Purple Butterflies

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Today I have two quilts to show.  

First, the small quilt for donation, which is also a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project.  I made DOZENS of string blocks this year, and this is only the second quilt.

Lots of skinny strips and triangles make up these blocks.  I always feel thrifty when making them.  Can you spot the purple butterfly print?

The border is a different purple butterfly print.  Years ago I bought a bag of fabric at Goodwill, and there were SIX YARDS of this fabric in it.  I have loved using it.  It goes with most of the colors of the string blocks.

I've pinned up the back here to show you.  I bought this cotton fabric at the Winter Quilt Show a few years ago.  It cost $2 for a 2 yard piece.  Great, right?  But there was a problem.

These Easter theme borders were on either side of the dots.  They might have looked a little weird sideways on the quilt, so I cut them off.  (Don't worry, I'll find a use for them.)  The resulting dot print was narrow, but I pieced it to make it wide enough.  For quilting I did diagonal lines through the blocks.  The binding is a scrap of solid lavender.

So that's quilt #1, one of my usual small quilts for kids.  The next one is different.

This is officially a UFO.  And it has kind of a long story.

My niece Jenny died in August of 2021 from a massive aneurism at the age of 39.  Butterflies were her favorite thing, and purple/lavender was her favorite color.  I started making this quilt that fall, with the plan to give it to my sister as a comfort quilt.  I found this pieced butterfly pattern/tutorial online (click HERE), and started making blocks from Kaffe Fassett fabrics and light prints from my stash.

I had all the blocks made and the border (also a Kaffe print) ordered when my sister died in May of 2022.  For a while I couldn't even look at them.  I set the project aside.  What was I going to do with it now?  I didn't think it would be a good fit for her husband or her son.

In time, I decided to finish the quilt as a comfort quilt for me.  My friend Joey Mahieu is a professional quilter, and she quilted it for me.  I picked it up the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Can you see the hearts and swirls in the quilting?  Joey did a wonderful job (as always!).

This week I bound it.  The backing is a soft flannel, and Snicky the cat loved it so much he wouldn't let me sew!  I had to wait until he left the room.

I can't wait to snuggle up under the quilt after the Christmas quilts are put away.

Speaking of Christmas, it's almost here!  This week Little Guy had his program at school.  You can probably tell he loved it!  We loved it too.

The snow this week feels very seasonally appropriate. We will probably get lots more after the holidays, this is winter in Wisconsin, after all.
 

Tomorrow I'll be baking cookies with my daughters and grandchildren.  Icing and sprinkles and sugar, oh my!  

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

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Happy Variations

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

This week's story is a tale of two quilts.  

This one:

and this one:

(It was below zero when I photographed this one.  Of course it had to be an inside picture!)

There is definitely a family resemblance, but they're not exactly alike.  Both of them are variations on Happy Blocks quilts.

First up is this one, with a square in the center.  The only real difference from the usual Happy Block is the size of the center squares, which is 3.5 in. cut, instead of the more common 5 in. or 4.5 in..

Why so small?  Because this is what I started with!  The Amazing Colleen, a member of our quilt group's charity committee, brought me a lovely bunch of donated scraps and fabric, including these novelty squares.  The white edges were tiny and looked as though the blocks had been cut out of a top.  (No idea what the story was, sorry.)  I trimmed them to 3.5 in., which was the biggest I could get.

All that was left after trimming was a stack of 3.5 in. squares and this trash.

I framed each square with solid strips cut 2 in. wide, to make 6 in. finished blocks.  I hope it will be fun for kids to look at all the different prints.  They may need to have someone explain what phonograph records are.

The border is a Sesame Street print I bought at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show in September.  The binding is a color I'm calling "Elmo red", it goes so well with that furry little guy.

The second quilt is actually made from Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt blocks from 2023.  I've been  thinking of different ways to set these very simple house blocks.  Framing them like Happy Blocks was an obvious choice.

I think of both of these quilts as I Spy quilts, since none of the novelty centers are repeated.  The houses are top-stitched to a 5 in. square, and then framed with 2 in. cut strips, making blocks that finish at 7.5 in.

Fun fact--There are two Dora's in the quilt:  Dora the Explorer (above) and D. W., Arthur's little sister from the Arthur books and TV show, whose full name is Dora Winifred Read (shown in the previous photo).

The house quilt's border is another Sesame Street print I bought from the same vendor.  The binding is the same "Elmo red" fabric.

Sometimes I think I should make bigger quilts more often.  Probably they'd be more useful.  But as a mother and grandmother I remember how nice it was to have small quilts to put on the floor for the babies.  And they were much easier to roll up and take with us on outings (the quilts, not the babies lol!).

