Flannel-palooza, or Fluffy Side Up

 Welcome to Treadlestitches!

Today's blog is brought to you by Snicklefritz the cat, official quilt tester.  Three of these little flannel quilts will be going to the Community Baby Shower early next week.

I've been on a flannel kick lately, inspired by the winter and by an overabundance of the soft fluffy fabric. And what's better to make out of flannel than baby quilts?

Two of the quilts were made with these Tumbler shapes, cut with the Accuquilt die cutting machine.  This scrappy one has blue and green prints for the darker pieces, and various lights.

There are lots of fun prints here, from frogs and bugs to dogs and crocodiles.  I think this is the last of that Baby Boy print.  

I'm hoping someone's little guy will find this quilt warm and cuddly.

The second tumbler quilt is a classic two-color quilt in yellow with a green binding.

Duckies!  And a soft plain yellow.  It's easy to tell which side is the right side with printed flannel, but it's harder with solid colors.  Both sides are soft, of course, but there really is a difference.  I had to keep checking to make sure the fluffy side was on top.

Each of these quilts use 48 tumblers.  I cut 24 each of lights and darks for the scrappy one, and 24 each of duckies and solid yellow for the second one.

Once the rows were sewn together, I straightened the edge with a long ruler and a rotary cutter.  The quilts measure 33 in. x 35.5 in. finished.

More duckies on the back!  I got this fabric at the quilt group silent auction last fall.  It came from the stash of a very nice lady (Mary G.) who had passed away.

The third flannel quilt is a Trip Around the World, and it started like this, as a kit I cut from scraps.

I know some (most?) people strip piece this pattern, but I sew it from individual squares.  I keep track of the rows like this, pinning them to the makeshift design wall with paper row number labels.  It helps to keep me on track, especially since I don't usually sew for long blocks of time.

Plus there are furry distractions laying on the pieces!

In the end it came out okay.  The pieces are 5 in. squares (cut), and the quilt finished at 40.5 in. square.

And guess what the theme is---

That's right!  Even more duckies! 

The back is this gorgeous Hoffman print.  I don't remember where/when I acquired it, but I wish I had a whole bolt.

The Community Baby Shower contributions are due at the end of the month, which is Tuesday, believe it or not.  Since two of these quilts are meant for boys, I might try to make a pink one in the spirit of equality if I have time.  Plus the RSC color for February is pink!

In other news, here's my last dark blue Rainbow Scrap Challenge project for January.

I made these Capital T blocks a few years ago from reproduction 1800s fabrics.  The plan had always been to quilt them by the block, so now I'm finally getting going on it.

There will be some handwork, but I don't mind at all.

We're expecting snow here, so I'd better wind this up and get to the store before it starts.  I don't want to be stuck in the house like this guy!  (He wiggled out right away, of course.)

If we do get snowed in, we'll at least have plenty of chocolate brownies my Little Guy and I made yesterday.  Bet you can tell his favorite thing is licking the spoon!

I hope you have time for your favorite things (and people and animals!) today.  Happy Quilting!

Cheers for reading,

Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:

Sarah at Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Alycia at Finished or Not Friday

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Oh Scrap

 

 

Waves, Soap, and Duckies

Happy Friday!  It's gloomy, rainy, and cool here (50s!  In August??) but a good day for quilting.  Heck, every day is a good day for quilting!  My almost-finish for this week is a give-away quilt.

You might recognize the shapes.  They're tumblers, cut with the Accuquilt cutter by one of our members.  There were 48 of the duckie tumblers cut when I got them.  I tried to figure out a layout that would use all of them.  In the end, I needed 49, so the center tumbler was a different duckie print, cut from some of my wonderful novelty fabric.

I added solid fabrics from my stash, and this daisy print for the backing.  The daisy print was originally bought to go with another quilt, but it works okay with this one.

Mr. Biddy is supervising here.  He went to the vet yesterday, and they think he's doing pretty good for being a 15 year old cat.

You've seen the duckies.  Here's where the waves and soap come in.
I am a walking-foot quilter.  The walking foot on my Pfaaf is built in, which is great.  Most of this tumbler quilt was quilted about 1/4 in. from each seam, but I got a little fancy in the outer border with these waves.  It's one of my favorite stencils, and this time I used soap to mark the lines.

I've used soap to mark other quilts, but I didn't think it would work on stencils.  After all, soap is wide, and you have to mark through a fairly narrow channel.  I tried it, just for giggles, and found that the plastic edges of the channels cut through the soap enough to leave quite nice marks.
Warning--it does have the same major drawback as chalk.  The marks will easily wear off if you touch them while quilting.  To counter this, I marked one border at a time (these aren't continuous), and tried to hold the quilt by the outer edges as I quilted, grasping mostly the batting and backing.

Here's what it looks like quilted.  I never try to make these waves turn the corners, I just run the lines to the edge of the quilt or start/stop at the corner seams.

Isn't this a happy print?  Our quilt group regularly donates quilts to a local charity that helps homeless families find apartments.  This quilt will go to a child who needs it.

Now all I have to do is bind it!

Here's what's on my makeshift design wall this week.  I started these blocks about a year ago, and made 42 of the small ones.  But look what happens when you put 4 together!  So far, I am loving it.  I have to make LOTS more blocks, which is what I'm sewing on my treadle in the top photo.  I'm also using my 1930s and 1940s scraps to good purpose.
What are you working on this week?  Why not join me at the linky party at Busy Hands Quilts?   It's always a good time.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches