Two Little Quilts, A Big Sale, and Bright Hopes

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

I like a challenge.  My wonderful quilt guild has been having several challenges lately, and I was glad to participate.  This particular challenge was called Dots and Zigzags.  We were given paper bags with a small amount of zigzag print and dotted print, both in the same color.  The object was to use the fabrics to make anything we'd like, and bring it to the January meeting.

You guessed it, my fabrics were pink!  Which made it an extra challenge for me, since I'm not the biggest fan of pink.  Both fabrics in the bag were a kind of salmon color. We could add any fabrics we liked to the ones in the bag.  At first I was kind of stuck on bright vs. salmon vs. light pink.  Did they actually go together?  Then I found the green print in my stash, and noticed it had ALL the pinks in it.  That helped!  I even put the salmon-y zigzags next to a bright dotted print.

Of course I made a baby quilt!  It's just where my mind goes lol.  I pieced a row of light pink zigzags and another of dark pink zigzags and added the strips.  Simple quilting and voila.

The challenge entries were displayed at our last meeting, and I was blown away by their creativity and workmanship!  I also had no idea there were so many zigzag prints in existence.  My little quilt will be donated locally.

Here's the back, an adorable bird and flower print, with lots of pink!  (Debbie, does this look familiar?)  I was lucky enough to have this yardage in my stash, because my friend and I went to a sale last Saturday.

The sale was at the Textile Arts Center in Madison.  All sorts of sewing/knitting/crafting items donated to the center were sold for great prices.  Above is the major "loot" I got.  I always think of myself like a pirate at these sales, scooping up treasure.  Arr!  All told I bagged over 40 yards of pre-owned fabric.

That doesn't even count the scraps!  I made a scrap rainbow out of them when I got home.  Lots of them came from a UFO someone had started.  I'm looking forward to cutting them up.

Fabric shopping is fun of course, but the best part of the day was spending time with my friend.  We went out to lunch and spent time catching up, and Debbie gave me these fat quarters and thread as a birthday present.  She knows just what I like!  And the pink one in front is a cat print!  Thanks, Debbie, for a great day.

I'm still making flannel quilts for the annual Community Baby Shower, and I finished this one this week.  I'm having a terrible time getting the color right in the photos.  The background is actually a soft yellow.

The giraffes and happy monkeys were fun to work with. They also came from a sale a couple of years ago. 

Here's the back, a star print from another sale.  I probably have enough left to back two more small quilts.  The simple quilting is easy to do with the poly batting, and makes the quilt soft and cozy.

Snicky the cat thinks so!  I had to make him get off the quilt so I could bind it.  It now comes with cat cuddles.  Don't worry, it will be thoroughly washed before it goes to a baby.

This is a great time of year at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  It's so much fun deciding which quilt blocks to make all year in all the colors.  I chose the Bright Hopes block to use up my 2.5 in. squares and 2.5 in. x 4.5 in. rectangles.

It's fun finding cute prints for these blocks.

The one with the unicorn center is my favorite!

Hubby and I are very excited this morning.  We're going to pick up our new kitten!  She's a lovely little rescue that our oldest daughter has been looking after for us.  I hope Snicky will be a good big brother to her.

Have a lovely week!

Thanks for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with these wonderful ladies:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy