OMG I made it!

Woot!  My fingers may be sore, but my redwork quilt is QUILTED!!!  This was my OMG, one monthly goal, for February.

I've been working like crazy on the hand quilting this week.  Yesterday, with the quilting done, I was finally taking out the basting stitches.

Biddy the cat was helping me, as usual.  He's mostly moral support.

I still have a few thread ends to trim.

The back is off-white solid fabric from my vintage bin.

All that's left is the binding, which I'll do this weekend.  Thank goodness I didn't make that part of the goal!  I managed to find enough of the original red fabric to bind with, which is almost a miracle.  This project has been hanging fire for more than 3 years!
If it wasn't for the OMG, I wouldn't have gotten this done.  Many, many thanks to Patty at Elm Street Quilts, where I'm linking up today.
Happy dancing all day long today!

Quilting Like Mad

Has anybody else got an OMG deadline you haven't yet met?  ACK!  I've got til Thursday to finish this little redwork quilt for the One Monthly Goal February challenge (click HERE for details), so I'm hand quilting until my fingers bleed, or at least hurt. 

Two of the borders are done, so I do have an actual chance to finish if I keep after it.  I'm using this rope design.  I chose it because a) I had it already; b) I don't see how I could use this stencil for machine quilting; and c) it's an old fashioned design for an old fashioned quilt.
I've been working on this quilt during my Little Buddy's naptime, and sometimes in the evening when watching TV.  The best programs for hand quilting, in my opinion, are on PBS.  No commercials.  We record nearly everything we watch, and skip the commercials when we play it back, which means grabbing the remote every few minutes to buzz through all the people trying to sell us luxury cars, medicine with truly terrifying side effects, financial services we don't need, and delicious-looking food we shouldn't eat.  Time spent buzzing is time not spent stitching.

And of course, I have more than one project going on!  Having (finally!) decided on a backing, bought it, washed, and pieced it, I am at last machine quilting my Wagon Trail quilt, one of last year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts.  Above is the design I chose for the open spaces.

I'm using Golden Threads paper to get the design on the quilt.  I mark a square of the paper with the design, using a permanent pen, pin it to the top with safety pins, and then twist and turn (and possibly swear a little), quilting this on my domestic machine with the built in walking foot.  I'm liking the look of it, but I am very glad I'm doing this in two sections.  As a complete quilt I would not be able to manage this design at all.
So that's the quilty stuff I'm up to!  Also, this:

I got this book from the library--Modern Quilt Magic, by Victoria Findlay Wolfe.  (Click HERE to go to her author page at Amazon.)  It was fun to read and to look through the colorful quilt pictures.  She is an inspiring artist, and I actually got to meet her once.  I hear from acquaintances that she is an excellent teacher.
When not reading or quilting this week, I was having fun with my Little Buddy.

This is my youngest grandson on the giant pile of snow at the side of our driveway.  I have a similar photo of his mother doing the same thing.

Little Buddy loves the snow!  (Can you tell?)
This week, I'm wishing you this kind of joy, in the simple things.  Like a four foot snow drift.  (But just the joy, not the snow.)
Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Angela at So Scrappy
Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop
Cynthia at Oh Scrap

With A Little Help From My Friends

This is my string quilt.  I made the top over a year ago (as described in this post).  It has bits and pieces of so many memories--quilts made and used, quilts given away, shopping trips with friends, scraps of fabric and time.   There are even 3 blocks in the quilt that were made by my friend Debbie for her own quilt.  She gave me the extras and lots of plaid scraps.

My cat and I are looking at it here.  I LOVE it!  (Mr. Biddy is also giving it his seal of approval.)

Here's the back of the quilt, made from orphan blocks and random fabrics.  My friend Joey and I made up the backing together, and Joey did the quilting.  Can you see it in this picture?  She did a Baptist fan over the whole top.  She does this freehand on her long arm.  It is amazing, and exactly what I was envisioning for this quilt.

I have since bound and labeled the quilt.  I can't stop running my hands across it.

Here's the label.  It's part of my New Years Resolution, to label the quilts I make this year.

Ties that Bind Quilters may remember this quilt.  Louanne S. led us in a mystery quilt, with one clue per month, in 2014.

I chose the spools fabric first (it was a Connecting Threads print), and then chose the other fabrics based on the colors in the print.  I really liked this quilt, even though these are not my usual colors.

But it didn't come to life until Joey quilted it!

Look at these beautiful feathers, done with variegated thread!

And check out how it turns the corner!  It is just so wonderful!
Both of these quilts would still be just tops, hanging in my sewing room closet, if it wasn't for Joey.  This is the first time anyone else has quilted anything for me, and I could not be happier.

I bound it in a bright green, and sewed on the label.  The quilting looks even better from the back!


Yesterday was a busy day, but it was also Martin Luther King Day, so I made time to work on a little quilt for charity.  (I think I'm going to try calling them "giving quilts" this year.)

I quilted and bound this baby quilt, all on the sewing machine.  The top was hanging in the closet, waiting for me.

I have made quilts in this pattern lots of times.  It's sort of my go-to pattern when I just want to sew something.  I call it Evelyn's Quilt, since I made it first for my granddaughter Evelyn. 
Click here to go to the free pattern.

I quilted a diagonal grid as well as a horizontal one.  My quilting is SAD compared to Joey's.

Here's the back of the quilt, a Winnie the Pooh print I got at a sale for $1.00 per yard.  I think I have enough to back at least one more quilt.

The redwork quilt sits on my kitchen table, where I can quilt whenever I have a few minutes between cooking and laundry, etc.  The masking tape is working out for quilting lines without having to mark them.

I'm hand quilting diagonal lines through each square.  When those are done I'll tackle the sashing and border.  The lines are 1 3/8 in. apart.

This is one of the best of the squares--a mule and two dogs.  The embroidery is mostly chain stitch.  Blue lines are visible on some of the blocks.  Either the original quilter bought the blocks ready-stamped or stamped her own with a transfer pattern.

I like this one, even though it is very simple.  I believe it was traced from a rooster cookie cutter.  I'll have to look for one of these the next time we go antiquing.

My life has really been enhanced by my quilting friends, and I bet yours has, too.  Let's remember to appreciate them this week.

Stay warm!

Ten Reasons to Be Thankful for Fall

I have to admit, fall is NOT my favorite season.  I love summer.  Working in the garden, going barefoot, having the windows open, no need for jackets, summer.  So fall is kind of tough for me, being the definite end of summer and a scary glimpse into what's ahead--the full-on Wisconsin Winter.
Whenever things change, we have a choice.  We can moan and groan about what's gone, or we can deal with the change in a positive, thankful way.

So here are my 10 reasons to be thankful for fall.

1.  Pumpkins.  Because without them, we wouldn't have pumpkin pie.  Plus they're a really great orange color.

2.  Hoop quilting.  Hand quilting in a hoop is much more comfortable in the fall than in the summer.  This is a top pieced by my great-grandmother in 1969.  I have been working on it off and on for literally years.  Although I guess this is a good example of how long it takes to finish a quilt you're not working on.  So with cooler weather, I'm working on it again.

3.  Knitting. While it can be done anytime, it just seems more right when it starts to get cold in the mornings.  Here I'm making caps for soldiers:  (www.capsforsoldiers.com).  Luckily I've got lots of yarn.

4.  Canning season is just about over.  Here are 19 quarts of apples, ready to make into pies this winter.  I canned these on Monday, and made apple butter on Friday.  I like canning, especially since it means I've got lots of good local food on hand even if we get snowed in.  (It usually saves money, too.)

5.  Quilt shows!  It's quilt show season!  Quilts, vendors, classes, oh and did I mention vendors?  And even if you can't get to all of them, some of them have great pictures online.  The photo above comes from Quilt Expo 2014 in Madison, Wisconsin.

6,  Wool quilts.  Don't miss the wonderful new exhibit at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts entitled "Sheared Delights".  The quilt in the photo above is hanging right as you enter the exhibit, and it is mesmerizing.  (See the web page at:  wiquiltmuseum.com).  There is nothing like the deep rich colors of wool.  I might have to make another wool quilt myself.

7.  Antique shopping!  Flea market season is, sadly, over, but now antique mall season begins for my husband and me.  It's fun just to look.  You never know what you're going to find.

8.  Walks in the woods.   We had a great day yesterday, walking on a trail at Pike Lake with our dog Bella.  The leaves look brown here, but they were brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red as well as brown, and they crunched under our feet.

9.  Oven meals, or crock pot dinners.  I could call this one "West Bend Farmers Market Pot Roast".  The beef, potatoes, carrots, and onions all came from the market.  Yesterday was the last day for this year's market, but it will be back again in late May.
Crock pot meals are my favorite on weekend days.  I can get it ready in the morning, and it can cook all day while I sew.  Makes the house smell great, too.  I guess I could do this in the summer, but we just aren't in the mood for this kind of food until it starts getting cold.

10.  Time with family and friends.  We have several family birthdays in the fall (above is our daughter Connie's last September).  One of my favorite holidays is Thanksgiving, which for me really ends the fall season.  No commercialism, no hype, just a good home cooked meal to share, and all of us thankful for the past year and glad to be together.

Wishing you the joy of this season, and every season.
Happy quilting!
Sylvia