Pink!

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

It's been a very strange start to 2021.  Thank goodness for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, to help us keep our hopes up and focus on something besides the horrors in the news.

I have often whined about not liking pink.  So where did all these pink scraps come from?  No matter, they have to get used up, and sewing these blocks is so much fun.

These are 6 in. finished blocks:  friendship star, plus blocks (aka ninepatch), and crumb hearts.  There is a temptation to call them "broken" hearts because of all the little pieces, but I'd rather think of them as Patchwork hearts, full of all kinds of things to love.

But wait, there's more!

These little blocks have a 2.5 in. cut square for the center and 2.5 x 4.5 in. rectangles around it.  The secret to making them like this is using a partial seam for the first seam.  Easy, and uses up 2.5 in. strips and squares.

Now for the 8 in. finished blocks!

I'm making Happy Blocks, with 4.5 in. cut centers and 2.5 in. cut strips around them.  (Click HERE for the tutorial.)  I'm cutting the centers from fun prints, mostly my favorite novelties.  The stars have 4 patch centers made from 2.5 in. squares, with the star points and backgrounds cut from 2.5 in. strips.

Also, this.

Ice cream cones!  I was inspired to make these by reading the Making a Lather blog, by Maggie Fellow.  (She makes so many great scrap quilts!) I looked at several patterns on the internet, and finally just decided to figure it out myself.  The cone part is cut with the Tri-Rex rulers, and the top is a 4.5 in. cut square with little background corners to sort of round out the ice cream.  The background is a dessert print, with cake and cupcakes and ice cream.  I will see how many blocks I can get out of it before I have to switch to another background.

Quilters, I know what you're thinking, and you're right.  This is a lot of projects!  But I do have a plan.  

One of my greatest joys is making quilts for babies and children.  They are donated to good causes, like kids in foster care or hospitals, or to families welcoming a child with Down's Syndrome.  This year, I'm making blocks for those quilts as I participate in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  When we come to the end of the year, I will have enough blocks to make a nice stack of quilts to give away.  (There won't be pink blocks in every quilt though, since many charities request gender-neutral quilts.)

And about pink--I'm finding that I actually like it!

I think I know where some of the pink scraps came from.  For years, it was my granddaughter's favorite color, and I made her a few things with it.  Miss E. is a joy, and it was so good to see her at our social distanced holiday party last weekend.  In the photo above, she's wearing a mask, and playing with slime she got for Christmas.  Little Buddy thinks slime is the greatest thing ever.  Little Buddy, who is 4, and Baby Buddy (now 10 months) were the only ones not wearing masks for the lunch-and-presents party.

I hope you're feeling "in the pink" today, and ready to take on the challenges of this new year. Let's keep planning, keep hoping, keep looking ahead to a better future.

And let's eat ice cream!

Cheers for reading this!

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Angela at So Scrappy

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday 

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Cynthia at Oh Scrap