The End and the Beginning

Hello, and welcome!  I hope everyone who celebrates had a very happy Christmas.  We certainly did, with my favorite things--family, food, and fun.  Oh, and quilts!
Our celebration was on the Saturday before Christmas, due to work schedules and celebrations with in-laws.  On Christmas Day, I walked the dog in 50 degree weather, did some sewing, and in the evening watched the always-wonderful Call the Midwife Christmas special.  A lovely day.

Extra time off during the holidays was perfect for finishing one more donation quilt.

This little quilt uses lots of scraps recently donated to me by a friend in Pennsylvania.
The pattern seems a lot like magic.

Here's how it started--72 squares, cut 5 in. and sewn in 12 rows of 6.  I used a few "real" charm squares, but most of them were just cut from my scraps.
Now the scary part.

My cat Biddy is helping calm my nerves as I follow the directions.

The rectangle is cut into 3 big triangles...

and then rearranged into a square, like this.  There are post-it notes on each section, which helped me orient them correctly.

It just takes two more seams to get this little square top.

I added blue borders.
It's an easy and fun technique, but not as precise as just sewing the squares on point would be.  The seam allowance on the edge is lost, so the points aren't perfect.
I don't think the recipient will notice or care.
The pattern was given out by a local quilt shop, with copyright notices on it, so  I can't share it with you, sorry.  The name of it is Baby Charms.

Pattern Update:  The name of the pattern has been changed to Chock Full O' Charms, and is available in 5 sizes for $10.  Click HERE to view/order it on Quiltwoman.com.  Click HERE to see the sizes, fabric requirements, etc.

A butterfly print backing, some simple quilting 1 in. inside each seam, and a light blue binding finish it off.

Ready to donate!  It's 45 in. square, so it's too big for Jack's Basket.  I had thought about donating it to Wrap A Smile, but I inadvertently included holiday fabric (Easter eggs and shamrocks) which is a no-no, so it will probably go to Quilts for Kids.

In other news, handwork.

My spiky stars Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt is getting finished, a little at a time.  Some people dislike quilt as you go because there often is handwork, but I find it kind of peaceful.

I also did something yesterday that I've been wanting to do for a long time.
I cleaned out the pantry!
My pantry is a closet in the laundry room.  Here are the before pictures (cringe).

Right side.

Left side.
In other years, these empty jars would be full of canned tomatoes, apples, pears, and maybe peaches.  Last year was not a good canning year for me, and next year will definitely be the same, since I will be busy babysitting a new grandson.  So lots of these jars were relocated to the garage.
It's amazing how many things migrate into storage spaces.
It took 3 hours, but here's what it looked like afterwards.

Left side after.  The vintage bread box holds plastic bags.  I can't believe how many we had, even though I always take my cloth bags to the grocery store.

Right side after.  Now I can tell how much we have of anything, so I can buy more before we run out.  (What a concept!)

Did you notice this pink bag in the last photo?  It's a stiff cloth bag that once held 10 pounds of basmati rice.  Now it's my clothespin bag.  When I bought it, it was stitched shut (see the line of holes below the zipper?), but the zipper was already (badly) sewn in it.  After we ate all the rice, I fixed the zipper, and it makes a nice sturdy holder for the clothespins.  What an interesting way to sell rice.

A new year starts next week.  As always, it feels like a new beginning, a chance to renew our commitments and change things for the better.  In the year ahead, I wish happiness and peace for you, and for all of us.
Happy New Year!
from Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:
Angela at Soscrappy
Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday
Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop
Cynthia at Oh Scrap

The Last Christmas Quilt

Well, I did it.  I finished the last Christmas quilt.

It started here, in 2017.  I cut my Christmas print scraps into squares, triangles, and rectangles, and started piecing tops at a retreat.  Turns out, there were four quilts in that box. 

Here are two blocks for my Star Struck quilt, one of the four.

Star Struck was finished in December of 2017.  That's my Little Buddy two years ago, posing.  The time has gone by so quickly. 

This rail fence quilt was the last top I made, and it has lived in the Christmas fabric box for nearly two years.

It was fun to make a star for the center with some of the remaining scraps.

Simple grid quilting with a serpentine stitch was my choice to finally move this top out of the box.  It's not fancy, but I like it.  It's kind of cheerful.

Here's the back.  When I cut the blocks for the Star Struck quilt, I did the math wrong.  (This seems to be my month for confessing my math challenges!)  I had planned to make 17 green stars and 18 red stars.  But I got carried away cutting red pieces, and ended up with enough to make all 35 blocks!

The extra red pieces were in the box, and very handy for making this strip to enlarge the back.  (Now what am I going to do with the rest of them?)

The binding is a new red print, and as usual I sewed it on completely by machine.

So there it is, the last Christmas quilt.
Back in the late 1980s, I made a Christmas quilt for each of my three children.  I stopped for years, until I started making them again in 2017, just for the joy of using up those holiday-themed scraps.

I don't really need any more Christmas quilts for my family.  I have enough now for the grandchildren, even the one who won't be born til spring.  And this is kind of an usual theme for a donation quilt.  So I might not be making any more twin-sized Yuletide quilts.

On the other hand, I do still have a few scraps.

For all who celebrate, Happy Holidays!  May there be peace and joy on earth.

Linking up with:
Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday 
Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop
Angela at So Scrappy
Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Zigs and Zags: Rainbow Quilts

It's dismal outside this morning, gray and overcast and cold, but inside it's so bright you might need shades.  I finally got my second zigzag top together.

Previously on Treadlestitches, I showed my first zigzag top (on the left above).  Why are there two quilts?  Because I forgot to do the math!

The zigzags are part of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts for 2019.  Each month, I made two rows.  If I had been thinking ahead a little more (and thinking a little less about how much fun it was using these fabrics) I might have realized sooner what a long and narrow quilt that would be.  Oops!  So two quilts it is.

I only made one pink row, which I used in today's quilt, Zigzag #2.  These quilts will probably be donated, and often boys don't want quilts with pink in them.   I didn't make any brown or black rows, since they wouldn't really go with what I've already got.  Zigzag #2 has nine rows, and they're not in any particular color order, just what I thought looked pretty.

Zigzag #1 has 8 rows, and a 2 in. finished sashing between each row, and is in Roy G Biv color order.

Now I just need to quilt them.

In other news, this!  It's a birthday present.  My quilt group had a fun program this year.  All of us who participated brought 2.5 in. strips for the other participants during their birthday month.  People requested colors, styles, etc.  My request was for brights.  (Can you tell?)

I could hardly wait to get home from our meeting to lay these out.  Wow!

Check out these wonderful prints and solids!

Plus, some kind person put two fat quarters in my bag!  How did they know I'm low on yellow and orange?

Now I have to decide what to do with this amazing loot.   Good thing I have all these great books.

I think this calls for curling up with a quilt, a cup of tea, and this stack of inspiration.
But before I do that, I'm going to check out the linky parties.
Come with me!  It'll be fun!
Thanks for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:
Angela at Soscrappy
Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday
Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop
Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Christmas Oklahoma Star

We interrupt our regularly scheduled quilting for this special report--Christmas is coming!  In honor of the season, I turned one of my oldest UFOs into an FO--finished object.

The pattern is Oklahoma Star, from the book A Dozen Variables, by Marsha McCloskey.   It was published way back in 1987.
(Note:  If you've never read Marsha McCloskey's books, you might want to give them a try.  Her directions are always clear, and she does a lot with scraps.)
I'm pretty sure I made this top in the early 90s.  I had the center done, and just never put a border on.  It was one of those things I was going to do when I got around to it.  (Anybody else got stuff like that?)  In the meantime, I used the top as a Christmas tablecloth a time or two, just for decoration.

Last year at Christmastime, I sewed on a light print border, and discovered how much the top had stretched!  The edges are all bias, and somehow it never occurred to me that stretch happens, especially when you use the top for a tablecloth!  The light border went up and down like a wave on the ocean.  It was discouraging, and the top went back in the bin.
This year, enough was enough.  Time to get it done.  I took off the light border, and added a red one. 

The edges were still stretched, and I had to deal with it severely, but at least it lays mostly flat.  It measures 53 in. x 76 in.

The back is a holly print, which I cobbled together out of leftover yardage.

I quilted a 2 in. grid in the center, and diagonal lines in the borders.

There are fads and trends in quilt fabric, as I'm sure you know.  This even holds true with Christmas fabric.  Back in the day, Christmas green prints were dark.  Today's are lighter.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to get a near-matching dark green for the binding from modern Christmas fabric.  So I used a scrap of forest green probably from the 90s that was in my stash.  It's not a Christmas print, but it will do.  (Plus it used up a scrap, and didn't cost anything extra!)

Bella and Little Buddy were kind enough to pose for me.

Here's a detail of the top, before it was quilted.

I wish I could say this was my only UFO from more than 25 years ago!

In other news, vinegar.

My homemade vinegar is smelling great, and in bottles.  The color is lighter this year because I used just apple cores and no apple peels to make it.  Click HERE if you'd like to read last year's post about how it's done.

We got the holiday decorating done this week, with Little Buddy's enthusiastic help.

Yesterday we put up the tree.  Above you can see an ornament I bought at the Patched Works quilt shop soon after we moved here 28 years ago.  The owner then was Trudy Hughes.  I still have all her books, and refer to them now and again.  The design on the ornament is her "around the twist" pattern.  I used it to make my son's Christmas quilt (back in the late 80s), seen below on Little Buddy's nap bed.

I've never had one of those neatly organized Christmas trees you see in magazines or on TV, the ones where all the ornaments are the same, silver balls or red ribbons, etc.  We have a really messy looking tree, covered with homemade ornaments and things we've gathered up over 43 years of marriage.

The ornaments with the photographs are my favorite ones.  Many of them were made in school or preschool by our children or grandchildren, and all of them bring back fond memories.

This week, I'm wishing you fond memories of times past, and good new memories to make.
Thanks for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:
Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Angela at So Scrappy 
Cynthia at Oh Scrap