Both of these quilts will be donated locally.

In other news, Buddy had his Christmas program at school.  There was lots of singing and excitement.  It always gives me a little boost of holiday spirit.  And the kids are adorable.  Especially our guy, of course!

I hope you're having a lovely week, and not stressing out too much about the holidays.  Maybe this holiday joke from my friend Debbie C. will help.  

What do you call an unidentified gingerbread man?  

John Dough

I laughed out loud at this one.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Melva at Sew and Tell

P.S.  The quilts I donated to the GSAFE auction brought in $510.00!  This year's goal of $40,000 was more than met.

Basket of Chips, Finished At Last

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I've got some help working on the To-Do quilt pile!  Snicky, shown here in mid-stretch, is providing moral support.  He also took off with my thread at one point, but nobody's perfect.

All this Basket quilt needed was a binding.  Easy, right?  Why do I procrastinate on binding?  With Snicky's "help" I got it done by hand this week.

My procrastination with this quilt didn't start with the binding though.  Back in 2013 when I started this blog, I made a visual list of six quilts I wanted to finish, and this top was there!  It's actually embarrassing.  

Isn't the quilting beautiful?  I had it quilted by my friend Joey Mahieu at Against the Grain in Mineral Point, Wisconsin.  I asked for fancy, and she delivered!

Check out the feathered vine in the border!  I am over the moon!

I bought the wide back from Connecting Threads online.  The binding is just odd strips of dark blue reproduction fabric.

It's been a long journey from start to finish on this quilt.  I started with a traditional pattern called Basket of Chips, and reproduction scraps cut with my Accuquilt cutter.  I found the setting fabric, a Mary Koval print, at a quilt show.  Then I dithered about the borders when I didn't have enough of either of the two fabrics I wanted, and finally used both (one on the sides, the other on the top and bottom).  It sat patiently in the sewing room closet for literal YEARS before I finally ordered the backing from Connecting Threads.  And it's now been almost two more years since Joey finished the quilting.

It's done, hurray!  I am so happy that the quilt is done at last, and we can enjoy it.  I'm not going to keep beating myself up for taking this long to finish.  Life is busy, and quilts are patient.

Also in the closet To-Do pile was the fabric for these pillow cases.  It didn't take long to sew them up and move another project along.

Snicklefritz the cat managed to get into most of my photos this week!  He keeps hanging around, hoping I'll take a nap.

Don't let this happy face fool you, our Buddy was quite sick this week.  Nothing serious, just a virus, but miserable nonetheless.  I took this photo on the second day, when he was almost back to normal.  After two days he was himself again, and happy to go back to school.

I hope everyone is feeling well, and taking care of yourself.  Have a wonderful week!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Working on the UnFinished Objects

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Quick note!  The GSAFE Auction of Quilts and Fiber Arts is live online now through Dec. 3.  Proceeds from the auction go to support programs for Gay and Trans students and their families and educators.  Click HERE to view.  (Three of my quilts are in the auction!)

No outside photos today, it's 12 degrees F and a few snow flurries are drifting down, and I'm too lazy to put on all my cold weather gear.  So here's a little "tropical beach" quilt to help warm us up.

It's a UFO, but not my UFO.  I honestly like finishing other people's UFOs, especially if I think they can be useful and fun for kids.

These sharks are having a great day at the beach.  They've got cans of cola, suntan oil, sunglasses, and a boom box for beach tunes to swim by, all on a pink background.  Truly a one-of-a-kind fabric.

I received this quilt as a top, which was donated to our quilt group.  The Amazing Colleen brought it over, and said she thought of me when she saw it.  Wonder why? LOL.  I quilted and bound it last weekend.  

I had this fabric in my stash, an Alexander Henry print copyright 1998.  Proof that good fabric, properly stored, doesn't necessarily have an expiration date.  It's called "Can You Say Snorkel?".

I love all these child-like drawings of sea creatures, and especially the kids.  As you can see, I quilted it with wavy lines to mimic the waves of the ocean, using a stencil.  The quilt will be donated locally.

If it's just cut pieces, is it a UFO?  Or does it count as scraps or something?  These blocks were started from a bag of 2.5 in. x 4.5 in. rectangles also donated to us.  I cut background pieces and additional rectangles from my stash to make 20 blocks.

Yesterday, after the mad rush of baking and cooking for Thanksgiving and the lovely holiday was over, I sewed up the blocks. Many of the 2.5 in. x 4.5 in. darker rectangles are Hot Wheels prints which I'm guessing some kid will love.  I'm looking forward to putting these together. 

As it turns out, cleaning out my sewing room closet has consequences.  I "rediscovered" a whole pile of UFOs I had conveniently forgotten about or just set aside for "later".  Well, it's definitely later, so I'm working on them.

This twin-sized top just needed borders.  Quick fix, right?  Except I had forgotten I only had enough of the brown plaid fabric for 3 of the 4 sides.  I guess I was waiting to find another fabric?  I went through my stash and didn't find anything I loved, so in the end I decided to do this:

The brown plaid on the right of the photo is my original choice, and is on three sides of the quilt.  The other brown plaid is just on one end.  The fabrics in the quilt are mostly 1800s reproductions, and this is a very 1800s solution, so I'm happy with it.  I am donating this top, and it will be quilted by the charity committee volunteers.

It was fun to sew these blocks from my repro pieces!  I have lots more BTW.

It feels good to get some of these older projects off my list!  

What a grumpy face!  My grandson Buddy created this out of bananas and blueberries early this week, and asked me to take its picture.  Before he could decide on a name for it, it was all gone.  

There were 13 of us at Thanksgiving this year, and I am so thankful we were all able to be together.

We had a new member of the family at the feast!  This is Finn, and he's about 5 weeks old.  My daughter adopted him only two days before Thanksgiving and he was too little to leave at home.  I took this picture after he ran all around the house, ate some turkey, had some special kitten milk, and just fell asleep in the middle of the floor.  Snicky was not amused.  The rest of us think he's adorable.

I hope all who celebrated had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I'm wishing everyone a great week ahead.  Thanks so much for reading this!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

Thankful

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

 

This coming Thursday is Thanksgiving, an appropriate time to express our gratitude for all the blessings we receive daily and throughout the year.  I have to say I am well and truly thankful for so many things.

A minor injury has had me sidelined from machine sewing recently, but it was a good time to clean out the sewing room closet.  I am thankful for all the treasures I found.

Like this little quilt above.  The turkey block above is part of a doll quilt top I made years ago from antique redwork blocks bought at a flea market.  For literally years I have been trying to decide how to quilt it--hand or machine?  At the moment I'm leaning towards quilting it by hand.  The blocks are cute and I'm glad to have this little bit of history.

I also found this finished quilt in the closet, in the To Be Mended pile.  It's a friendship quilt I made in 1986.  Instead of binding, I brought the backing around to the front and stitched it down, and some of it had come loose.

Prior to 1986, I was a self taught quilter and honestly not a very good one.  My first class was at the Village Sewing Shoppe in Lebanon, Ohio, with Nedra Whittington, who signed the greenish block above.  Nedra was seriously old school.  We cut scraps with templates and scissors, pieced by hand, and quilted by hand.  I learned so much!  It took me three years to finish the class quilt, but I ran this little wall hanging up by machine in the meantime, and got my quilt club friends to sign it. 

Amy, my eldest child, wanted to sign a block too, so of course my son and youngest daughter also wanted their names on the little quilt.  Amy, at age 7, signed their names as well as her own, since the younger ones were 4 and 2.  I love that I have all their names in Amy's handwriting on the blocks.

A few quick stitches fixed the edge, and now the quilt can be displayed again.  This quilt reminds me how thankful I am for my first quilt teacher, my quilt club friends who were always encouraging, and my sweet children who went with me to quilt meetings and shops (sometimes willingly!).

A few days ago, I tried machine quilting, and found that it didn't hurt anymore!   My pinky toe is healing up, and I am beyond grateful to be almost totally back to normal.  It's still a bit swollen, which makes wearing shoes somewhat uncomfortable, but doable.  The top was basted and ready to go, finished quickly with a diagonal grid.

This is the second time I've made a quilt in this pattern, Mathematical Genius by Judy Gauthier, from her book, Quilts for Scrap Lovers.  I included a lot of my favorite novelty prints, like the "raining cats and dogs" on the light blue background.  The batting is a soft poly which was a dream to quilt.  (Thanks, Joey!)  The quilt will be donated locally.

Here's the back, a fun print from That Fabric Store. 

I'm so thankful I can machine sew again!  I'm also thankful for quilt designers who do all the math for us (I am so NOT a math person!).

 Buddy and Little Guy, our youngest grandchildren, were here all day Friday (no school--conferences) and really got into coloring Pokemon characters.

The boys and Grandpa had a blast with Grandpa's drums.  Buddy's drumsticks here are just blurs.

I am beyond grateful for all my children and grandchildren, and so happy that we all live within an hour's drive of each other.  I know how lucky I am!

Here's someone to be grateful for!  Snicklefritz the cat is a very welcome companion on a snowy afternoon.  A cup of tea, a library book, a warm quilt, and a cuddly cat--what could be better?

Happy Thanksgiving this week to all who celebrate.  And thanks for reading!  I'm thankful for YOU!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap