Ice Cream Cones, Bunny Girls, and a Few Scraps

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  How was your week?

I should be cleaning and shopping to get ready for the family Christmas party (which I love), but there are baby quilts to quilt.  I'll get back to the cleaning and shopping later.

It's too cold for ice cream (or is it?) but never too cold for an ice cream cone quilt!  

This one got quilted and bound yesterday, due to an unexpected free morning.  It's a Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt, baby-sized and ready to donate to Project Linus.  I made the blocks all year, from pink with sprinkles in January to lime green for October.

It took me a long time to decide how to set these rectangular blocks, and even more time to figure out how to quilt them.  I didn't find an ice cream print that I liked for the sashing, so I used a print with little donuts covered with colorful icing.  (The theme here is yummy stuff I should not eat much of.)  For quilting, I outlined the blocks and stitched in the ditch in the sashing seams.

Check out the back!  Here's why I chose it:

I think the back looks like these sprinkles!  Around here these long ones are called jimmies, I have no idea why.  Sprinkles are definitely good on ice cream, but we'll be using them tomorrow when my oldest daughter and her kids come over to make Christmas cookies. Can't wait!

There is another ice cream cone quilt coming (had to use all the blocks, of course!) but it isn't quilted yet.  Instead, I finished this one.

This is definitely a girl quilt!  More friendship stars, plus bunny girls in lovely dresses in the top and bottom borders.

I've had this fabric for a while in my panels box.  I bought it at a flea market as a large remnant.  You may recognize it as Daisy Kingdom fabric.  It was originally designed to be made into a very fancy dress for a little girl, with the bunnies as a border near the hem.  The dresses were very popular in the 1980s and 1990s.  I never managed to make any for my daughters, but I'm absolutely sure my oldest wouldn't have worn one anyway.

The fabric between the star blocks would have been the body of the dress.  There are little butterflies and bees in the print.  The striped border was also part of the remnant.

Pink backing, and purple binding--totally girly!

Baby Buddy doesn't care if it's a girl quilt!  He still has fun running his trains on it.  (Don't worry, I always wash the quilts before I donate them.)

My little buddies are very happy to see each other at the end of the school day.  Baby Buddy comes running, attacks his brother, and they end up on the floor.  I hope they'll always be good friends.

 That's the quilts for this week.  What about the scraps?

I'm still working on the borders for the red string quilt.  This morning as usual, after the basic chores were done I headed upstairs to the sewing room with a cup of tea.  My cup this morning is one of several birthday presents from my awesome Mom!  The lettering says When Life Gives You Scraps, Make Quilts.  Good advice!  Thanks, Mom!

Have a good week, everyone.  And to all who celebrate, have a very Merry Christmas!

Check out these linky parties for inspiration!

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at Super Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap 

 

Rainbow Baby Quilts Progress

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

 It's a snowy morning, so no outside quilt pictures today.  When I took this photo, the snow had just started.  It's coming down like crazy now, but not sticking to the roads yet.

Meanwhile, it may be cold outside, but it's warm and cozy inside.  I have two Rainbow Scrap Challenge baby quilts finished today.  This one is my crumb hearts quilt.

It was so much fun making these blocks all year from tiny little scraps.  The pirate cat above in the orange block seems to approve my choice of paw print sashing, ...

But is less thrilled about the dog print border.  Happy, friendly rainbow dogs!  I got the basic pattern for the hearts from a Cluck Cluck Sew tutorial (click HERE) but made the two main pieces from crumbs instead of plain rectangles.

The back is this heart print.  I can't remember where I got it, but I wish I'd bought a bolt!

All my heart blocks were used, except the pink ones.  I wanted this to be an "anybody" quilt, rather than a boy or girl quilt, when it is donated to Project Linus.  I saved the pink hearts, and will use them in a special girl quilt.

Next is lovable old Winnie the Pooh, who has been delighting children (and adults!) since 1926.  This fabric has the Disney illustrations, and is probably from the 1990s.  I bought it in an antique mall earlier this year.

The Friendship Star blocks are the gift that keeps on giving.  I usually made at least 10 of these each month in the RSC colors, so they found their way into several baby quilts.  Here 13 of them are paired with the Pooh Bear squares.

Most kids seem to love Tigger, maybe because he bounces around like they do!  I usually like the binding to be darker than this dragonfly print, but when I saw the dragonfly in the Pooh print, I had to use it.

So that's two more done.  What's next?

Mrs. Pfaff and I just got started on this one, the next to last of the Friendship Star baby quilts.
 

There is one more little quilt basted and ready for quilting (on the bottom of this stack), and four more tops to back, layer, baste, and quilt.  When all six of these are done, I will have made 20 baby quilts from this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  All of these are going to Project Linus, which is just starting up again here after a former coordinator retired.

I definitely got carried away!  But I can't promise it won't happen again.  Many many thanks to Angela for being our guide on this rainbow journey.  So many of us look forward to it every month.

And in other news,

The string blocks are all sewn together.  I'm going to make a string border, but I'm going to have to make a lot more sections.  Good thing I've got tons of older scraps in the basement.  (I just knew they'd come in handy someday!)

My Baby Buddy was not very photogenic this week (he had a cold and a VERY runny nose) but here's a snap of him playing outside a couple of weeks ago in his new coat.  He's getting to be a big boy!

We put up the Christmas tree this week, and Little Buddy helped us decorate it after school.  These are some of my favorite ornaments--pictures of family and things the kids made.
 

 

Here's Little Buddy's ornament from last year.  He's grown a lot, but he's still our little guy.

 

In the week ahead, I'm wishing you sunshine, hugs, and lots of time to sew.

Thanks for reading!

 

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

 

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

 

 

 

A Pieceful Week

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

How was your week?  Mine was peaceful and pieceful.

The Two-Step top is done!  Elmo is helping me show it on Baby Buddy's bed.

It was so much fun to make.   The "game" is to pair up scraps that blend together.  Most of mine don't really, but check out the Daniel Tiger block.  His tail is from a Tigger print.

The pattern is called Two Step, and was designed by Amanda Jean Nyberg.  It's in the book Scrap School:  12 All-New Designs From Amazing Quilters.  The quilt in the book is a lot larger.  Mine measures 40 in. x 44 in.

Lately it seems like I'm concentrating either on quilting or piecing, never both in the same week.  This week was a piecing week.  Above I'm putting together the blocks of my 2020 quilt.  Each strip represents a day.  When you get down to it, this is really a string quilt.

String quilts have been on my mind lately, so when I saw these blocks at our guild's silent auction, an idea clicked, and I was lucky enough to win them.  The maker was our Lovely Laverne so I knew they would be pieced and pressed perfectly.

Another guild member, Nancy P., Queen of Scraps, has been showing us different ways to make string quilts.  Using her idea, I cut these blocks up, and sewed red strips on either side.

Here's what they look like now.  I'm going to sew all the small blocks into 4s and then set them together.

Another handy item from the auction--this little light!  Treadles don't come with lights, of course.  Before electricity was common, most people placed their treadles near a sunny window, and I've done that too.  But a light right on the work, especially at night or on a gloomy day is a big help.  It's battery operated, and is resting on the pressure knob, well away from the take-up lever.  Plus, it's purple!

The highlight of our week was going to Little Buddy's Christmas play.  It was called A Country Kind of Christmas (hence the bandanas), and he was a very serious little shepherd.  Baby Buddy went with us and enjoyed it too, especially the singing and the clapping after each number.

Later, Little Buddy helped us decorate for Christmas.  His style is simple--mash everything together, and add a dinosaur.  "But he's green!" he insisted, when I mildly objected to a T Rex next to the Christmas tree.  He also assured me that the dino was friendly and wouldn't harm anyone.  So okay then I guess.  All are welcome.

Guess who loves leftover cranberry sauce?

As we go through this busy holiday season, I'm trying to stay focused on what's really important--love, laughter, and family.  I hope you have plenty this week, and every week!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Happy Blocks, Happy Quilts, Happy Holidays!

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Happy Blocks, made this year for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, are getting finished into Happy Quilts!  These 3 will be donated to Project Linus.

It's such a simple block, and so much fun to make, especially with novelty print squares in the middle.  Click HERE for a link to a really good tutorial on how to make them from maryquilts.com.

The blocks measure 8 in. finished, so 30 of them set 5 x 6 side by side makes a quilt 40 in. x 48 in.

The back of Quilt #1 is the rest of a bug print I've used on another baby quilt.  Quilts #1 and #3 are what I call anybody quilts, meaning they're not gender specific.

Happy Quilt #2 will probably be given to a girl because of all the pink in it.

Hope she likes cats.  And purple monkeys!

To make the backing big enough, I put a strip of charm squares down the middle.

Lastly, Quilt #3.

Alphabet print on the back.
 

So many fun prints here!  Race cars, dogs, tractors, trains, and of course dinosaurs.

Speaking of dinosaurs, don't look now, Pilgrim dolls, you're about to be the main course!  I found this photo on my camera this morning.  Little Buddy and his cousin Miss E. were having fun with it on Thanksgiving.  We had such a good visit with all the kids and grandkids this year.  That's what I'm most thankful for.

I also love having time to sew!  Every year, I spend Black Friday and the rest of Thanksgiving weekend in the sewing room, catching up on projects.  Yesterday I made the treadle wheels spin!  The project on the wall behind the treadle is called Two-Step, and was designed by Amanda Jean Nyberg, formerly of the crazy mom blog.  It comes from this book:  Scrap School:  12 All-New Designs From Amazing Quilters.

Jo Kramer of the blog Jo's Country Junction posted about making this design, and got me interested.  I already had the book and most of the 2.5 in. squares ready to go.  I'm piecing mine in columns rather than rows.

I finally finished the blocks for my 2020 diary/calendar quilt!  Why on earth did I pick 2020 as the year to do this?  It was hard to keep up enthusiasm for it during the lockdowns, etc.  But there were good things that happened in 2020 too, like the birth of my Baby Buddy, so I pushed through and got the blocks done, about a year late.

The strips for the calendar quilt came from this little suitcase.  Why is it still just as full as it was before?  The mystery of scraps.

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, the holiday season has begun for real.  I'm wishing the joy of this time of year for all who celebrate.  Happy Holidays!  As for me, I'm thinking about another slice of pumpkin pie.

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at SoScrappy, Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Cynthia at Oh Scrap