Pastel Kitties and More Red Blocks

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

One of my favorite quilt testers is at it again!  While I was out of the room Lizzy made herself at home on this little cat quilt.

Once she lost interest, I finished the quilting and bound it, and hurried to hang it outside.  It was one of those beautiful days that happen here occasionally in spring, 69 degrees F and lots of sunshine.

There was a little more light on the front porch.

I made MANY cat blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2024, and am still putting them together into quilts.  This one used up the pink, purple, and aqua cats.  (Doesn't Aquacat sound like a cartoon superhero? lol).

The vertical rows of cats are offset from each other, a set I really like that I believe I first saw on a quilt made by Diann of the Little Penguin Quilts blog.  The cats are separated by sashing made from a cat print (of course!), which I bought while visiting my mom in Oklahoma.

Simple grid quilting, as usual, with Mrs. Pfaff's serpentine stitch.

The back is this dotted print from our guild's stash.  The quilt will go to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee.

I don't know if I will ever catch up with previous years RSC blocks, but that isn't stopping me from making more!  This year I am doing lots more planning of the eventual quilts, so maybe I won't be adding to the backlog.  Greek Crosses are this week's set.  These two have ninjas, Mickey Mouse, dots and a dinosaur.

Two more, one with numbers and one with alphabet letters.  Also dots, and hedgehogs.

Last one, dog themed but no dogs!  I need to get more red novelty prints STAT.

Here's where I can get more second hand fabric!  The new Shop Our Stash resale shop at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts is now open in the restored blacksmith shop.  I made my first trip to it last week.  Rain was pouring down so I couldn't take pictures, so I borrowed these from the museum's web site.

It's small, but very well organized.  Prices are good, and the volunteers are friendly and helpful.  I donated two big bags of fabric, good quality pieces that I know I'll never use, and brought home a small bag of stash enhancement.

Here's what I bought, mostly fat quarters in lights or colors I needed.  Some of the light ones are already cut and pieced into quilt blocks!

Shop hours are Friday and Saturday only, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  It's a win for everybody:  inexpensive fabric, yarn, etc. for makers, income for the museum, and a good place to donate craft/sewing/quilting supplies.  Click HERE for information on items accepted for donation, etc.

In Progress

The string blocks are almost finished into a quilt, which I hope to complete today.  I also have only two more blocks to make for the Lori Holt Twinkle Twinkle Scrappy Star quilt, and then I can start putting them together.  When I do that, I like to have something simple to piece as leaders and enders, so I chose this pattern. 

 The original is called Cabin Steps, and was a free handout at a local quilt show in 2016.  When I made a quilt inspired by this pattern a few years ago, I changed it from a 12 in. block to a 9 in. one by making it a 9 patch instead of a 16 patch.  I like that size for the quilts I make, so I'm doing it again.

The blocks will use the rectangles in the plastic shoebox.  I need 420 dark and 210 light--think I have enough?  Seriously, I may have to cut some light ones, but there might be enough dark ones for two quilts.

In other news, we had fun last Saturday with our youngest grandsons at the Kettle Moraine Geological Society Show, held at the fairgrounds.  The boys were very excited, especially since we gave them some spending money.  Little Guy wanted to buy everything.  His biggest purchase was an abalone shell. Buddy was more selective.  Each of them went home with rock, fossil and mineral treasures.  They also bought a small quartz heart for their mom.

There was a Native people's display area with a teepee the boys loved.  A man there was making small leather shoes by hand.  Another man gave the boys each a turkey feather, and tried to teach us to say thank you in his language.  All in all, a very good day.

I hope you have very good days this week too, doing things you love to do.  Happy Quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Check out all the quilts and quilters 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

Photo Finish

Another year has come and almost gone.  I'm finishing up some small quilts for Project Linus, and working on getting over a cold.

This quilt is called Cabin Steps.  The free pattern was handed out at a local quilt show, and is also on line here.   I changed it a little, making it a 9 in. finished block instead of 12 in.

As you can see, it's extremely easy piecing.  Each block has 9 squares in my version (16 in the original).  Three of the squares in my block are plain white.  Each of the other 6 squares are composed of two rectangles, cut 2 in. x 3.5 in., and sewn together on the long side.

It was fun to make this up out of scraps.  I really wish I had more of the planets fabric I used for the border.  I bought it second hand, and this was all there was.

The backing is a Winnie the Pooh print I also bought second hand.

The second quilt is a simple zigzag, made from solid white and strips from my 2.5 in. bin.

Here it is, laid out flat.  I don't use pink a lot in my donation quilts, because it limits the recipients.  Boys (and their families) don't want quilts with pink in them.  But once in a while I make one just for the girls.

Up close, you can see how easy this is to piece.  I must have a real thing about rectangles right now.  These are also squares composed of two rectangles.  This time the rectangles were cut 2.5 in. x 4.5 in.  I didn't strip piece it, just because I don't like to strip piece, but you could easily do that with this pattern.
I pieced the top at a quilt retreat, and used their flannel board to lay out the pieces.  I didn't think I needed a flannel board, or a Big Board for ironing, but after seeing how great they are, I'm putting them on my list.

The back is a flower print.  The flowers have faces, can you tell?  Ordinarily this would creep me out, but these flowers just seem friendly and sweet.  I got a huge hunk of this in a scrap bag at a quilt shop.  There's enough to back another quilt.

Above is a Christmas present I made for my youngest grandson.  Can you guess what it is?

It's a book, of course!  I read to him every day when I'm babysitting, and he gets so excited about it, kicking his feet and trying to grab the book.  Most of the time I'm reading him library books, and I don't dare let him grab them.  But he can grab this one!  He can even chew on it (a little).  It can go in the washer.

I just framed fabric pieces, and sewed them together.

Finally, Happy Birthday to Me!!!  Look what I got!!!  We did a birthday strip exchange at our quilt group.  Each person got two 2.5 in. strips from all the other participants at the meeting during their birth month.  We could request colors or types of prints, etc.  Of course I asked for novelty fabrics.  I couldn't wait to get home and spread them out to look at them.  Happy dance time!

And here's what they came in!  One of the nicest ladies in the world (yes you are, Mary!) made a bag for each of the recipients.  Mine has bugs and snails!!!

Like every year, 2016 had its ups and downs.
This is the best thing that happened to me (and our whole family) in 2016:

I'm wishing you a very happy New Year, and a cup of kindness for Auld Lang Syne.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts  and with Myra at Busy Hands Quilts this week.