Flannel Palooza Begins!

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

It's time for Flannel Palooza, my name for making flannel quilts for charity in the cold months.

Once fall really arrives I start thinking about flannel quilts.  When it's warm out the flannel strips and squares and yardage stay in their bins, but cold weather makes me appreciate this warm cozy fabric.  Before starting anything new, I quilted this top I made almost exactly a year ago.

The pattern is Rail Stepper, a free pattern from Alycia Quilts.  (Click HERE for the tutorial.)  It's a variation on a Rail Fence, and very easy to cut and sew.

All the pieces are cut 3.5 in. wide, which keeps things simple.  I like how the longer rectangle (the light fabric with alphabet letters) chains across the quilt.

It's always fun using my novelty prints.  (If you've read this blog before, you know how obsessed I am about cute prints!)  We've got everything here from dogs and cats and robots and spaceships to flying pigs.  Even pineapples!

Here's the back, a dog print I picked up at a big second hand fabric sale a couple of years ago.  The binding is a blue solid.  The quilting is not fancy, but sturdy at least.

This quilt will be donated locally.  I'm not sure if it's going to the Children's Advocacy Center or to the Community Baby Shower in January.

Speaking of flannel, this is the box of flannel scraps I won at the guild silent auction last month.  I finally had some time to work on it last Sunday. 

The dinosaur fabric on top was what drew me to the box.  Looking through it, I'm sure some of the  scraps were left over from making pajamas.  There was even a cut out pajama leg in the dinosaur fabric.

I'm not done yet, but this is what's left in the box this morning; mostly lights with a few scraps of darks.  So what happened to the rest of it?  You guessed it, I've been cutting out kits.

I think of working with these scraps like a quilter's version of the folktale Stone Soup.  I'm starting with what's in the box, and adding in whatever is needed from my Parts Department or yardage.

#1 First I cut out 5 in. squares for a blue Trip Around the World including the dinosaur fabric.  I had some unexpected time off from babysitting one day and sewed it together.  All the blue squares except the center and the four corners came from the box.  All the light squares came from my stash.  It's spray basted and ready to be quilted (this weekend?).

#2 Next I made this kit, also with the dinosaur fabric.  I had just enough for 18 squares, 4.5 in. cut. The white strips were cut out of my flannel yardage.  Since the kits might not get made right away, I'm making the first block or blocks to go in the bag with the pieces, along with a note to jog my memory.

The 272 squares I need for the 16 patch blocks are in this basket.  Some are from the box, some from squares and strips I had on hand.  As you can see, I've started piecing this one.

#3  Sticks and Stones is a pattern by Bonnie Hunter that I have used several times.  It used to be available free online, but I don't know what happened to it.  I made a pink one last year and a Christmas one back in 2017.  No dino fabric in this one sadly but almost all the big squares are cut from pieces in the box.

#4  It's another Rail Stepper! The long rail is from my yardage.  Most of the short rails are from the box.  And there will be dinosaur fabric in this one.

I think I can get one more kit out of what's left.  Anything after that will be cut up and added to the Flannel Parts Department.

Last Saturday DH and I went with our oldest daughter's family to Keys to Kenosha, an event where anyone could visit a long list of Kenosha public and private buildings.  This is my daughter and her children Miss E and Mr. H in the 1920s Kenosha Court House.  We also went to Miss E's school (built in the 1920s also), two older hotels, another 1920s era school no longer in use, and an historic cemetery.

Miss E is seen here pretending to be locked in a classroom.  We had a great day.

I'm not sure why Buddy wanted to pose with the pumpkins but I take every chance I can to get a picture.  And yes, he's wearing shorts when it's cold outside.  A true Wisconsin boy, he says he'll wear shorts as long as he can.  I'm guessing he'll stop when it starts snowing. (?)

 

Our Christmas cactus is blooming!  It's always a joy to see this happen every year. 

And it's a joy to see all the great quilt blogs on the link ups each week!  I am so inspired by the amazing quilts and I love to read about the projects in progress.  Check them out below!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy