This is IT! I Spy Pink

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Did you ever see a quilt someplace, in a book or a quilt store or on the internet, and realize this pattern was exactly what you didn't even know you were looking for?  I saw a puss in the corner quilt on the Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting blog, and it made me gasp and then say, "This is IT!  This is what I want to do with my pink scraps!" 

I've made quilts in this pattern before, but hadn't thought about alternating the colors.  Block A has a dark center and dark corners, and Block B has a light center and light corners.  Suddenly I had a use for both light and dark (pink) novelty squares.  (Thanks, Cathy at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting!)

It just so happens that several of my pink fabrics have bunnies on them, and this is Easter weekend.  I'm not exactly sure why or when we started linking bunnies with the holiday, but I like bunnies all the time anyway.  The little flannel ones were made by someone in my quilt group, and the grandkids love them.

More Easter decorations, and another bunny print.  I've had the duck for a while, and got the bunny recently at an antique mall.  The ceramic eggs were painted by my youngest daughter (the one the duckie is holding) and her then-six year old son (the one with the bunny).  I don't have a lot of Easter decorations, but I like these little things.

I've had the Nice Buns fabric for a long time.  I hope it's not inappropriate for a kid's quilt.  Those do look like nice bunnies, with such sweet smiles.  You can see the wild print border in this photo.

The backing is this adorable older Hoffman print.  There were several yards of it in the basket my generous quilt group friends gave me several weeks ago (Click HERE  Scroll down) and it just seemed perfect for this quilt.  As you can tell, I used the serpentine stitch on my Pfaff to quilt a 2 in. grid.  I really do use it a lot, and maybe I should try other ways to quilt, but hey, it works!

Like the quilt that inspired it, this one will be donated.  It will go to the Little Lambs Foundation, as part of this years Hands 2 Help drive.  Every center square is different, and there are lots of fun prints, so I hope it will keep a youngster entertained.  Some details:  the blocks are 8 in. square, there are 25 of them set 5 x 5, with a 2 in. finished border, which brings the quilt up to 44 in. square.

Speaking of I Spy, my kindergarten buddy has been very excited about these I Spy books lately.  We had the Spooky Night book here already, and I got the first I Spy book at the library.  He has really sharp eyes, but there are some things we still haven't found.

This morning the boys had another book, the kind that plays music when you push the buttons.  As the songs played, they ran around the living room laughing.  I tried to take pictures, but they're all just blurs.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate, and a very happy weekend to everyone.

Cheers,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

Ice Cream Cones, Bunny Girls, and a Few Scraps

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!  How was your week?

I should be cleaning and shopping to get ready for the family Christmas party (which I love), but there are baby quilts to quilt.  I'll get back to the cleaning and shopping later.

It's too cold for ice cream (or is it?) but never too cold for an ice cream cone quilt!  

This one got quilted and bound yesterday, due to an unexpected free morning.  It's a Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt, baby-sized and ready to donate to Project Linus.  I made the blocks all year, from pink with sprinkles in January to lime green for October.

It took me a long time to decide how to set these rectangular blocks, and even more time to figure out how to quilt them.  I didn't find an ice cream print that I liked for the sashing, so I used a print with little donuts covered with colorful icing.  (The theme here is yummy stuff I should not eat much of.)  For quilting, I outlined the blocks and stitched in the ditch in the sashing seams.

Check out the back!  Here's why I chose it:

I think the back looks like these sprinkles!  Around here these long ones are called jimmies, I have no idea why.  Sprinkles are definitely good on ice cream, but we'll be using them tomorrow when my oldest daughter and her kids come over to make Christmas cookies. Can't wait!

There is another ice cream cone quilt coming (had to use all the blocks, of course!) but it isn't quilted yet.  Instead, I finished this one.

This is definitely a girl quilt!  More friendship stars, plus bunny girls in lovely dresses in the top and bottom borders.

I've had this fabric for a while in my panels box.  I bought it at a flea market as a large remnant.  You may recognize it as Daisy Kingdom fabric.  It was originally designed to be made into a very fancy dress for a little girl, with the bunnies as a border near the hem.  The dresses were very popular in the 1980s and 1990s.  I never managed to make any for my daughters, but I'm absolutely sure my oldest wouldn't have worn one anyway.

The fabric between the star blocks would have been the body of the dress.  There are little butterflies and bees in the print.  The striped border was also part of the remnant.

Pink backing, and purple binding--totally girly!

Baby Buddy doesn't care if it's a girl quilt!  He still has fun running his trains on it.  (Don't worry, I always wash the quilts before I donate them.)

My little buddies are very happy to see each other at the end of the school day.  Baby Buddy comes running, attacks his brother, and they end up on the floor.  I hope they'll always be good friends.

 That's the quilts for this week.  What about the scraps?

I'm still working on the borders for the red string quilt.  This morning as usual, after the basic chores were done I headed upstairs to the sewing room with a cup of tea.  My cup this morning is one of several birthday presents from my awesome Mom!  The lettering says When Life Gives You Scraps, Make Quilts.  Good advice!  Thanks, Mom!

Have a good week, everyone.  And to all who celebrate, have a very Merry Christmas!

Check out these linky parties for inspiration!

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Alycia at Finished or Not Finished Friday

Angela at Super Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap