Fellow Quilters,
Happy Tuesday! Welcome to the December issue of Quilt Block Mania. Wait – did someone say December?!? What happened to the previous 11 months?!? I don’t know about you but this year has been a blur for me. If, like me, you’re north of the 49th parallel, masks and social distancing are still the norm, along with virtual gatherings. Hubby and I just spent the past 3 glorious weeks on a long-overdue and much-needed Caribbean cruise where masks were required except when dining/drinking – I must say that I felt safe as a church mouse. Kudos to Holland America for a very successful cruise. It was SOOO good to finally get away and I am really looking forward to the Quilt Bee at Sea to Hawaii in February for 19 fantastic days of perfect weather, breath-taking scenery and quilt-till-you-wilt.
Last night Hubby and I were invited to dinner by a couple we met on our cruise – they live 4 blocks away – small world!! Their lovely home was decked out for the holidays, including resplendent poinsettias at the front door and a majestic Christmas tree in the foyer – so festive!
Christmas is without a doubt my favorite time of the year. In my area we are almost guaranteed to have enough snow to go tobogganing. I absolutely adore Christmas baking, from my mom’s Christmas fruitcake (unlike the much maligned store-bought version, it’s so moist and rich that my sons actually request it) to traditional shortbread, rum balls, mincemeat mini-tarts and several others that have become must-have additions to the requisite list. My family and friends manage to devour 12 batches of goodies over the holidays. Christmas dinner would not be complete without the classic plum pudding, a recipe handed down 3 generations from my friend’s husband’s great-grandmother – we set it aflame with brandy and serve it with rum sauce! Mmmmm!
Flaming Christmas plum pudding
Speaking of classics, I had great fun designing my block for the December edition of Quilt Block Mania, coordinated by Carolina at AlwaysExpectMoore.com. Twenty designers participated this month, and you can find the links to their blocks here:
Puzzle Cube Quilt Block by Carolina Moore
Swirlybirds by Scrapdash
Rocking Horse by Appliques Quilts and More
Old-fashioned toy by Blockofthemo.com
Wooden Toy Blocks by Penny Spool Quilts
Xylophone by QuiltFabrication
Stacked Rings at Patti’s Patchwork
Toy Truck at Blue Bear Quilts
Bullseye at Pretty Piney Quilts
Toy Plane by Mom and Me Quilting Co
Nutcracker by Inquiring Quilter
Water Colors at Perkins Dry Goods
How to Theread a Book by Craft Towards Joy
Sling Shot by Faith and Fabric
Candyland at EvaPaige Quilt Designs
Shape Sorter Block at Patchwork Breeze
Colorku at Love to Color My World
Toy Wagon by Cristy Fincher
Baboushka dolls by Duck Creek Mountain Quilting
Baseball by Masterpiece Quilting
This month’s theme is “toys” and the color palette reminded me of a classic toy that every child seems to receive around age 1 or so.
Fisher Price Rock-a-Stack
That’s right, it’s the iconic Stack of Donuts (find my pattern here). I dutifully adhered to the chosen palette, using a selection of Northcott’s Toscana textures, leaving out the orange ring, but I must admit it still looks remarkably similar to the toy my boys played with as they developed their fine motor skills and learned their colors.
It makes me wonder how many millions of stacked donuts have been gifted to babies everywhere. Did you know that there have been several color combinations of stacked donuts over the years?
I decided to play with the blocks to make a baby quilt. Here is option #1 with 12 blocks.
Option #1 38″ x 51″
But wait! Here is option #2 with half of the blocks flipped upside down – so cool!!
Option #2 – same size but so different!
Did you know that most quilters take up quilting to make a baby quilt? How about you? Tell me about the first quilt you made – who was it made for and what was the occasion? Post your story in the comments below by midnight December 14 for a chance to win a packet of my new Canoe Lake fabrics for Banyan Batiks – I’ll give away 2 prizes!
My new Canoe Lake fabric collection – Autumn Blaze, Lakeside, and Misty Morn
And join me in the Cottage Sampler Quilt-along starting December 29 here to make a throw or queen-size sampler featuring 7 unique blocks. Each week I’ll share tips and tricks to easily piece your blocks with expert precision.
Sign up for the quilt-along at Patti’s Patchwork
Speaking of sharing, I’ll pop back into your Inbox in a couple of weeks to share one of my favorite Christmas cookie recipes.
Until then,
Cheers
Patti
pattispatchwork-blog.com 
The stacked rings bring back wonderful memories of when my kids were little.
My first quilt was not a baby quilt! I was 25 years old, recently hired by a Canadian airline as a flight attendant. I needed a project, to keep me occupied on long layovers. …Timmons, St John’s, Thunder Bay etc. I bought broadcloth in chocolate brown and cream, cut out squares and hand appliquéd brown diamond shapes on the cream squares to make a star shape, sashed between blocks and hand quilted.It resides at our cottage now, and is a family treasure! It is rarely used now as it is fragile.
A treasure for sure!
My very first quilt attempt was a baby quilt. I was 15 and my mom was expecting. I thought I could make her a quilt. However she wanted to keep the news quiet . Therefore I couldn’t ask my gram for help. I did get the patchwork top finished by hand but never got it quilted. I still have it to this day!
Great story Nancy!
Love those stacked donuts. I remember them for sure. Your energy and creativity never cease to inspire me
Aw, thanks 🙂
I had played around with quilt blocks and was self taught. The first actual quilt I made was a baby quilt for my nephew.
My first baby quilt was for a neighbour. Appliqued goose. Used two layers of batting to make it puffy. Ha Ha. Very hard to quilt. Heather still has her quilt and loves it. Sometimes mistakes are only in the eyes of some. Thanks for your blog.
That’s a fun block. Of course we had that toy and we still have one in our church nursery which is a living archive of old toys.
My first quilt was a peach and green Trip around the world (you can guess the time period) that I made double sized with a poly batting and decided to hand quilt. 30 years later a friend from my guild finally finished the hand quilting for me and we donated it to outreach.
thank you. this is wonderful.
I love your stacked rings, Patti. Although I hade been garmet sewing since I was around 9, I didn’t make my first quilt until early in my 20’s. It was a baby quilt for my girlfriend and her son still keeps it as something from his baby days. Thanks
I remember those stacked rings toy. My first quilt block was one I designed to go into a quilt for a beloved pastor who was being reassigned to another church. It was embroidered. My actual first quilt was a small wall hanging and tied, not quilted. That quilt was made in the 1st quilt class I took. It was a log cabin heart quilt. My second quilt was in my second quilt class and was all done by hand. It was a small wall hanging size sampler quilt.
Caught me. My mother and grandmother were quilters so our house was chock-a-block of quilts. I didn’t need to make one. UNTIL my daughter was born. I had a stack of embroidered blocks that had haunted me since age 7, done but useless. So my mother helped me make a quilt. Hand quilted as well. Next quilt was my backward version of Feathered Star, white stars with varying blue background. Over 200 quilt later…..I’m hooked. What do people do who don’t quilt?
I didn’t set out to make a baby quilt specifically, but the size of the project in my very first “learn to quilt” course I took was baby-sized. Nine patch alternated with large snowballed blocks. The fabrics my uninformed self found were blue with primary colours in boy-ish designs so just went with it. Lo and behold, a few years later our first grandchild was born – a boy!
My first quilt was a baby quilt for my sister. I was 12 – 62 years ago!
I gave up on my first quilt and threw it away! I was dragging it back and forth from college, quilting in a hoop, and it became too much for the little space I had in the dorm. That was 48 years ago. I took it up again 5 years ago to make baby charity quilts. It’s been a rocky road ever since, but I keep trying.
My first quilt was a whole cloth embroidered panel for my oldest daughter. I started the embroidery work when I was in grade school for my ” Hope Chest”, show’s how old I am. I finished the embroidery when I found out I was Pregnant, hand quilted it, and had it finished a week before she was born. Love the stacking toy, she also had one of these to play with, loved chewing on them lol.
I made my first quilt which measured about 27 x 27 at the age of 15. I was fortunate to have a school that taught Home Economics. This precious little quilt was gifted to my sister who was expecting her first child. After the passing of my sister this quilt luckily made it back to me. It is now proudly displayed in my living room and gives me joy each time I see it.
My first quilt was actually made with blocks made by my late mother-in-law who got me interested in quilting in the first place. I still have the quilt since it was a combination of her work and mine.
Mine was not a baby quilt but a quilt to take with me to University! It was yellow and purple and tied with yellow yarn…will have to see if I can find it! I am sort of a pack rat! 🤣