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

Back Home Again

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

Did you have a good Halloween?  Very few kids live on our street anymore, so we only had a few trick or treaters.  Now we have lots of leftover candy, which may not be a good thing lol.

Just for fun, I went through my kid fabrics looking for Halloween prints, and this was all I found.  Most of these I've bought recently.  The blue one was in the fabulous pile given to me by my friend Joey.  I've had others, but used them up.

I am so lucky!  I got to spend last week with my wonderful Mom.  We talked and laughed, and even stayed up late one night.  Last Sunday we went to church, then out to my sister's house for a barbecue.

Of course I stopped by a quilt store while I was there.  This is getting to be the theme of my recent blog posts!  Normally I only visit quilt shops occasionally, but when I travel I like to see what shops in a new area are like.

The shop is Sew & Sews, Inc. in Oklahoma City.  It is a big shop, just full of lovely fabric.  The staff was welcoming and helpful, and prices were reasonable.

Want to see what I bought?  

Kid prints, light fabrics (I always need those), and a bright blue that might become sashing.

I'm happy with the loot, but it's time to stop shopping and get to treadling.  The bins are getting full!

I didn't do any quilting while I was at Mom's.  Since then I have unpacked, done a little laundry, and made a few string blocks.  These were a kit made up by our charity committee.  I'm enjoying the process, pulling the strips from a basket at my feet and sewing them to a cloth foundation with my trusty treadle.

While I was visiting, my Mom and sister and I went to the First Americans Museum.  It was amazing.  I highly recommend it.  We toured the gallery, learned about First Nations history, and saw artifacts made both long ago and recently.

These are toy cradle boards made by the women in a Kiowa family.  The colors and designs are so beautiful.

Look what happened while I was gone!  You might remember the Dead Plants Society from my Sept. 27 post.  Before I did all this traveling in October I got rid of the plants that were actually dead, and cleaned up the remaining three.  When I left there were buds on the Christmas (or Thanksgiving?) cactus, and now there are blooms!  I was overjoyed.   The geranium is going to bloom as well.  I promised all three of them to do a better job taking care of them.

I'll be staying close to home this week.  Visiting with family members at my cousin's funeral made good memories in spite of the sad circumstances. Spending time with my Mom and my sister's family was joyful.  I am glad to be back home again now, getting ready for the holidays.

I wish you joy this week in whatever makes you happy.  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

I Spy A Little Quilt, and Going Bananas

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

 I spy a little I Spy quilt hanging on the clothesline!  

It's made of 5 in. (cut) squares.  I was inspired by this quilt top (below) that I finished for the quilt guild a few weeks ago:

The top was donated by a very generous quilter, who made a nice big stack of tops during the pandemic lockdown.  For this one she used novelty prints (my favorite!), alternating between light and dark.  People, I tried to do the same for my quilt, but the randomness of it drove me nuts.  I loved the look of the original quilt, but I just cannot do random! So I picked an alternate fabric from the stash and calmed it down a little.

Do you make kits for yourself?  I often do, especially when I'm cutting up scraps.  I can get excited about an idea for a quilt, get it ready, and then work on it when other projects are done.  That's what I did with this little one.  

As I was putting it together, I started noticing that most of the prints featured animals:  dinosaurs, cows, bugs, birds, plus fictional animals like Scooby-Doo and Daniel Tiger, and even a tiny bit of Bucky Badger.  Then I remembered that I did this on purpose when I made the kit!  (This is why I'm writing this stuff down now!)

Before I remembered my plan, I replaced one of the animal squares with this banana one.  Oops!  So it's all animals, plus one banana square.  Even the border is a grasshopper print.

The backing is butterflies on white.  The new poly batting is working out great, and will make the quilt warm and snuggly for the recipient.  (Thanks again, Joey!)

I had bananas on my mind last night when I was choosing a border for another Bricks quilt, so this happened.  I bought this bananas-on-denim print at a flea market, and now I'm down to only a yard left.  I'll show the whole quilt when it's done.

Update on the GSAFE auction:  The original goal was to raise $30,000.  The actual total was $37,337!  My three quilts brought in over $600.  I am over the moon!  I was just hoping they would get even one bid.  The money will be used to help LGBTQ kids in schools.   (Click HERE for their web site.)

We're getting our Christmas decorations out a little at a time.  Buddy and Little Guy helped put tiny ornaments on this tree and regular ornaments on the big tree.  They are handy to have around.

Who says kids need expensive toys?  Little Guy's favorites this week are actual rocks!  We gathered these at the lake several months ago.  They're great for loading into train cars or dump trucks.  I wonder if he'll have as much fun with his Christmas presents?

I hope you're having a wonderful week.  Happy Hanukah to all who celebrate!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with these wonderful quilters:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Jelly Twist, the Parts Department, and Rail Fence

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

A little finish on the clothesline today!  It's called Jelly Twist, and is from a pattern by Cluck Cluck Sew.

