Baby Charms and Blue Crumbs

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Thanks for stopping by!

Every January several local businesses partner with a TV station to sponsor a Community Baby Shower, which donates baby supplies etc. to families in need.  Today is the last day to drop off donations so I rushed to finish this Baby Charms quilt and got the binding on Thursday morning.

I made a quilt in this pattern in 2023 (Click HERE for that post.)  The pattern probably came from somewhere on the internet.  (If you know where it came from, please tell me and I will update.)  The white strips are cut 2.75 in. and finish at 2.25 in., which is half of what the charm squares finish (4.5 in.) so the math works out.  I don't think I would have thought of that on my own!

There are 48 charm squares in the quilt, 3 each of 16 prints.  Four of those are bunny prints!  These bunnies are dressed up and carrying Easter baskets.

These sweet little bunnies seem to be playing with a blanket.  Or a leaf?

I think these bunnies on the green background are taken from the book Guess How Much I Love You, by Sam McBratney.  I love those chubby little ducklings too.

Even the border is a bunny print!  I got this fabric at our last guild meeting.  It had been donated to our group.

The back is a solid pink from my basement stash.  It's a little darker in real life than it appears here.

Baby Charms, the Purple Princess quilt from last week, and the last two heart quilts will all be going to the Community Baby Shower drop off today.

You would not believe the mess in my sewing room when I was cutting out the Baby Charms quilt.  Piles of scraps and fabrics were everywhere.  (The cats love when I do that.  They sleep on the fabrics.)  Since everything was out, I cut two quilts, one with pink (the finished one above) and one in just blues, greens, and yellows.  I had enough of the white fabric for both quilts.  The second quilt will eventually be a leader and enders project.  It can be donated to next year's Community Baby Shower, unless it's needed somewhere else before that.

Can you believe it's already the last day of January?  Soon we'll be making blocks in a new color (green!) for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

This is my last RSC set for January,  6 in. crumb blocks.  (Crumbs are small scrap pieces.)  I also use strings (skinny strips) in these.

Leftover triangles are fun to add, too.  I make these blocks free form, without any foundation.

Somehow (maybe because of those leftover triangles?) these houses just came together when I was making the crumb blocks.  Maybe I'll keep these going all year in all the RSC colors.

In Progress:

In 2023 I used my weekly grocery store receipts as foundation paper, and pieced crumbs and strips to them as one of my RSC projects.  (Above is the back.)

I'm finally doing something with these pieces!  I cut them in 6.5 in. lengths and am setting them together with 6.5 in light squares and solid cornerstones.  I was inspired by Angela at So Scrappy who is doing something similar.  (Thanks for the inspiration, Angela!)  I'm liking the project, but taking the paper off is a pain.  Plus it's such a mess!  The cats and I are tracking little pieces of paper all over the house.  (Hubby is safe, he doesn't come in the sewing room much.)

Mr. Snicklefritz REALLY needed some attention when I was sewing those pieces together.  So I stopped for some cuddles.  When he was satisfied that he was indeed the center of the universe he curled up under the ironing board and fell asleep.

I hope everything is peaceful and pieceful in your universe this week.  Happy February!

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with these fun linky parties:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

Happy Holidays!

Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I hope your holidays were happy and healthy.  Ours were wonderful, and busy, which is why I skipped blogging last week.  Our four youngest grand kids were here for the annual cookie baking and decorating.  Decorating is their favorite part, can you tell? From left to right we have Little Guy, Mr. H., Buddy, and Miss E.

Here are some of their creations.  They do get a little heavy handed with the sprinkles!

Our littlest boys were in a Christmas program at their school, which was absolutely adorable as you can guess.  Little Guy is in the front row, on the far left.  I missed my chance to photograph Buddy's class :(

We had a lovely family party at our house on Christmas Eve, and all the shopping, wrapping, baking, cooking, decorating etc. were so worth it.

We got everything cleaned up/put away, rested a bit, and then I finally had time for quilting!

I finished these two baby quilts yesterday evening.  We are having some welcome sunshine today, as you can see.

First is a Trip Around the World, made with pastel baby-friendly fabrics I had on hand.  It's one of my favorite go-to easy patterns.

Lots of ducky prints in this one!

The back is at least as cute as the front!  I just love that sweet chubby frog.

I showed the top of this quilt last time, before I added the final border.

Since the border was so light, I added a darker binding to set off the edge.

Both these quilts are square.  The Trip Around the World is 40.5 in. x 40.5 in. and the Charm quilt is 42 in. x 42 in. with the outer border.  They will both be donated to the local Community Baby Shower in January.

On Thursday we went antiquing, something we often do between Christmas and New Years.  I got this pile of loot:  a hard cover quilt notebook, some Sesame Street characters for the grand kids to use with play dough, and fabric.  I can always use Green Bay Packers fabric, especially in quilts for older kids, and I never have enough light prints.

My favorite fabric buy was nearly 2 yards of this Snoopy print.  It's meant for Easter, but is still cute.

This cup made me laugh!  I'm guessing the cup maker meant to imply that someone tried to be good for Santa, and didn't quite make it.  I took it a different way.

It made me think of how hard we all try to make holidays "perfect" (whatever that is) and how perfection always eludes us.  Thank goodness we can be happy without everything being absolutely perfect.

I was definitely thinking of this on Dec. 23, when our refrigerator suddenly quit working and couldn't be repaired.  Ack!  Thank goodness most of the food for the Christmas party was in the downstairs freezer.  We found a fridge in stock at a local store, but it couldn't be delivered until the day after Christmas.  We improvised in the meantime with help from our kids, and it all worked out.

Mrs. Pfaff and I have our work cut out for us this week, making more quilts for the Community Baby Shower.  I will do my best, but I know it won't be perfect, because I'm not perfect, and that's okay.  The quilts will be warm and cozy for the little ones, and that's what matters.

Have a lovely week, and Happy New Year!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

 

 

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