Of Cats and Quilts and Puzzles and Books

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

If you visited Treadlestitches last year, you might remember all the cat blocks I was making for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I got carried away (so not unusual for me)!  It was so much fun to see these made up in all sorts of prints.  This is my third little quilt made from those blocks.

This time the cats alternate with a pieced block, with a multicolored cat print in the center.  The block is called Puss in the Corner, which is completely appropriate.  

Lots of the fabrics in the quilt are multicolored.  Some even feature things cats might like, such as sushi.  (Isn't it amazing how many different prints there are in the world?)

Snicky the cat decided to pose next to the quilt when I was taking pictures.

The blue inner border and the binding are both from my scraps, so they're in keeping with the RSC color of the month.  (Sorry for the dark photos.  It's a dismal day here, and the flash didn't help much.)

The back is this blue plaid.  Can you see the hint of sparkle in it?  It was recycled from a little-used tablecloth from a girl scout camp.

More blue scraps!  All of these hearts were made from pieces cut from my Big Scraps basket.  I seem to have more dark than light blues.

Ice cream cones, dinosaurs, butterflies, Thomas the Tank Engine, Curious George, etc.  The hearts will go into quilts to be donated to kids.  I hope they like these fun fabrics!

A quilter's cat needs to be ready at all times to inspect quilt blocks laid out on the floor.  Lizzy, our little quilter's cat in training, just came across these blocks by accident while chasing Purple Mousie, her favorite toy.  I'm sure she'll refine her technique in time.  

She and Snicky are working out their relationship with lots of running and chasing.  He objects (rightly!) to having his tail attacked.  They still spend some time each day apart.

The quilt blocks are Rail Fence blocks from last year's RSC.  So many blocks, so little time!

Last Friday, hubby and I spent the morning book shopping.  I bought this puzzle at Barnes and Noble, and we worked it right away.  It has two of my favorite things, cats and books.  There are STILL some leftover cat blocks in the RSC bin.  Maybe I could make a quilt like this?  Only simpler?  

Our next stop was Half Price Books, where I found all of these!  Lots of great ideas for future projects.

It's been a busy week, and it's about to get busier.  Today is the Winter Quilt Show in West Bend!  I will spend the morning enjoying the show and the vendors, and the afternoon working at the guild booth.  I hope I can remember to take pictures of the action for next week's blog.

Have a lovely quilty week, everyone!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with these wonderful quilters:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Black Cats, Multicolors, and Books

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

The black cats are here, in plenty of time for Halloween!

I made 20 black cat blocks as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  These little kitties told me they wanted their own quilt, so I said okay!  The border fabric came from a flea market, and I used up almost every last bit.

I convinced Snicklefritz, my very own black (and white) cat, to pose on the quilt for you.  

The back is a panel I bought at the quilt show rummage a couple of weeks ago.  

It's a cat print!  I had to add a couple of strips of stash fabric to make it wide enough.  I'll be donating the quilt to a good cause.

Do you have "too many" RSC projects?  I know I do!  I tend to get carried away, especially when I always choose such easy blocks.  Most of my quilts are made to donate to children, and I typically use bright colors and seldom include black, gray, beige, or brown. 

What about multicolor fabrics?

 Back when I first started with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, there was a month that called for Multicolor fabrics.  I hadn't yet started this obsession with novelty prints and didn't really have any multicolor scraps.  Boy, has that changed!

Since I have so many, I'm going to add them to my RSC projects through October.  Above are my Stretched Stars with multicolor centers.

Check out the Halloween print in the upper left!

Oh, dear, there's another headless dinosaur.  Ron and Ginny Weasley are looking on in horror.

The potato chip block got the multicolor treatment too.  Multicolor prints make some happy crazy chaos.   I apparently have cat prints everywhere, wonder why that is.

In other news, some new-to-me quilt books followed me home lately.  Do any of you remember Georgia Bonesteel?  She had a PBS show many years ago, and was famous for Lap Quilting, which at the time meant hand quilting using a hoop instead of a floor frame.  I eagerly watched the show and bought her books, but I had never seen this particular book before.  It's called Scrap Quilts from Georgia Bonesteel.  Good for inspiration, but the techniques are not what we are used to now. 

American Patchwork is a collection of true stories by quilters, and A Country's Call is a recent book (2019) of patterns for Civil War quilts by Mary Etherington and Connie Tesene of Country Threads fame.  They include short bios and pictures of real women from the Civil War.  

Lots of great reading ahead for the fall/winter months!

Speaking of fall, here's what I found at the Farmers Market this morning!  I could hardly believe we still could get local green beans at the end of September.  I'll freeze them and can the tomatoes later today, and just enjoy the broccoli and sweet peppers.

These Bartlett pears will be good eating, and they're a good size for the grandkids.  So funny that there's just one green one.

The grandkids and I are playing outside lately while the weather is nice.

Little Guy is even better at posing than Snicky!

Have a wonderful week!  I hope you have time for all the things you like to do.  Like quilting!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with these Wonderful Bloggers:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Butterflies, More Kaffe, and Black Cats

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Does this butterfly quilt look familiar?  I finished the top a while back, made from a UFO started by an unknown quilter.  The project was passed on to our quilt group with the request that we finish and donate it to a charity of our choice.  (Click HERE for more details on the quilt.)

I made the top, but I knew my primitive quilting skills would not enhance it.  These butterflies deserved to fly!  Luckily, we have several very talented long arm quilters in our group.  Our own Nancy Queen of Scraps came to the rescue and did the lovely quilting.

I had it back to bind it, and got that done this week.  I hope the person who gets it can enjoy it for many years to come.

Here's yet another Kaffe Fassett quilt made from my scraps!  I adore these fabrics.  Recently I was cutting up scraps I was given, and discovered a bunch of small rectangles of Kaffe fabric.  I trimmed them to 2.5 in. x 3.5 in., and added in more from the stash.

The light green with the light blue dots is one of the fabrics from the scrap bag.  Most of the rest are from my stash.  The light print is definitely NOT a Kaffe print, just a fun one.

The pattern I used came from this book, Jelly Roll Quilts, by Pam and Nicky Lintott, copyright 2008.  They called it Sparkling Gemstones.  I changed the sewing a bit (they used strip piecing and I rarely do any more).  I have made this pattern several times, but never before with Kaffe fabric!

The border is a leftover Kaffe print from my own butterfly quilt, which is not yet finished (I'm looking for the perfect backing lol).  

Coincidentally, the backing for this Kaffe quilt is a purple print with butterflies.  I bound it with a solid purple.

So what about those black cats?

I didn't realize I had so many different black prints until I pulled them out for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  September's color is "dark", so this fits.

I freely admit I got carried away with these cat blocks.  It was fun using cat prints and matching up the black prints with the backgrounds (book print with READ fabric, Star Wars with a Star Wars background, pink and black cat fabric with Hello Kitty, etc.).

This block with the white paw prints on black is my favorite, mostly because of the kitten in the background fabric.  It looks just like my little Snicklefritz did when we brought him home from the shelter.

These black cats are going into their very own quilt.

I did get cucumbers at the Farmers Market last week, and made up 8 pints of Bread and Butter Pickles.  I feel good having these all done for the year, but it really did make the house smell like apple cider vinegar.

After we left the Farmers Market, we went to the Labyrinth Garden in Regner Park.  (Click HERE for more information and directions.)  Admission is free and it is open to the public throughout the growing season.  The labyrinth is maintained by volunteers, whose work is excellent.

I had never been to a labyrinth before, and was unsure what to expect.  It was so peaceful and quiet, walking the grassy paths.  And there were so many beautiful flowers.  I'm so glad we went, it was a very worthwhile experience.  

Our little boys got their school pictures taken last week!  These are just the proofs we will be ordering from.

Buddy is in 3rd grade!  He's looking so grown up.

Our Little Guy is starting to look like a big kid!  What is happening?  I don't feel any older!

These two are coming over later and spending the night while their parents have an evening out.  So I need to make up beds and bake some cookies.

Have a wonderful week!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

 Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

  

Beep! Beep!

Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

 

Isn't summer wonderful?  We've got blue skies, green grass,  and a fresh new quilt on the clothesline.  This one is a Double 4 Patch.  I call it Beep Beep.

The border is a cute light blue print I bought second hand at the museum sale in June.  The light fabric is also a transportation print.  A kid who loves cars and trucks will appreciate this one, I hope!  It will be donated locally.

Each block has 4 bright print squares (cut at 2.5 in.), 4 light print small squares (also 2.5 in.) and 2 larger squares (cut 4.5 in.).  The blocks are 8 in. finished.

This antique quilt was my inspiration.  The old standard 4 patch looked different with everything in the block being light except the four small squares.  I set the blocks side by side instead of separated by alternate blocks.

The back is this train print in mostly blue.  I found it in my 1930s repro bin, and put it right to work.  The binding is a solid blue.

Be careful on the roads, everybody!  Beep beep!

It's been fun hunting through the aqua scraps for this months Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  First are the 4 potato chip blocks, made from rectangles cut 2 in. x 3.5 in.  I have plenty of aqua, which I was surprised about.  It was harder hunting up light rectangles that looked right with it.  I also had far more greenish aqua than blueish.  I only made 1 blueish block, the other 3 are more greenish.

Here are the Aquakitties!  Does that sound like super heroes?  I really LOVE making these blocks!

Two of my favorites are the cat print (of course!) and the frog print.

I'm still working through scraps I bought at the big museum sale, like this one modeled by my adorable grandson aka Little Guy.  Looks like the original owner of this piece was into fussy cutting! 

The baby blue fabric is an adorable baby print.  There were two of those cut out pieces Little Guy was showing off in the scrap bag I bought.  I turned them into these strips, squares, and rectangles, and now they're stored away in the parts department.  They'll be ready when needed.

Summer is going by so fast!  I want to enjoy it as much as possible.  

So I've set some goals.

1.  Play outside more.

2.  Go barefoot in the grass.

3.  Eat watermelon til the juice runs down my chin.

4.  Run through the sprinkler with the kids!   

and

5.  Sew inside in the air conditioning if it's too hot out.

What are your goals for July?  I'd love to know!

Have a great week!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

The Amazing Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge Queen Angela at SoScrappy

 Scrap Quilter Extraordinaire Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Check out these great blogs!