one last post for 2015

I bought this panel Monday afternoon, cut fabric Tuesday, and sewed up a play mat Wednesday.

The panel and yellow/black diagonal fabric are Tonka toys designs.

The backing is pea pod green from Kona Solids? I think.

The drawstring idea came from conversations on Christmas about keeping up with all the little toys some little boy loves to play with.

I am very pleased with how the drawstring and loops turned out. I think it looks like road hazard signs. When the string is pulled the play mat turns into a bag to contain those little cars, legos, and people until needed.

The kimono jacket was finished over the weekend. I bought the black and white prints years ago for another more structured jacket but never got past the lining. This kimono was super fast and easy to make and I know I will make some more. I think lovely daughter would like one, too.

I made three rice bags and flannel covers to give the office ladies at school. They are always cold. Maybe these will help them warm up.

Sweet son made this bubbling fountain for our new backyard landscape. 

Finally, I am enjoying the birds every morning as I eat breakfast. The cardinals come between 7:30 and 9:00 am. Usually I am at work when they drop by. They are my favorite winter visitors.

I think this is a wrap for 2015. Looking forward to new sewing projects in 2016.

2015 in Review

2015 was the year of small finishes. I started the year strong with a sampler that was begun years ago. I was so pleased that I entered it in the Greater Jackson Quilt Celebration. This time I read the judge's notes. Wasn't as painful as I imagined.

In June I took a class called 'scrappy Gretchen'. My interpretation was a Christmas quilt I'm calling 'Christmas Candy'. Very pleased with how it turned out. I will be sharing it at our January quilt meeting.

Another big finish was this twin sized plus quilt with transportation fabrics for my darling grandson.

 As I said before there were lots of little finishes this year. These baby quilts were for twin boys of a former co-worker. The center fabric is Rubber Ducky from a book by Eric Carle.

Another fun finish was this baby quilt with different textures in the centers of each block. 

It doesn't seem like I had many quilt finishes this year. But considering I sew only on week ends and holidays when the mood hits-I am pleased with this year's creations.

Hope you had a great year. Looking forward to more sewing in 2016.

Ready for Christmas

Well, the photos didn't upload in the order I expected but here goes.

I finished six place mats last night for lovely daughter. All the fabric and batting was from my stash!

Here is my first wall hanging, Christmas Candy. It has been up for a while but I couldn't get a good photo to upload. I love the ornaments hanging on the wire deer sculpture above the quilt.

This is a quick little drawstring bag for lovely DIL in MSU fabric and grey minky dots. So fun and quick to make.

Minky dots fabric was left from another project-just enough to line this shoe bag.

Some more pics of the place mats. I used fabric from my stash and tried different quilting patterns on each one. 

The ovals reminded me of the orbits of planets.

Tight lines in a grid took a long time to sew.

Another grid pattern.

This was a combination of two grids.

This one reminds me of a labrinth.

So glad to finish these with time to spare.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Christmas!

Christmas Door Prizes

An apron and hot pads I made for door prizes at our reading conference.

The apron is reversible. Silver snowflakes on one side and dark red and silver leaves on the other.

I wanted to try making an ornament block. Mr. M thought is was a perfume bottle. Oh, well.

The tree was fun to figure out. The trunk was made from two triangles left over from my Christmas scrappy quilt. I made another hot fingers, too. Since it is a reading conference I added a cookbook for kids. Hope the winner likes it.