Saturday, July 26, 2025

Lions and Tigers and Bears and Purple

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

It's a rainy day, so no outside photos, sorry.

At last, a finished quilt!  By some miracle, I got a little extra time this week.  Mrs. Pfaff and I made short work of this little 40 in. x 48 in. Happy Blocks quilt.

I showed the top on the blog back in March.  It was waiting for quilting when Mrs. Pfaff had to go into the shop.  In my head I'm calling it Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My.

The pieces in the center of the Happy Blocks are animal prints cut from panels and striped fabrics, and bordered by solid colored scraps.  The squares were cut at 4.5 in., and the outside strips at 2.5 in. wide, making blocks that finished at 8 in. square.  

I'm donating this quilt to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee.  In my experience, most kids love animals, so I hope an animal quilt can brighten a child's day.

Wait, we've got a moose, a skunk, an elephant, birds, butterflies, etc., but where are the lions?

Here they are, on the back!  Along with zebras, giraffes, more elephants, turtles, and even more tigers!

I bought this fabric at a second hand sale, and it fit perfectly for the back.  The copyright on the selvedge is 1998.  Older cotton fabrics (in good condition!) can be great for backing, since they are usually 2 to 3 inches wider than today's fabric.

It's hard to believe this is the last Saturday in July.  The summer is speeding past!  I had to push hard to get my purple blocks done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, since I know I won't have much time next week.

Sisters Choice is first, just five blocks, but with lots of purple scraps.

Next are the heart blocks.  I was surprised I had so many different shades of purple in the scraps.

There are TWO ghost print blocks.  The one on the upper left came from the box my friend gave me two weeks ago.  I'm already working on those scraps, Joey!  I just need to sew faster!

My favorite block this week is one of those prints that looks purple with blue fabrics and blue with purple.  I call them chameleons.  It's a cat print, I think it's by the late Laurel Burch.  It won't matter what color it reads when it ends up in a scrap quilt.

I did get the peaches canned last Saturday.  We also had peach crisp and some for eating.  I already had peach jam from last year, so I didn't bother with it.

Yesterday we met our oldest daughter and her kids at a lake.  The boys would hardly get out of the water, even for lunch!

Buddy was looking for fish.  There were some very tiny ones.  He was too busy to pose.

All of us are well here, and I hope you are the same.  Have a lovely week!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:


Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap





20 comments:

  1. Hooray for a finish, Sylvia! I love those happy blocks with their bright solid borders. You have some pretty purple blocks, too! Your jars of peaches are impressive - they'll make some tasty things when you need them in the winter!

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    1. Thanks, Diann! We go through a lot of fruit around here. It's good to have it on hand.

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  2. Wow, lots of great work accomplished this week, plus canning & vacationing. Hooray for summer!

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    1. Thanks, Sue! Hooray for summer! We have to enjoy it while we can.

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  3. Glad that they found a place in your quilts

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  4. Hooray for Mrs. Pfaff and a finish! Those were cute blocks and you chose such a fun backing fabric!--TerryK@OnGoingProjects

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  5. Your happy blocks quilt: It appears as though you quilted that with a serpentine stitch? Did you use a built-in stitch on Mrs. Pfaff? Feed dogs up? Thank you.

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    1. Yes, that's exactly it. Maybe someday I'll learn how to free motion.

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  6. I quilt with a straight stitch and feed dogs up. Or send out the quilt top. I don't know how to free motion either.

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    1. I tried to learn once! Maybe I'll try again some time. Or just carry on lol.

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  7. Fun finish on your Lions & Tigers & Bears! Interesting fact that fabric used to be slightly wider... So many purple blocks! Great job!!!

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    1. Thanks, Nancy! Back in the 90s fabrics often had at least 42 usable inches in width. But there weren't nearly as many different fabrics available.

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  8. Don't those jars of peaches look so nice on your party shelf.

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    1. My second favorite part of canning is opening the cupboard door and looking at the full jars. My favorite part is eating the fruit of course!

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  9. such a happy quilt
    heck fire - the canning is awesome!

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    1. Thanks, Alycia! It's only half a bushel. I may get some more, we all love peaches here.

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  10. Love those Happy blocks! And the purple blocks. Summer is speeding by way too quickly,

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    1. Thanks, Sara! Summer always just rushes by. I'm trying to make sure we do the things we've wanted to do before it's over.

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Thanks for reading! Post a comment--I want to know what you think!