Rainbow Scrap Challenge Heart Quilts, Part Deux

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

More hearts this week!  I'm working on making quilts with the blocks I sewed all year for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  These are the second and third heart quilts.

In the little quilt above, I have alternated the heart blocks with Bright Hopes blocks, which were also an RSC project this year.  I'm calling it Hearts and Bright Hopes (I am nothing if not obvious!).  I arranged them in rainbow rows.  There are fifteen Hearts and fifteen Bright Hopes.

The border is an Eric Carle print.  This one features The Very Lonely Firefly from his book of the same name.  I got several yards at a sale in Madison almost a year ago.  You can expect to see it again!

Here's the backing, red hearts on white.  This yardage came from the museum sale last summer, and was just right for this project.

The quilt is 36 in. x 42 in., and will be donated to the Children's Advocacy Center.

More hearts!  I call this one Hearts and Squares.  It's a lap size/small twin at 54 in. x 62 in.

I was hoping to use up some of these 2.5 in. squares, so the rest would fit better in the drawer.  I bet you know what happened.  This is the "before" photo.

Here's a photo from today.  This quilt top used up 213 of the squares.  And the only reason the drawer looks a little emptier is that I moved the solid squares to a different drawer.  This proves it.  I will never be able to use up all my scraps.  

That's okay with me!

The sashing pieces were handy to use for leaders and enders.  When I finished the top, I realized it was a bit bright.  Even for me.

All these wild fabrics might be a bit much.  I put a calmer border on it, not sure if it helps.

It was definitely fun digging all these squares out of the drawer and adding them together.

The top will also be going to the CAC in Milwaukee.

Christmastime is here for all of us who celebrate.  We got a little help decorating the tree this week from our youngest grandsons.  Buddy was kind enough to pose for me.  He is growing so much lately, getting taller.

So is Little Guy!  He can reach farther up on the tree than ever.  You can see we still have snow on the ground.  It's been here for two weeks now, not melting any time soon.

I hope you're having a good week, in spite of or because of the holiday excitement.  I'm not expecting to get much sewing done this coming week, which is one of the reasons I don't sew gifts.  I am looking forward to all the fun social activities this week.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!  And happy quilting to everyone!

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

 

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