Small Finishes and Red Starts

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Our monster friend is sitting on top of my last 3 Rainbow Scrap Challenge baby quilts from 2021.

All year long, I made bright colored blocks, dozens every month, not really planning the quilts I would make, just using up the scraps.

It was so much fun!  But kind of crazy.  Starting in October, I put the blocks together into 20 baby quilts.  This is the second of two log cabin quilts.

This is the second ice cream cone quilt.

I'm pretending the blocks between the ice cream cones are stacks of fancy decorated cake slices.  I can picture this quilt as a poster on the wall of a bakery/ice cream shop.  In reality, it will go to a child in need through Project Linus.

The last quilt is yet another Friendship Star.  At the beginning of last year, I had a stack of 2.5 in. hsts.  They are finally used up!

The in-between blocks were cut from a Sesame Street fabric I got in an antique mall.  Sesame Street holds a special place in my heart.  My kids watched it growing up, and now Baby Buddy and I watch it every day.   I go around singing the songs, and even making some of the recipes Cookie Monster and his friend Gonger make in their food truck.  There are so many other kid shows to watch now, but most of them are frankly terrible, filled with product placement and good guys vs. bad guys themes, plus tons of commercials.  Sesame Street teaches good values.  And it's even funny sometimes.

So that's all 20 of the 2021 RSC baby quilts!  For a while there, I felt like a one-woman baby quilt factory.  It was an experiment, to make lots of blocks and then put them together at the end of the year, and I enjoyed the whole journey.  I'm going to drop off the last of the quilts today for Project Linus.

This year's RSC quilts will be a little more focused and a little less frantic.
 

Is there a baby quilt in this box?  Let's find out.  What can I make with 3.5 in. squares and corresponding triangles?

How about Split Ninepatch?  I had just enough red for four blocks.  All the light triangles and squares came from the box too, but I know I'll run out of them pretty soon.  So it will be like Stone Soup.  I'll use as much as I can from the box, and add in as needed.

I can't decide which block I like best, the one with the Grinch or the Read one.

Here's what I decided to do with my multicolored 2.5 in. strips--I'm pairing them with solid colors.  Whenever I make 16 patch blocks, I use the excellent tutorial by Cynthia of Quilting is More Fun Than Housework (click HERE).  It's part of her amazing (and free!) Scrap-a-palooza series, and it makes these blocks quickly and efficiently from strips.  (Thanks, Cynthia!)

But I forgot how many of my novelty fabrics are one-way designs that can look a little weird upside down.  I decided to leave this one as is,

and I modified the method slightly so these adorable children would all be right side up.

Speaking of adorable children, 

this little guy helped me make cookies yesterday.  He kept wanting to eat the batter, of course.

We're living the sweet life around here.

I hope your week ahead is filled with hugs and stitches.  Quilt stitches, of course!

I'm linking up with the following link parties.  Can't wait to see what everybody is making!

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap