Treadlestitches: Allison Harris

Saturday, May 15, 2021

Stacks

Hi! Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Baby quilts made with novelty fabrics are kind of my thing. I have an extra incentive this time of year to make quilts for the Hands2Help charity quilt drive sponsored by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. (Click HERE for more information on H2H 2021.) Lately I've been going through my books, finding quilt patterns I've always wanted to make. This one is called Stacks.

It comes from this book, Growing Up Modern, by Allison Harris. She also has a great blog called Cluck Cluck Sew. I'm using her free pattern for my heart blocks, by the way.

This is what the pattern looked like in the book, vertical stacks of fun fabrics to be made in three different sizes. Doesn't look like my quilt at all, does it? That's because I did the "What If" to it. What if I made the colors stack horizontally instead of vertically? What if they were scrappy? What if they were in rainbow order, and I used a light fabric at the top and bottom? (Does this happen to you?)

It's still Allison's pattern, just my variation. I followed her directions for cutting and sewing the pieces, although I made it slightly smaller. The colors are inspired by Baby Buddy's Duplo blocks.

The back is this cute giraffe print, and the quilting is simple lines, done with the serpentine stitch on my Pfaff.

Last weekend was CRAZY. We had all 3 of my youngest daughter's children here from Thursday through Monday. I thought I respected young parents before, but now I appreciate them even more! The kids were very good, but the logistics of looking after a teenager, a preschooler and a 13 month old day and night are serious!

And of course, I missed them the minute they went home.

We had Tuesday off from regular babysitting, so I got some red scraps cut and sewn for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Log cabin blocks (above)

Heart blocks from the crumbs/strings bin

The last of the plus blocks, with some Mickey Mouse fabric I got on my antiquing trip

and this month's ice cream cone blocks. The flavors are, from left to right, Raspberry/Citrus Sherbet Ripple, Cherry Vanilla (with lots of cherries), Strawberry (somebody forgot to cut off the leaves), and Pomegranate with candy swirls (hey, it could happen).

Last month I mentioned Blue Moon ice cream, invented in Milwaukee, but had never eaten any. We fixed that!

Cedar Crest is a local dairy. They only had Blue Moon in little cups.

Here's what it looks like. It has a delicious almond flavor, and Little Buddy and I really like it. You just have to ignore the toothpaste color.

Today feels like a vacation after the excitement of last weekend, but there are still chores to do. I need to get out to the grocery store this morning. Maybe I'll check out the exotic ice cream flavors in the freezer case while I'm there.

And now, grandkid pictures.