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

In Which I Test Gravity, and Gravity Wins

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I started out this week on the right foot.  I had 3 quilts my friend Joey had quilted for me back in March 2023 (more than a year ago!) that were waiting to be bound.  It was long past time to get that done, so I started on this one, an 1800s reproduction medallion.  

On Sunday night, I sewed the binding on the back, and started doing my usual machine binding on the front, but it just didn't look right with this reproduction quilt.  So I ripped out the little I had done, and planned to finish the binding by hand.

On Monday, for Veterans Day, I made two of these blocks for our guild's Block of the Month.  These will be donated to a local group that makes quilts for veterans and their families.

That was the last time I did any machine sewing.

Tuesday morning, while bringing a load of laundry down the stairs, I tripped over the cat (he was lying on the bottom stair) and managed to break my toe.  (No worries, Snicky the cat was fine, just freaked out.)

In the grand scheme of things, although painful, this was a minor accident.  I broke the smallest toe on my right foot.  On the intake form they wrote "pinky toe" so I guess that's the technical term.  X-rays confirmed a tiny break.

If you're familiar with sports injuries, you might already know about the recommended treatment.  It's called a buddy wrap.  The injured toe is wrapped with a special tape to the uninjured toe next to it, to help the break heal in the right position.  I'm so glad my poor toe has a buddy to help it!  I hope all the other toes aren't angry with me for making this happen to their friend.

Wearing shoes is still painful, so they gave me this boot.  Eventually I'll be able to get back into my regular sneakers.

So things are under control, and I'm able to do almost everything I normally do.  

Except driving.  AND MACHINE SEWING.  (Nooooooo!)

  Good news, though, I got the medallion quilt bound.  And it was very pleasant to do.

I made this quilt as part of an online "class" by Barbara Brackman on fabric prints from the 1800s.  The stars in this quilt were made with prints first published before 1850 (mine of course were repros).  The bird print in the center (see also the first photo on this post) is a copy of a print by John Hewson, an English fabric printer who came to Philadelphia in the late 1700s.

This is the back, a repro pillar print, first popular in the early 1800s.  I chose the blue binding to go with both front and back.  (Joey's quilting is amazing!)

Now I can stop feeling guilty about a least one unfinished object!  

But it's still too painful to work a foot pedal.  So what about cutting up scraps?

Our quilt guild has been gifted a LOT of fabric lately, including scraps and cut pieces.  Wednesday night after the meeting I took home a bag of 2.5 in. x 4.5 in. rectangles, and found all these fun Hot Wheels prints in it.  I cut up some light fabrics and some other car prints to make a kit of 20 Windmill blocks.  I found a good backing in my stash, although I will need to piece it to make it long enough.

Do you see the post it note?  I have been doing this lately whenever I cut out a quilt.  On the note I put the details about it, including the measurements, border ideas, etc.  Then I put it all in a clear plastic bag.  When I have time to work on it, I don't have to wonder what I was thinking, or do the math again!  Revolutionary.  (Why on earth did I never think of doing this before?)

Once the kit quilt reaches the quilt top stage, I put the post it notes in my notebook.  Now I have all the details if I want to make something similar again.

I tried driving yesterday with that boot on, and it went okay, but my foot was sore when I got home.  Maybe I will try machine sewing sometime this weekend.  I hope I'll be successful soon.  If not, there may not be an uncut scrap left in the sewing room.  I might even have to resort to hand applique.

Take care, everyone!  And watch out for cats!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

Oops! Not Really A Stretched Star

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

How are your Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks coming along?  It's great seeing what everyone is doing with them each week.

This week I put together some of the "stretched star" blocks I made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year.  When I did, I discovered a BIG MISTAKE.  You might be able to see it in the photo above. 

The big pieces in the blocks are 5 in. squares.  White squares go across two of the corners to make the blocks.  The resulting white triangles are supposed to touch. Mine can just sort of wave to each other. 

Why?  Because I cut them one quarter inch too small!! (Sound of hand smacking forehead).

This is what they were supposed to look like.  I cut my white squares at 2 1/2 in. x 2 1/2 in.  The RIGHT way for a 5 in. square is 2 3/4 in. x 2 3/4 in.  I was off by a quarter inch.  Ack!

Now, I am not a newbie.  I have been making quilts for more than 40 years.  Yeah, I admit I'm bad at math, but maybe I should have thought to test out how the blocks went together before I made nearly 200 of them?  (Sigh).  Ripping is not an option, since I cut off the corners underneath after stitching.

Anyway, once I realized what I had done, I went ahead and finished this little donation quilt.  Kids and their parents are probably not going to know or care about the goof up.  

On the plus side, every block has a different print, which I hope will be fun for kids to look at.  There are lots of space-related squares, like Marvin the Martian and other cute aliens.  

On the back, robots!  I've had this fabric a long time.  Originally I thought I'd cut out the robot squares/rectangles, but I didn't want to make Swiss cheese out of it.  Plus it would need more MATH, and I'm kind of skittish about that now.  Yeah, on the back works just fine.

By the way, have you noticed all the interesting designs on selvedges?  The robot fabric had these tiny rockets.  It's just something fun and extra, and I love it.

Lesson learned!  You can bet I will definitely double (or triple) check next year's RSC blocks for accuracy.

I have plans to use the rest of the blocks, don't worry, but not as stretched stars. 

Buddy and Little Guy love to put puzzles together.  This one was 100 pieces, just right for their ages.  We all had a good time after school yesterday, and they couldn't wait to show their mom when she came to pick them up.

Our Christmas cactus is blooming again, and it's a joy to see.  The last time it bloomed, Snicky the cat was a kitten, and he chewed all the blossoms off.

The following is political, so feel free to skip it.

My mom reminded me of a quote yesterday, that I believe applies to the darkness that is coming in my country.

Martin Luther King said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."  

Let us be the light.

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Q is for Quilt

 Welcome to Treadlestitches! 

And welcome to November!  I guess it really is fall now, although the grass is still green under the fallen leaves.

A lovely lady in my quilt group gave me an alphabet panel to make into a charity quilt.  I paired it with the red bears print , a second-hand find.  

It's a good thing there were two full alphabets on the panel, because it was very difficult to cut the letters apart and leave enough seam allowance.  Some of the letters were too close to the edge, or too close to other letters.  In the end I only had to fix one the letter, the Y, by adding a strip of white fabric cut from the panel.

T is for turtle, U is for Umbrella, and of course Q is for Quilt!  I did some simple outline quilting on the squares, and parallel lines in the borders.  The binding is the same fabric as the inner border.

Check out the back!  A few weeks ago Hubby and I went antiquing, and I found this print.  There are crayons, hearts, balloons, and, best of all, alphabets.  I hope a little child enjoys this quilt as much as I loved making it.

Did you have a good Halloween?  Our little grandsons definitely did.  Buddy is dressed as his favorite video game character, Link from Legend of Zelda.  Little Guy went as Pikachu, his favorite Pokemon.  After trick or treating, Buddy says he has enough candy now for a year.  

 Last year I made lots of these little houses for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  They're the simplest thing ever, just a 5 in. square with one seam across the top to make a point.  To me, they look like the kind of houses young children draw.  I made one quilt, but had lots of the houses left over.  (Click HERE for more info, my first post about them last January.) 

 By coincidence, I bought this glue stick when visiting with my friend Joey (hi, Joey!  We had such a fun day!) It's made by the same people that make a basting spray I use often.  The glue stick turned out to be just the thing I needed.  I'm using it to stick the little houses to a background 5 in. square so I can topstitch them down.  Works like a charm.

Next I'm adding solid strips all around to make a block I'm calling Happy Houses.  Of course I picked out the Halloween ones to do first!  Ghosts ...

and scary costumes.  The blocks finish at 7.5 in.  

It's been a happy busy beginning of fall.  Last Saturday we went on a short hike with our eldest daughter, her hubby, and our grandkids Mr. H and Miss E.  It was beautiful weather, just a little crisp with lots of sunshine.  (That's me in the back, where I like to be!  Mr. H just refuses to be in photos, so he took the picture.)

From the trail we could see this church, the Basilica and National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians, high on the hill above us.  Another wonderful day.

I hope you have wonderful days too, this week and every week.  Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Cynthia at Oh Scrap