This size is not in the pattern, but it's just 16 blocks set 4 x 4, with a 3 in. finished border, so no complicated math needed, thank goodness.  It is possible to get confused making the blocks, but the pattern is thankfully in color and that helps a lot.  If there is a way to mess it up, I usually find it, but it's not difficult if you keep your wits about you, and are not me.

The border is a very subtle Toy Story print, with silhouettes and names of the main characters.
 

For quilting, I just did a 2 in. grid with the curvy serpentine stitch on my Pfaff.

On the back, I've got this print of multicolored hearts on white.  I had a big piece of it I was saving for a larger quilt, but decided to go on and use it up now. 

This quilt is brought to you by my Parts Department.  Every colored rectangle in the quilt is a different fabric.  I did not have to drag out any yardage or even cut up any scraps to piece the blocks, which meant I could start sewing right away.

This is my Parts Department.  I'm not sure who came up with the term Parts Department for our precut stash, but I love it.  Each quilter can customize her/his system to the sizes and shapes they use most often.  Most of my Parts Department stash is hand cut by me, but I do sometimes have charm squares or jelly rolls that are commercially cut.  When I cut up scraps, I trim them to the largest size possible, and then store them in the boxes and drawers.

When I first started my own Parts Department, I filled all of the drawers with 1880s reproduction scraps, because that's what I was sewing.  Gradually I started making more and more quilts with bright novelty prints, and needed room for those scraps.  Back in 2018, I decided to make a rail fence quilt as a leader and ender project, which would help me use up my 2 in. wide repro scraps and make room for the 2 in. bright scraps.

There are all kinds of ways to make rail fence blocks.  I made these with 4 strips, cut 2 in. x 6.5 in., for 6 in. finished blocks.  Each block had one strip of the brown floral, one strip of lightish print (ranging from white to dark beige) and two random colored strips.  Eventually, I had 143 blocks.

I set them 11 x 13, and then just put the top in a pile to decide on a border.  It sat in that pile for at least 4 years.  Until this week, when I finally put a 3 in. border on it!

The border is this Jo Morton print I had in the stash, that I also used for a different quilt.

So now the top is done!  But I'm not going to put off quilting it.  I'm not going to quilt it at all!  I'm donating it, and the wonderful ladies in my quilt group will quilt it.  I think it will look nice with some curvy long arm quilting stitches.  It can be warm and comforting for someone who needs it.

Here's what's left of the 2 in. reproduction strips--just one plastic shoe box.
 

And now the drawer is filled with 2 in. wide bright print strips, bagged up by color.  I can easily grab what I need, especially when making blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

In other news, the weather here has been weird!  On Thursday, the boys and I went to the park for a little while.  The temperature was in the high 70s (F), and it had even been over 80 at the beginning of the week.

Buddy was showing off his acrobatic skills.

Friday, the high temp here was a cool and rainy 60.  This morning when I got up it was 41 degrees F.  Time to get out the winter coats, and make sure we have hats and gloves/mittens ready.

Snicklefritz likes snuggling into a pile of quilts on days like this.  Or on any day.  Me too!

Have a lovely day, whatever the weather, and a good week ahead.

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Check out these great linky parties!

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy
 

 

Happy About Yellow

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

August is yellow month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and that means it's time to make yellow Happy Blocks.  My light novelty fabrics were going begging, so I've been using them for the centers, with the yellow strips surrounding them.

Yellow always makes me happy, but it can be hard to find nice yellow prints, so I was glad to uncover these in the Endless Stash.  I used any light prints for the middle that had something yellow in them.

Here's my favorite, a sewing themed print, with a nice yellow iron.  After lots of problems with irons in the past, I never take mine for granted any more!  I give her a little pat before plugging in and encourage her to hang in there, especially during a long cutting session.  Irons are quilters' friends!

The Happy Blocks are making me happy!  Here's more happy stuff.

Our Little Guy got his cast off!  He's so glad to be able to play in water again, especially since it's been so hot here.  He and Buddy were making pretend "coral reefs" and shark habitats.  And sometimes dunking their feet in the water.

The pickle relish is done for the year.  I always love to see the jars lined up on the shelf, ready for mixing into potato salad, tuna salad, egg salad, etc.

I almost forgot what a pain it is to pit cherries!  It took all weekend, off and on.  But now the cherry jam is done, there are two quarts of cherries in the freezer for pies, and I even got a pie baked.  (No picture, we ate it right away!)

All these fruits and vegetables came from the big Farmer's Market in West Bend last Saturday.  I also got peaches there from Michigan, that started out kind of hard but softened up in a paper bag on the kitchen counter. 

 I made them into what I call Peach Cobbler, pictured above.  There are lots of different yummy desserts called cobbler, of course.  To those of us from Indiana, a cobbler is a square or rectangular version of a pie, with a fruit filling, in which the crust can be patched and has no need to be pretty.  (Martha Stewart might need smelling salts if she saw it, sorry, Martha.)  Buddy liked it as much as we do, but Little Guy was not a fan.

What's making you happy this week?  I hope life is going well for you, and our quilting hobby is adding an extra spark of fun.

Here's another happy thought--we can check out all the quilty links below!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday