Home Is Where The Cats Are

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

How has your summer been?  I can't believe it's nearly over!  I've been traveling a lot this summer, and I'm glad to be home again.  I am grateful for all the time with family and will cherish the memories, but it's so good to be back into my usual routines.  Like making quilts!

The top above evolved from leftover cat blocks made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2024.  As you can see, I added borders to the blocks, and set them together with a cat print border.  There are all sorts of odd fabrics here, like the black Harry Potter symbol cat with a background of a spectacled cat next to the Eifel Tower.

Here's a block with Laurel Burch print dogs and a light cat print background.

More cute kitties in the border!  I love their rainbow accessories.

After adding the border, the blocks measure 9 in. finished, and the quilt is 42 in. x 51 in.  I might quilt it myself if I get time, or I will donate it as a top to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee.

What about my real cats?  I missed these critters!

I couldn't get Snicky to pose on the quilt.  Guess he was just too comfortable on the carpet.

Lizzy was relaxing on the couch with a different quilt.  Running around the house at five o'clock in the morning wears them out.  For a little while.

Now that I'm home, I'm catching up on my yellow Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for August.  Quarter Log Cabins are quick and easy, thank goodness.  The one in the upper left was a test block, you may have seen it before.  Lots of bright yellows here, with bugs and hearts and Dr. Seuss characters.  And Elmo!

More Elmo, two different prints!  More bugs, too.  Plus Thomas the Tank Engine, and dogs.

I saved my soft yellows for the last block.  There are teddy bears, Peter Rabbit, zoo animals, and a sweet dog.

Next I made two Dawn Chorus blocks.  I only need two for the quilt I'm planning so it didn't take too long.

Here's the other one.  Now I only need to make 3 purple blocks before I can start setting them together.

I missed these guys, too!  They were really hamming it up when we went to Bookworm Gardens in Sheboygan, Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago.  It was a great day, perfect weather and so many book-related things to see.  Just the thing for a retired school librarian like me!

So was this!  I am posing with the Cat in the Hat at the Hartford, Connecticut airport last Monday.  The Dr. Seuss characters are there to promote The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum in Springfield, Massachusetts.  I wish I had had time to go there!

I hope you have time this week to do the things you love to do.  Like quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with these great linky parties!  Click to see all the eye candy!

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Lots of Blocks

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

After a lovely week, my company has gone home.  I miss them, but the memories of this visit are great.  Meanwhile, I'm back to piecing.  Those are my Criss Cross Stars (a pattern from Lori Holt) laid out on the floor so I can put them into rows.  Maybe I'll have a top done by next week!

It's the last Saturday of July, aqua month of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.   Above are the Dawn Chorus blocks.  I made these ahead so I would be caught up when we get a new color for August. 

I made these aqua crumb blocks really far ahead, like last year.  Is that cheating?  I started them with no real plan, just using up little scraps.  Now I have twelve of them, which is twice as many as the other color crumbs I've made this year.  Will they all end up in the same quilt?  Stay tuned lol.

I just love this robot fabric!  The scraps are from a pillow case I made for my oldest grandson.  He turned 21 last week!  How did that happen???

In Progress

So of course, while I was trying to catch up on current projects I had to start a new one!  (Does this happen to anybody else?)  My friend Joey gave me this book, Scrap-Basket Surprises by Kim Brackett, and right away I found a quilt I wanted to try.

This is it!  It's called Feed Sacks, and Ms. Brackett made it with 1930s reproduction fabrics, but I wanted to try it in my usual kid-friendly brights.

The sewing is simple, with a partial seam to start so there are no set in seams.  I chose a jelly bean print for the center.  One reason I really like books by Kim Brackett are the clear instructions.  I always appreciate having pressing directions that help the pieces line up.

I made banana bread this morning in these small loaf pans, and it occurred to me I had arranged them on the cooling rack very much like the blocks I was making earlier.  Weird.

Last Saturday we had a big birthday party for four family members.  We celebrated with a drum circle organized by my husband.  All 13 of us made music/noise together.  It was so much fun.

All of us who were around/not working on Monday went to a local lake for a picnic.  Buddy and Little Guy took turns learning to kayak, supervised closely by their aunt.  

It's been a busy summer, and about to get busier!  We're going camping tomorrow, so I've got to get to work on packing our gear.  But before I do I'll take some time to look at all the great eye candy in the linky parties.

Have a good week, everyone!  And Happy Quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

 

 

Two Tops and Three Blocks

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

Hello, fellow quilters!  How was your week?  Mine was a bit crazy.  I'm reorganizing all my quilt stuff and IT'S A LOT!  The top above was in the Quilt Tops in Pieces bin.  Instead of sighing and putting it away (AGAIN) I spent about an hour sewing the final five seams.  Progress!

The pattern is called Beachside Bungalow, and is from the book Scrap Basket Beauties by Kim Brackett.  It's been in the UFO pile for at least 10 years.

Here's the quilt from the book.  I made my background pieces light instead of dark.  Most of the scraps in the quilt came from a bag of batik scraps I bought at a quilt show.

The sewing was easy, but on-point settings sometimes make me feel off-kilter.  I'm so glad I finished the top even if it did take years.  My version is the same size as the one in the book:  57 in. x 68 in. It will be quilted by a volunteer, and donated to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee.

But Wait, There's More!

The pieces for this top were in the same bin as the one above.  This is my Jane Austen quilt.  Back in 2014, quilt historian Barbara Brackman ran a block of the week called Austen Family Album on her blog.  Every week for 39 weeks she featured a 12 in. block to make, and told us more about Ms. Austen's life with family and friends.

I got to use my collection of early 1800s reproduction fabrics to make the blocks.  It was great fun opening the blog on Sunday mornings to read the article and start on the new block.  I wrote about it on Treadlestitches in May of 2014 when I made the first five blocks.  (Click HERE to view that post.)

Good news!  The Austen Family Album posts are still up!  All you have to do is click HERE for the first block post.  To get to the other posts:  Scroll all the way to the bottom of the first post (it's a long post) until you see the Blog Archive list on the left.  Starting with April, click on each month to find the blocks. 

I had originally planned to machine quilt this top myself. (What was I thinking?  Far beyond my talents!)  I was doing a lot of quilt as you go then, and had assembled the blocks in three sections, including the borders.  When I pulled it out of the bin this week I realized it only needed two seams to become a complete top.  So I sat right down in the messy room and sewed them!

While it's bigger than I usually make anymore, it's really just a twin size at 75 in. x 90 in.  One of the wonderful long-arm volunteers will quilt it, and it will be donated locally.

Whew!  Two UFOs off my list!

I am loving all the orange blocks on Angela's blog!  So many people are finding such cute orange prints.

This week my orange blocks are the Dawn Chorus pattern from Pam and Nicky Lintott.  I only make 3 of them, so I'm showing them all.  This one has a Kaffe scrap and some funky happy flowers.

Halloween cat print in this one, plus dog bones.

And lastly, bats, eyeballs, and batik.

In Progress

The center of the little Friendship Star quilt is sewn, but the borders still need to be attached before I can quilt it.  Maybe I'll have more time this week to work on it.

Look, it's Benjamin Franklin!  He's being portrayed here by Buddy.  He and his classmates learned all about someone in history, created a display board will facts and illustrations, and gave a speech to the class.  Yesterday the school gym was set up as a "wax museum", and the students told us about "themselves".  

Adults were welcome to come, so my daughter (Buddy's mom) and I went.  Buddy did a great job.  I also enjoyed learning some new facts about people like Milton Hershey, Amelia Earhart, Rachel Carson, and Isaac Newton.  Although the student portraying Isaac Newton thought perhaps Newton's father died in a car wreck.  In 1642.

Today is a special day for Hubby and me.  Fifty years ago today, on May 15, 1976, we were married.  He is everything I ever wanted in a husband, and we are so lucky to still be here together.  (OMG we are so impossibly young in this photo!)

The weather is beautiful today, sunny and 70s, my favorite.  I hope it's nice where you live, too.  Have a lovely week!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Big Bright Hopes

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

Big Bright Hopes is a flimsy!  You may remember me starting this one after our last guild meeting, when I was inspired by a block like this in the scrap pile on the free table.  The blocks were easy to sew as leader and enders while working on other projects.  (Sorry about the inside photos.  It's been raining all day today.)

I chose novelty print squares for the 5 in. (cut) centers, and bright colored strips in calmer prints to surround the centers.  The strips were cut 2.5 in. x 7 in.

When it comes to math, I like to keep it simple.  I needed 140 strips to make 35 blocks.  So if I chose 7 colors, I only needed 20 strips in each color.  Perfect!  

Big Bright Hopes will be approx. 50 in. x 67 in. when finished, and will be donated locally.

Speaking of big bright hopes, it was Little Guy's 6th birthday this week!

He posed for us, wearing the stickers he got at school for being the birthday boy and his classroom's Star of the Week.

After opening presents, the boys had fun with a musical birthday card.  

Too much excitement!  After they went home, I went back to the sewing room.

In honor of red week for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I made the red Dawn Chorus blocks.  Each big block is 4 small blocks put together.  This one has Bucky Badger and cows, appropriate for Wisconsin.

The novelty prints in this block are dogs and dog bones.

This one is my favorite.  The bird fabric came from the scrap tsunami (see last week's blog), there are lots of rabbits, and some dinosaurs and friends from the 1990s.  I don't think I'll ever run out of that dino fabric.

It's always fun to get out a new color of scraps at the beginning of the month.  I can't wait to see what everyone else is making.

In Progress

Remember the string blocks?  All 30 of them are done.  And because the strings were sewn directly onto a batting square, they are quilted as well.  I'm going to try a new-to-me technique with them, wish me luck!

These are the blocks I'm sewing in the photo with the string blocks.  It's a Lori Holt pattern she calls Twinkle Twinkle Scrappy Star.  I found a tutorial for it on her You Tube channel.  (Click HERE.)  All the print pieces for 30 blocks were in my box of 2.5 in. x 4.5 in. rectangles.  I had to cut most of the background pieces from strips and scraps.  It's a fun block to piece.

Good luck this week with all your projects.  Happy Quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestiches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

And now, just a few words about quilts and politics.  Feel free to skip, I won't mind.

Today I spent some time watching the funeral of the Reverend Jesse Jackson on television.  It was sad to see the passing of such an important Civil Rights leader, but heartening to see and hear how many people were inspired by him to continue his work, including three presidents and a vice president.

He was familiar with quilts in his own background.  In two of his most famous speeches, he spoke about quilts as a metaphor for our country.  

In 1984, in his speech at the Democratic Convention, he said:

"America is not like a blanket - one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size.  America is more like a quilt - many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread. The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay and the disabled make up the American quilt."

Four year later, he again referenced quilting, with an example from his own life, as he emphasized finding common ground with each other. 

"America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth. When I was a child growing up in Greenville, South Carolina my grandmama could not afford a blanket, she didn't complain and we did not freeze. Instead she took pieces of old cloth - patches, wool, silk, gabardine, crockersack - only patches, barely good enough to wipe off your shoes with. But they didn't stay that way very long. With sturdy hands and a strong cord, she sewed them together into a quilt, a thing of beauty and power and culture."

[By the way, crockersack refers to a burlap bag.]

Later in the speech he said:

"Be as wise as my grandmama.  Pull the patches and the pieces together, bound by a common thread.  When we form a great quilt of unity and common ground, we'll have the power to bring about health care and housing and jobs and education and hope to our Nation."

I remember these uplifting speeches, and of course I loved the mention of quilts.  I also love the hope that we can find common ground with each other.  

We are more alike than we are unalike.