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

Potato Chip Quilts: Can't Make Just One

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  

I'm back from a quilt retreat, and working on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks again. 

Two little quilts today!  These are made from the potato chip blocks I've been piecing since January,  4 each month, in 10 colors.  The blocks are 9 in. finished, and the quilts themselves measure 36 in. x 45 in.  

It was hard to decide how to divide the blocks into two quilts.  I didn't want them to be just alike.  Eventually I did it like this:  Quilt A has the brighter colored blocks (red, orange, yellow, green, dark/medium blue) plus black. 

Snicky the cat graciously "helped" me take pictures.

 The blocks are set side by side.  No borders, just binding and simple quilting.

I had so much fun making these blocks!  There are lots of cute fabrics in them.

Here's the back, a print I got second hand.  The character on it is named Noddy, and apparently comes from a British TV show for kids.  The binding is another find, probably from the 1990s.

I made Quilt B from the more pastel blocks (yellow, aqua, light blue, purple) plus the multicolored ones.  Same set, same quilting.  (I'm really in a quilting rut lol.  But this way gets the job done!)

The binding is a little wider than usual.  It came from a scrap bag I won at our guild's silent auction, and was already made.

More scraps from the auction!  Lots of these are really cute.

Like these very realistic pigs.  For one short season, we had feeder pigs on the family "farm" when I was a teenager.  Beware of the red ones, they are the meanest.

Fall has been beautiful here, with higher than normal temps, but it's cooling off now and letting us know winter is really coming.

We are still enjoying the local apples, fresh and in home canned applesauce.  Buddy asked me to take this picture of him with an apple slice.

I am still dazzled by last weekend's Quilt History retreat.  The presenter was amazing, we got to touch EVERYTHING (some quilts and textiles nearly 200 years old!), and all of us brought quilts from our collections to share and learn from.  I think it deserves its own post, which I may do in the next week or two.

One more thing I did this week:

As the sticker says, I voted!  We have early voting in Wisconsin.  Hubby and I cast our ballots on Tuesday.  There was quite a line, but it didn't take too long.  I was glad to see so many people coming out.  There's a message on the sticker for those who haven't voted yet.  The cow says, "Get a moove on!"

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

Cheers,

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

Rainbow Kitties, Scraps, and Fall Fun

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by.

Isn't it fun putting our Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks together at last?  All year long I have loved making these cat blocks, and now they get to be a rainbow.

The border is this cat print.  More rainbow kitties!  The quilting is my usual squiggle in a 3 in. grid.

I set the cats in an odd staggered set.  It's fun to do something a little different.

Here's the back, a rainbow of hearts in flannel.  It should be warm and cozy this winter for a little child.  Hope it goes to someone who loves cats!

It seems odd not to be making more RSC blocks, but we'll start again in January, and in the meantime I can catch up on some other projects.  This quilt top was a quilt group challenge issued back in June (I think).  The Amazing Margaret designed this quilt, gave us a very professional-looking written pattern with multiple sizes, and asked us to use up some of the guild's large supply of brown fabric.  We could add our own fabrics also.  

Finished tops were due at the August guild meeting, where the members would choose the top 3 for "fabulous prizes".  I didn't attend that meeting due to a mild illness, and almost forgot about these pieces I had cut and set aside.  It didn't take long to finish once I pulled it out.  

The pattern is great, just squares in 3 sizes, pieced in 8 small sections.  It was a good chance to use up some leaf prints etc. I had on hand, and I love fall colors.  The top will be quilted by our wonderful long arm quilters and donated to a local charity.

Speaking of the quilt guild, look what happened to me yesterday!  A large stock of scrap fabric was donated to the guild, and the charity committee asked if I'd take on the kid/novelty prints.  Of course I said yes!  There is some very cute stuff in this pile.

Here's what it looked like after being washed.  The pile on the left are pieces cut off the bigger scraps, because ...

...many of the pieces had been used to fussy cut squares and/or rectangles.  I cut off the dangling pieces so they would go through the wash better, and now I have a lovely scrap pile to trim up.  These will be fun pieces for new quilts to donate.

We had lots of fall fun yesterday with our youngest grandsons.  There was no school, so we got to have them all day.

They posed with Grandpa at the apple orchard.  Little guy is extra excited.

They loved the corn maze.  Buddy was confident we'd find the way out, but Little Guy wasn't so sure.

We bought four different kinds of apples, and had a taste test after we got home.  Buddy liked Macintosh best, Hubby loves Fuji and Honey Crisp, and Little Guy liked all except the Fuji.  I love them ALL.

After lunch, we made and decorated Halloween cookies.  Some of the decorations may have been eaten along the way.

This is Little Guy's artwork.  Did you guess the cookie is an apple shape, underneath all the icing and sprinkles?

This ghost is Buddy's masterpiece.  She is apparently Hawaiian, as he said she was wearing a "flower necklace" (lei?).  He also made a Pumpkin Ninja, but I was too late to get a photo.  We sent them home with lots of cookies for their parents.

I hope you have lots of fun this week, quilty and otherwise, no matter what season it is where you live!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Check our these wonderful quilt blogs, run by generous and kind quilters, who let us all link up with them!

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap