the list as well.  The Thrifty blocks in green for the RSC are done.  I'm only making 5 each month.

The center football square inspired me to made a total Green Bay Packers block.  Go Pack Go!

Look out!  Squirrel!  I started a new project.  The squirrel made me do it!  This is Sheldon the squirrel, beloved toy of my cats.  They left him on the sewing room floor, and this is what happened.

The quilt is called Charming Stars, and comes from a Youtube video by Quilted Forest.  (Click HERE.)  It's simple to cut and sew and uses two matching charm squares plus a background fabric for the star blocks.  I'm making mine from novelty prints, of course.

I will miss Mrs. Pfaff SO MUCH, but I guess I have enough to keep me busy lol.

My grandsons are a big help!  Little Guy and I walked around the park on Thursday while his brother was at wrestling practice.  He asked me to take his picture at least 20 times.  This was the best one.

Yesterday evening I went to Buddy's soccer game.  They won!  

The rhubarb is up, and looks great!  Just one more joy of May in Wisconsin.

This week, I'm wishing you the joys of the season, wherever you live.  And the joys of quilting, of course!  Happy Mothers Day to all who celebrate it tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap