Crayons, Dogs, Christmas, and Planning Ahead

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  Sorry for no blog last week.  I caught whatever rotten cold was going around.  Thankfully I'm feeling better now.

The crayon quilt, one of my Rainbow Scrap quilts for 2022, is quilted and bound.  My dog Bella was happy to pose with it.  Actually, she wouldn't get off the quilt, so I just made the best of it and took her photo.

I think she's feeling jealous of our new kitten and needs a little extra attention.

The back is this colorful print from that chain fabric store, and the red binding is a scrap from a recent sale.  So now it's ready to be donated.

Here's what I'm using for leaders and enders--triangle squares I made last year and never got around to doing anything with.  It's amazing what kind of stuff turns up in the sewing room when I'm needing a secondary project.

Here's what's left to do.  I wonder if this will be all I need to finish the next top, or if I'll have to go hunting for another unfinished project.  Either way, stuff gets done, right?

It's that time of year again!  My Little Guy helped me unpack and put up decorations, and Little Buddy helped hang ornaments on the Christmas tree after he got home from school.  The wall quilt above is one of my oldest quilts, a piece I made after taking my first quilt class back in 1986.  It's very amateurish, but I'm still fond of it.  And it's hand quilted!  I got a little carried away with the French knot snow in the night sky, though.

This week, I made this little table topper with Christmas fabric scraps.

I only had this one square of dog Christmas fabric, so it went in the star center.

I guess this week is all about the dogs!  I still had a strip of this Boston terriers print, so it went on the border.

The back is this Grinch print, a remnant from that chain store.  How the Grinch Stole Christmas is still one of my favorite Christmas stories.  Christmas comes to Whoville even without all the gifts and trappings that always seem so important.  And a curmudgeon's heart grows 3 sizes!

Have you thought about what to make in 2023?  It's just over 2 weeks away!  I can hardly believe it.  I'm going through books and patterns, thinking about what quilts to sew.  Above is my stash of Missouri Star's Block magazine, most of which I bought in second hand book stores or at flea markets.  Even though many of the Missouri Star patterns are available free as You Tube tutorials, I really like having the print version.  I can refer to it easily while I'm sewing.  Plus as a retired librarian, I admit I'm partial to print media.

Doesn't our Little Guy look serious?  He's enjoying learning about slates and erasing.  We're going to have some fun this week drawing and coloring, reading library books, and making ornaments from kits the library gives away.  (We have a great library here, as I have said before!)  Tomorrow all the cousins are coming to make cookies for Christmas, hang out together, and play with  Snicklefritz the kitten.  It will be a happy fun day.

I hope whatever you are doing this weekend, holiday related or not, is just what you'd like to do.  I'm wishing you good health, too.  Stay well!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap 

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict