Happy Scrappy Kitties, and New Projects

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

Two finishes in a row, can you believe it?  This one is made from leftover cat blocks from the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2024.  I blogged about it a few weeks ago when I finished the top.  (Click HERE).

The quilting is nothing fancy, just a grid based on seams in the patchwork.

Remember this border?  These kitties with their rainbow accessories are so much fun.

I put a solid stripe down the middle of the backing to make it wide enough.

Check out this wild print on the back!  I call it "Kitties Go Shopping Downtown".  These funny cats have bags from "Cats 5th Avenue", "Feline's Basement", "Catnel", etc.  

I'm trying to think of a name for this quilt.  Maybe something like Happy Scrappy Kitties?  I need a name because I'm going to donate it to next month's GSAFE online auction, and they like a name for the description.  I hope someone will want to adopt it.

Now what about those new projects?

I confess, I love starting new projects!  How about you?  I was inspired to start this one by the fabric above, which had belonged to guild member Cheryl, and was given to me after she passed away.

In my box of Some Assembly Required block sets there were 20 nine patch blocks I had sewn as leaders and enders.  I added a few blocks and cut Cheryl's fabric to the same size.  Now I'm piecing the rows together.  This one should be big enough for the guild's project making quilts for Sleep in Heavenly Peace.

But wait, there's more!

I seem to remember some awesome quilt bloggers making these Sweet Treats blocks a couple of years ago.  They were so cute!  Seeing candy in the store with Halloween wrappers made me think of it, and decide to make a Sweet Treats quilt.  The free tutorial is HERE.

Right now I'm using Halloween fabric, but I plan to use other prints too.  It won't be a very big quilt though because I only have a yard of the background fabric.

I got the apples done!  Six quarts of sliced apples and 9 pints of applesauce.  We've also had apple crisp and apple cake this week.

The weather has been lovely.  Buddy had a cross country meet on Wednesday evening, and his team got a first place medal.

Little Guy and I went to the park after school Thursday.  He had fun playing on the exercise equipment.  The tooth fairy has been visiting him a lot lately.  I like his toothless smile, but he will have less trouble eating as his new teeth grow in.

My daughter and her boys helped set up our Halloween decorations the other night.  After supper it was just dark enough to start being spooky.  It was so much more fun than when I just put things in the same place every year.

I hope you're having fun, doing whatever makes you happy.  Like quilting!

Have a lovely week!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with these awesome ladies:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Meowsers! More Cats!

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Saturday, everyone!  For the first time in weeks, I have an actual finish, quilted and bound and everything.  It's amazing what you can do when the kids go back to school.

When I was working on last week's cat quilt top I went through my stash looking for cat prints to use as borders or backing.  It may not surprise you that I found a lot!  The sizes ranged from 2-3 yards down to squares and strips.

The squares made me think of this quilt that I saw at the Winter Quilt Show in February.  Before I could stop myself I was cutting up squares and strips to make my own version.

The squares are charm squares, 5 in. x 5 in. cut.  Of the 63 squares, 23 are different cat prints and 4 are "cat-adjacent", meaning paw prints mostly.  Two of the prints feature dogs and cats.  The strips between the squares are cut 2 in. x 5 in.  There are 63 of the strips also.  (Don't you love that cat relaxing on a pile of quilts?)

I included Hello Kitty, even though I know she's supposed to be a little girl dressed up like a cat.

This is an easy quilt to make.  The biggest challenge was keeping the one way prints right side up.  By the way, the yellow square above is another "cat-adjacent" print, with things cats like such as yarn and fish bowls.

I forgot to include the border and backing when I counted the cat prints!  So there are 25 different prints with cats in the quilt.  Check out the cat sewing!  I need to teach Snicky to sew.  Maybe he could do the bindings.

Here's the backing.  I found it at a local quilt shop on the clearance rack for 40% off!!!

I think this pattern would work well for other kinds of novelty fabrics or for I Spy quilts.  Right now I'm thinking about making one with animals (zoo animals, farm animals, all kinds!), maybe book characters if I can find enough, vehicles like cars and trucks, etc.

The finished quilt measures 42 in. x 51 in., and will be donated locally.

Wow, it's already the last Saturday in August!  Even with having extra time, I had to finish these yellow crumb blocks this morning for my last set of Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  Can you guess which one is my favorite?

The one with Elmo, of course!

September's color is purple, which is my very favorite!  I can't wait to pull out the purple scraps and get going.

School just started, and our Buddy has already been in a cross country tournament.  He's on the JV team for his school, and did very well.  Little Guy and I cheered him on at the finish line.

I hope someone is cheering you on for the amazing things you do.  Have a wonderful week, and happy quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

As usual, I'm linking up with these great linky parties.  Come join us!

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Apples, Cats, and Quilts

Here's one of the best things about fall--apples!  We got a bushel of Macintosh apples from the orchard yesterday.  I take my husband along to do the heavy lifting, and I usually pick out what are called "seconds" to save money.  Seconds are still good, but not perfect, so they are cheaper.  Since I fall into that category myself, I don't mind "not perfect" at all.

I peeled and sliced a batch of them, and canned some quarts for pies and crisps this winter.

The cores are stuffed into this old crock to make vinegar.  For this particular crock, I add 2 quarts of water and half a cup of sugar.  The ratio is one quarter cup sugar to each quart of water.  You want the water to cover the cores.

Then you put a piece of cheesecloth over the top and secure it with a rubber band.  It will sit on the shelf in my kitchen cupboard for a few weeks, until it smells like vinegar.  Then I'll strain it and put it in glass bottles.  The  resulting apple vinegar is good in baking, and my oldest daughter takes it to ward off a cold.
I still have to make applesauce (on the stove now as I type) and do another small batch of pie apples.  The house smells great.

This week's finishes are lap quilts.
Imagine you are an elderly person.  (If you're lucky, you'll get to be one someday.)  Now imagine it's winter, your knees are cold, and you'd like to cover up with a quilt but it's a problem with your wheelchair.  You would need a lap robe.
That's what I made this week.

The first one is flannel, top and back.  I got the pieces for the top a few weeks ago at a flea market.  There was a nice big stack of flannel rectangles, cut 2.5 in. x 3.5 in., in a bag of scraps I bought for $2.  I made 4 patches out of them, and added the light colored fabric from my stash, plus a few flannel rectangles to make 30 blocks.  Flannel borders top and bottom made the quilt square and just about the right size.

The nursing home we give these to asked for quilts about a yard square.  You can see from the yardstick I fell a little short with this one.  Not perfect.  I think it will be okay anyway.

The back is more of that cozy plaid flannel.

Here's the second quilt, made of regular cotton on the front and flannel on the back. 

The cat fabric was donated to our quilt group.  There were yards and yards of different prints.  Our leaders divided it up into half yard pieces, and handed them out as a challenge, to make a quilt for charity.  I cut all these cats out of the half yard Colleen gave me, and framed them with 2.5 in. strips from the scrap bins and baskets.

Success!  This one is a yard square!  I hope the recipient likes cats, because ...

the back is a flannel cat print from my stash.  There's no way to get away from cats with this quilt.
I'm linking up with Busy Hands Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts, and Can I Get A Whoop Whoop this week.  It is so inspiring seeing what other people are making.
Well, back to the applesauce.  Happy fall!
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches