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

Crossroads, Happy Blocks, and A Smooth Criminal

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

 

The Crossroads quilt I started a few weeks ago is a finish!  I had a little trouble getting the blocks to come out "exactly" right, but I persisted.  It feels good to have this one in the done pile.

The pattern came from the book Quilts for Scrap Lovers, by Judy Gauthier.  I can't remember if I ever used yellow fabric for sashing before, but I think it worked out okay.  It measures 43 in. x 52.5 in., and will be donated.

All that second hand fabric I bought at sales this summer and fall is really coming in handy.  The star border came from that loot, and so did many of the pieces in the blocks.  As you can see, the quilting is my usual serpentine grid with the walking foot.

The cooler fall weather inspired me to put flannel on the back.  It's soft and cozy.  I need to back more of the quilts I keep with flannel.

Check out the cat print!

In other news, I got Happy Blocks Quilt #2 finished also.  

This one has pink, purple, aqua, yellow and light blue frames around the light-background squares.

Half the fun of making these quilts has been searching for novelty squares for the centers.  There are so many wonderful fabrics being printed...

like minions and princesses..

and some nice bunnies!  The backing is the heart print I've been using up lately, and the binding is also a pink hearts print.  Lots of love from me to the little girl who gets this quilt.

Speaking of love, who is this, peaking out at us?  It's Little Guy on the playground at school.
 

Both of our younger grandsons, Buddy and Little Guy, posed for me on a lovely warm day this week.

Breaking News!  Be On The Lookout for a Smooth Criminal!

Wanted:  Snicklefritz AKA Snicky the Sneak  

Age:  1 year 

Crimes Include:

Theft:

 of an empty bobbin.  Subject carried it downstairs in his mouth for reasons unknown.

of old wool socks from a trash can.  No reason known.

of a (thankfully empty) pin cushion shaped like a strawberry.  Subject had to climb a high shelf, and repeated the offense numerous times.

 Destruction of Property:

Sewing thread chewed in half.  Evidence below.

Paper labels chewed.  Evidence below: 

Reckless Endangerment:

Subject has been known to try to play with a sewing machine needle when it was in operation.

Subject has jumped numerous times onto an ironing board, while the iron was on, causing an elderly woman to scream and/or curse loudly.

 If you see this individual, please call the Feline Bureau of Investigation.  Do not attempt to capture.  Subject is armed with furry cuteness and you may be overwhelmed.  

Have a lovely week, and Happy Halloween!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Strawberry Red

 Welcome to Treadlestitches, and welcome to July! 

The color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month is red, which is absolutely the perfect color for July.  It's strawberry season here in Wisconsin!  It took me about an hour and a half to pick this these berries at a local farm last weekend.  They were made into two batches of strawberry jam plus a little left over to eat.

Time in the sewing room was mostly spent cutting, but I got a little piecing done too.  There were some red scraps in the big pile I've been cutting up, so I could add some new-to-me fabrics to the old favorites for this Bricks project.  Somehow I never seem to have enough red.
 

The panda print came from a scrap bag I got from a vendor at a quilt show.  I got the dragonfly fabric from a rummage sale.

Does this happen to you?  Often when I'm cutting up scraps I start thinking about new projects to make with them!  (Even though I already have a few (cough, cough) projects in progress already!)  These Buckeye Beauty blocks will be a (you guessed it!) baby quilt, this one with a nautical theme.

What about a summer theme, and a block I've always wanted to try?  The very boring name for this block is Mosaic #3.  It was first published in the Ladies Art Company catalog, but has been used in quilts since the 1800s.  Quilt author Judy Gauthier has a clever way to make it in her book Quilts for Scrap Lovers.  You know I LOVE clever ways to make blocks, so I tried it out and it worked perfectly!  The background fabric was a scrap from the big pile, and made me think about sipping iced tea and eating watermelon.  I already had the green bug print squares.  

I think this pattern will work well in my happy novelty scraps, and also in my 1800s reproduction prints.

Speaking of happy novelties, these happy blocks are ready to sew.  I'm using charm squares with light backgrounds in the centers and red prints as the frames.  These squares are so cute I just couldn't cut them up.  Now I don't have to!

The weather this year has been all over the place, but it seems to finally be settling down into hot, appropriate for summer.  We've been indoors a lot this week because of the smoke from the Canadian wild fires, but yesterday skies were clearer so we ventured outside.  Little Guy had fun playing in the water with elephants and hippos and all sorts of other toy animals.  I mostly sat in the shade with the aforementioned iced tea.

Buddy is excited about helping pick berries!  Our little strawberry patch is worth all the work of weeding it, and more.  This is one day's haul.  Sadly, the season is short, and will probably be over a week from now, so we have to enjoy it while we can.
 

Here's another way to enjoy it:  Strawberry Sherbet.  It's an easy recipe with ingredients we usually have on hand.

Strawberry Sherbet

2 cups washed, hulled and pureed strawberries

2 cups Low Fat Milk (I use 2%)

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons lemon juice

Combine all ingredients, and process in an ice cream maker.  (I use a manual Donvier ice cream maker, fast and easy).

Makes about 1 quart.

Note:  When it's done, I freeze the sherbet in individual serving-sized plastic containers.  At dessert time, I put the sherbet in a microwave safe bowl and zap it for 20 seconds to soften it up.

Happy 4th of July to fellow Americans this week!  The antique quilt above is from the Ken Burns collection, which was on display at Quilt Expo last year.  
 

Have a good week, everyone!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Old and New and Blue

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Happy 2023!

The Christmas quilts are washed up and ready to put away for another year.  It took me all week in fits and starts, but I got the decorations down and packed up, with a little help from my Little Guy.

Isn't it fun to start new quilts?  Every year, I enjoy doing projects following The Rainbow Scrap Challenge (Click HERE for information).  Sometimes I choose my projects based on something I just really want to make.  A few weeks ago I showed an antique quilt made with concentric rounds of 4 patches.  I loved that idea.  Since the RSC color for January is dark or bright blue, I started with these.  (Click HERE for the post with the antique quilt.)  

Sometimes my RSC projects are based on scraps I need to use up.  Two of my projects this year come from this:

The two large bins on the bottom are filled with 5 in. wide strips of bright fabrics.  The shoe box sized bin on top holds 5 in. squares.  These pieces need a home.  (Maybe several homes?)

The boxes are absolutely stuffed full.

First, I cut a simple baby quilt, just out of the squares.

Here they are, spread out.  This will be a Trip Around the World, and will measure 40.5 in. square before borders.  Having it already cut will make it easy to use for leaders and enders around other projects.  Most pieces came from the bin, but I did have to cut some squares from larger scraps.

Here's a quilt I had my eye on.  It's called Row Houses, by Judy Gauthier.  I'm going to make all my houses the same size.

The pattern is from this book, and you won't believe how easy it is!

Just one seam turns a square into a house.

The house are sewn side by side, and then machine appliqued onto a background.  These are my test blocks.

My houses will be made mostly from novelty prints.  These are what I got done--dinosaurs, cats, baseballs, a singing chicken, an alligator, a toy boat, Clifford, and Marvin the Martian.  If the strips are relatively short after I cut the square, I cut up the rest of the strip into useful pieces.  Maybe the bins will be less full?

That's the new stuff.  What about the old?  Here's my last RSC project for 2022. (We won't talk about earlier years!)  I call it Rainbow Streak of Lightning.   It's spray basted and ready to quilt.  I should get some time with it this weekend.

Want to play with pretend clay?  Littlest grandson and I had fun this week.  He made a clay birthday cake for his dinosaur, complete with candles.  The dino couldn't eat the cake until we sang happy birthday and he blew out the candles, which of course were not really lit.

Our Little Guy and Snicklefritz the kitten love each other, but they do need a referee.  Cats don't want to be hugged around the neck.

The tiny rescue kitten we brought home last month has really grown!  He alternates between running around the house like a maniac, and passing out asleep on laps and chairs.  It's fun having a kitten again.

The new year always feels like a fresh new start.  Have fun this year.  And every year!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

A Rainbow Quilt, and a Pile of Scraps

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It's no secret, I love rainbows, especially rainbow quilts.  A few months ago, the very talented Judy Gauthier gave a talk at my quilt guild.  Of course I went!  I'm a real "fangirl", and have all of her books.  The quilt I finished this week is from a pattern in her second book, Rainbow Quilts for Scrap Lovers.  I started making these blocks back in May.

The pattern is called "Rectangles Squared".  Here's Judy's version:

 Not a great picture, but you get the idea.  She has plain white squares as alternate blocks, and beautiful quilting throughout.

I admit, I have a hard time following a pattern exactly.  Or at all.  In this case, I made the blocks according to the directions, but I set them side by side with a plain border to make a baby quilt to donate.  Simple quilting and a green binding, and it's ready to go.

It was so much fun choosing fabrics!  There are only two colors in each block.  I decided  to make each block in a different color combination.  This only worked because I used THREE shades of blue:  light, medium, and dark, plus aqua.  It got a little complicated at times.

It's such a clever design.  All the pieces are the same size!  It really used up a ton of scraps.  And since the pieces are rectangles, they can be cut from two sizes of strips.  If I couldn't find the right color in the smaller size, I might find it in the larger one.

I got to use lots of my novelty prints, too.  Check out that robot.  I think she looks like the robot maid on the Jetsons TV show way back when.

The back is butterflies, with a strip of kites.
 

Speaking of rainbows, I got a few blocks done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this week.

 

These are my 16 patch blocks, done in solid colors and multi-color prints.  The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month is light blue.  I'm also using other blue prints from the overflowing solid fabric scrap basket.  I'm almost done making these blocks, and the basket is still overflowing.

This block is my favorite.  Novelty prints with one-way designs are fun, but can be challenging.  At least I don't have any upside down dogs here.

Where do rainbow quilts come from?  Why, rainbow scraps, of course!

This big pile has been growing on my cutting board for a few months.  I kept shoving it aside so I could cut other things, but it's been refusing to budge lately.  There is all sorts of stuff in here--prints, solids, brights, reproductions, even parts of a shirt that somebody cut out and never made, which ended up in a scrap lot someone gave me.

I don't really have a great cutting area in my sewing room.  I'm using my husband's old desk, which I like, but it's not at the right height and can't be easily raised.  But the kitchen counter is at the perfect height, and has the added benefit of being near drinks and snacks.  I cut up that pile of scraps there off and on over Labor Day weekend.  Hubby fixed his breakfast and lunch around me and never even raised an eyebrow.

Here's most of what I ended up with.  I cut 6 sizes of strips, 5 sizes of squares, and 3 sizes of rectangles.  A lot of this was from backing cut off after quilting.

I made sure to snap this photo QUICK, while the desk was still cleaned off.  I always tell myself I won't let it pile up again, that I'll cut those scraps up as soon as they appear.  Somehow, it just doesn't happen.  (BTW, there is already a new pile getting started!)

What are our boys up to this week?

The weather has been nice and warm, even hot at times.  The guys like to have a "popsicle party" after Buddy gets home from school.  (This is Buddy's new "smile for pictures" face.  Not gonna lie, it's a little scary.)

Here's a better smile!  Buddy's latest obsession is fishing, and he asked me to take this picture.  This is a toy fish, but he was really excited about going fishing for real with his dad after school.

I'm excited about my obsession, too--I'm going to a quilt show this weekend!  So glad shows are in person again.

I hope you have a joyful week.  And if you have time for quilting, so much the better!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap