What Do You Do When You Can't Sew?

Most weeks, I spend my free time sewing.  Not this week.  This week, I had other commitments.  The sewing machines barely got warmed up.  The spirit was willing, but the time was just not there.

What do you do when this happens to you?

I just tried to make the best of it.
Most of my time is spent babysitting my Little Buddy, the most adorable 3 year old in the world.  There are many fun things we can do together, like taking pictures of Canadian geese in the park.

We've also been picking green beans and tomatoes in our little garden.  We missed a few beans, that will now only be good for seed for next year, but we've had quite a few for dinner.

I've found a little time to put up some of the fall quilts in the dining room.

I made this one in 1988, after we took a family trip out west. 

Our youngest daughter, who was 4 years old then,  loved the little Native American-made dolls sold in the souvenir shops.  The alternate block replicates a design on a book about Native American textiles that I bought on that trip.  The colors are right for fall decorating.

These little quilts are for Jack's Basket.  There are 13 of them!  The ladies in our quilt group made them (I made one a few weeks ago).  I'm getting ready to mail them out this week.  They are all different, and all amazing.  Little Buddy helped me lay them out and take pictures.

I'm often too tired to sew in the evenings after supper, but I can definitely sit and knit.  I'm making a baby sweater as a shower gift for a friend of my daughter's.

Now here we are, finally at the weekend.  I will have time to sew now, and here's what I'm going to work on first--putting the binding on this donation quilt.

I made this top awhile back, (for details click HERE) and handed it in to the wonderful ladies on the charity committee to be quilted.  Didn't they do a nice job?  Now it's back to me, to be bound.  What do you think of the fabric I've chosen?  In person, it's sort of purple.  It goes okay with the top...

and the back!  Check out these fabulous pink pigs!  And they're flannel!

I'm glad these no-sewing weeks don't come along very often, but when they do, I know eventually I'll have time again to work on my favorite hobby.

This week, I'm hoping you'll have time to do what you really love to do.
Cheers,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with:
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Alycia at Finished or Not Friday
Angela at Soscrappy
Cynthia at Oh Scrap 

Loose Ends and Layouts

Welcome to my blog.  I hope you are having a lovely weekend.   I know I am--I'm sewing!

All my blocks are done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, so I'm starting to put them together into tops.  This is rows 1-3 of the Mary Ann's Baskets quilt, made from reproduction fabric scraps.  Surprise, I'm not following the layout in the book exactly.  I want a rectangular rather than a square quilt.  (The book is Classic & Heirloom Quilts, by Betsy Chutchian).
Even though I've been quilting for over 40 years, I haven't made very many diagonal sets, at least not recently.  So I'm having to lay it all out and work on it carefully so as not to mess it up.

I'm not sure why I decided to make three Rainbow Scrap quilts this year.  Maybe I just couldn't make up my mind?? (That would not be unusual.)  So I'm also working on this top.

The pattern for this quilt is in the same book.  Ms. Chutchian calls her quilt White Rock Creek, but another book calls these blocks Wagon Trail. They're also made from repro scraps, that I've been sewing all year.  I did add in some brown and black scraps (colors not on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge list this year), which would be appropriate to this time period.
Surprise again, I'm doing a slightly different set.  I'm setting it together in two sections.  Then I'll add borders (not sure what color yet), and quilt each section.  I want to quilt something pretty in the open spaces, and that will be easier if the quilt is in two pieces.

So these quilt tops have been on my to-do list for a while, and I'm glad to be at least starting to get them together.
But--squirrel!

I couldn't help it, I started these blocks last week, and just kept going until I had enough for a child's quilt.  The block is called King's Crown, and the centers are crumb blocks made from the snippets in my scrap basket.  There might be a bit too much red and blue in it, but you work with what you have.  No hurry on this one, it will be a charity quilt sometime in the new year.

I did actually finish a little wall quilt this week, but it was more than half done last week.  Now it's been bound, washed, and hung on the wall, ready for Thanksgiving.

Did it snow where you live this week?  We got a little dusting here Thursday night and Friday morning.  Little Buddy and I made this:

It's his first snowman!  He was so excited about it, even though it's not even as tall as he is.  He couldn't wait to show it to his big brother and mom.

Do we have lots of fun around here?  You betcha!

I hope you had fun this week, too.

Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up this week with:
Angela at soscrappy
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I Get A Whoop Whoop)
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework (Oh Scrap)