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

Kid Stuff and Bright Blocks on a Rainy Morning

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

This quilt was supposed to be the leaders and enders project while I worked on Criss Cross Stars.  It just took over.  Does this ever happen to you?  (If it looks like I shaded the blocks from dark to light it's just because it's a dark day and the light in this room is uneven.)

The pattern is simple.  It comes from the book Scrap Basket Surprises by Kim Brackett.  She calls it "Feedsacks" because she used 1930s reproduction fabrics to make hers.  I call my version Kid Stuff because so many of the fabrics are kid-friendly prints.

It might have a random look, but I can't do random (and I have tried!).  Each block has 8 long rectangles around a jelly bean print square.  I used 8 colors, one for each long rectangle (red, orange, yellow, green, aqua, light blue, dark blue, and purple).  There are also 4 short rectangles.  I chose them after I laid out the rest of the block.

The border is this triangles print.  It looks a little wild on its own, but calm next to the blocks!

Kid Stuff finishes at 54 in. x 68 in., and will be donated to the Children's Advocacy Center to be quilted and given to a child in foster care.

My blocks for Many Hands Many Hearts are done, and will go in the mail this week.  Above are the red/green ones...

then the orange and blue ones (love this combination!)...

and lastly the purple and yellow ones.  I definitely need more (and better!) yellows.  I'll dig around in the scraps and see what I can find this month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Speaking of purple, I guessed wrong on August's RSC color and made these crumb blocks as leaders and enders while setting the Kid Stuff top together.  Oops!  Never mind, I'll just save them for September and get started on yellow ones.

We are having an amazing summer!  We spent two days at a campground in central Wisconsin, and I just finally got all the laundry done!  Some of my favorite guys rode around on this golf cart.

Our two teenaged grand kids (Mr. H and Miss E) had fun on this crazy see saw at the playground.

When we got back home, Little Guy posed for me on the slide in the park near our house.  This summer will soon be over!  But we will try to make every minute count until then. 

I hope you're enjoying the season, whatever it is.  Happy Quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

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

 

 

Another UFO, and More Orange

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

The weather is iffy again, so we're stuck with indoor photos.  This is my version of Pat Sloan's Children's Library Quilt, from 2017.   Click HERE for Pat's quilt. 

As a retired school librarian, I was excited to make this quilt and to use prints of book characters in it.  I changed some of Pat's blocks so I could put a square of one of those prints in the center.

When the blocks were done the quilt languished until I could decide on a setting.  I saw that Let's Read fabric in the store, and snatched up several yards. 

 

This was another one I was planning to machine quilt in sections, but could never figure out quite how I wanted to do it.  At some point I gave up that idea and sewed the sections together.  

I found the finished top as I was sorting my quilt stuff.

It's nearly twin-sized at 68 in. x 80 in.  As usual, it will be donated to the Children's Advocacy Center in Milwaukee, after volunteers do the quilting and binding.  I hope it goes to a child who loves to read.

Here's a fun quilty thing I got to do this week!  I did a short quilt activity with kids at Buddy and Little Guy's school.  A volunteer took this photo of me holding the quilt and the kids happily identifying the book (and TV) characters on it.  

For the activity I gave them papers with a 9 patch grid and asked them to glue (with a glue stick) 2 in. fabric squares in each of the sections in the grid.  The colors and patterns were totally up to them.  I'm guessing I brought at least 800 squares, laid out on a table in paper plates by color.  I still have lots left over, even after using approximately 468 squares.  The design above was made by Judah.

The kids enjoyed doing this.  Most of them asked for a second paper.  It was fun to see their color choices.  A few of them even created detailed patterns with the colors. 

One question they asked was unexpected.  They wanted to know if I had drawn the designs on the fabrics in the quilts!  They seemed surprised to learn that the fabric came that way from the store.

I'm still reorganizing all my fabric, projects, etc., which didn't leave much time for sewing this week.  At least I got my orange crumb blocks done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Two of the blocks were leftovers from another crumb quilt, so I only had to make four.  

Only one more week of orange!  I'll be sad to see it go.

Speaking of orange, this display in an antique mall really caught my eye!  Orange was a very "with it" color in the 1960s and 1970s.

In Progress

Right now my only project in progress is the Cabin Steps blocks I've been making as leaders and enders.  I have a total of 15 blocks done, with six more ready to stitch (the ones on the right).  I'm hoping to get a small quilt quilted and bound, but we'll see.

Hubby and I had a picnic and a walk in Rock Cut State Park in Illinois last Saturday.  It was an absolutely beautiful day.  Shortly after I took this photo we saw two bald eagles fishing in the lake.  It was a lovely weekend away for our anniversary.

I hope you have a lovely week this week, doing things you love to do.  Like quilting!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 
 

A Scrappy Star, and Lots of Red

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

Twinkle Twinkle Scrappy Star is a top!  I hung it in our maple tree on a sunny day last week.

The blocks were easy and fun to make.  The points even came out right, most of the time!  All thanks to quilt designer Lori Holt.

I discovered the tutorial for this quilt on Lori Holt's Youtube channel.  I had two of her books, but hadn't really done anything with them.  After I watched a ton of her videos I ordered two more books.  My favorite is the one on top in the photo, Scrappiness is Happiness.  The directions on Youtube are very clear, and you wouldn't need the book to make the quilt, but I wanted to see all the other great designs.  Plus, as you'd expect from a retired librarian, I like hard copies!

The directions and photos in the book are great too.  You can see that Lori set her blocks side by side. I went for sashing and cornerstones for a slightly different look, which helps separate the wide variety of background fabrics I used.

All of the star points came from my box of 2.5 in. x 4.5 in. rectangles, so all I had to cut were the background pieces.  Did you notice the Peanuts Easter fabric in the block above?  I'm using holiday fabrics even in non-holiday quilts if the color is right.

My quilt is 56 in. x 66 in., and will be donated as a top to the Children's Advocacy Center.  A volunteer will quilt it.

Here's an adorable snuggly flannel baby quilt, also going to the CAC.  I didn't make this one, my friend Tammy M. did.

Tammy had a really good idea, which I will be shamelessly stealing.  This quilt is made of leftover border strips.  Tammy sewed them together (see the seam in the middle?) and quilted them.  People often donate this kind of thing to our group, or these borders end up in second hand sales, and I never knew what to do with them.  Now I know!  Thanks, Tammy!

It's the last week of red month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I had two sets of blocks to work on if I was going to get done on time.  First is the Half Log Cabin.  The block above is one I made to test my pattern.

It was fun digging through the red scraps to find fun prints.

Isn't red a great color?

Lastly, the crumb blocks!  I made all of these yesterday.  Still not sure what I'm doing with them at the end of the year.  My favorite block is the one with the south end of a north bound cow.  (It's the second block from the top, on the right.)

In Progress

I'm still working on the Cabin Steps quilt blocks as leaders and enders.  This one is going to take a while.

Meanwhile, this little quilt will be getting an orange binding.  The backing fabric is from 2012, and I bought it second hand in an antique shop.  All those colorful words are names of towns in Wisconsin. I'll show the front of the quilt next week.

Farewell to red month for the RSC, it's been fun!  I'm sure our next color will great, too.

Have a lovely week, everyone.  Happy Quilting!

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap