Handmade Christmas

Most of yesterday was spent in the sewing room. I love a good rainy day, don't you? With outdoor activities curtailed for the season, there's plenty of time for fooling around with fabric. The project I alluded to yesterday's post was this little angel, made from a vintage clothespin. She took about half an hour.

Here's how she looks from the back.

This was made from a kit I picked up when we visited a quilt shop in Summerville, South Carolina, just about a year ago. My only comment about this little angel is her dress should be more full so that it ruffles a little bit...at least, that's what I think. I was kind of curious, and so I went in search of the blog post I wrote about this shop called People, Places & Quilts. Here is the display they had in their shop.

In my post, I said I was so taken with their little angels that I bought a kit to make some of my own, and I bought another package of clothespins in case three angels weren't enough.

So, that was kind of fun. I'd like to try again, only be less skimpy with the fabric in the dress...maybe dress her up a little bit fancier by using some Christmas scraps. (And why the scraps in the little kit I purchased aren't more Christmassy is a mystery.)

After that, I got a bee in my bonnet to put out all the little Christmas quilts I've made. I hung the Gingerbread Village from last summer over the breakfast bar. The little table topper you see there was a gift from my friend Marei.

On our larger dining room table, I put out another table topper. That was from a Let's Book It project several years back, and it was the first quilt I quilted on Eliza.

My tension was off, and so looking at the back is not allowed. Nevertheless, I was happy with how the holly berries quilted into the border turned out.

This next little wall hanging was made for one of the Project Quilting challenges. Theme for the week was "A Well Dressed Man."

Oh yes, and this little patchwork Santa. I can't even remember where I found this pattern, but there was a snowman version as well. He came as a kit, and he was kind of fun to make.

And then there are these two guys. You might remember when I felted the guy on the right. The one on the left was made by my talented friend Carol from high school. She makes and sells these hand-carved pieces under the name of Whittler's Mother on Facebook. If you look carefully at this one she made for me, it includes Smitty and Gracie at the bottom.

And Santa is holding a quilt I made...this one that hangs downstairs, called Oh Christmas Tree. Carol and I swapped handmade gifts when I made a baby quilt for her first grandson.

Also, downstairs, the stockings are hung by the chimney with care...although there is no chimney since it's a gas fireplace. The two on the left are Smitty's and Sadie's. The one on the right is Matthew's. My sister-in-law picked it up at a craft fair many years ago. When Matthew is more settled, I'll pass it along to him. Erik and Mae claimed their stockings several years ago when they bought their house.

So, there's no tree yet. That will have to wait for just a bit. But I still had time left in the day, and so I decided to drop everything and make a Quilts for Kids quilt. You can read more about Quilts for Kids at that link I gave you. Basically, they're donated to kids facing serious illness, injury, or trauma. I've wanted to do more of these quilts. I made one shortly after we got back from our trip from some what-was-I-thinking Chinese zodiac fabric taking up space in my stash. It turned out to be perfect for a Quilts for Kids quilt, and so I'll just go out on a limb and say that's what I was thinking.

So now I'm looking to find a way to use a lot of juvenile fabric that ended up in my stash. As I've said before, I'm a sucker for sock monkeys. This was one of the very first fabrics I purchased when I started quilting ten years ago. I kept thinking an opportunity would present itself and I'd make a quilt from this. And, well, I guess the time is now. So, I started cutting strips for this before I thought to take a picture...

And, as I mentioned, I am a sucker for sock monkeys, and so I have several iterations of sock monkey fabric in my stash. I have the bananas pictured below with both a white and red background. And then my friend Sher gifted me with those sock monkeys in space a few years ago. (Thank you, Sher.)

Also, I have scraps of this fabric...

It'll make a great border fabric for this quilt. It was used as a backing when I finished Hello Moon a few years ago.

So, I cut all the strips for this new quilt yesterday, and I had the four-patches sewn together when I quit for the day.

Just for grins, I laid them out, and I'll start sewing them together today.

Oh, and silly me...

You don't actually think we'll leave these here like this, do you? Kitties abhor order.

Oh, wow, Smitty! Look what Mom did! We're gonna have us some fun now.

Okay, Sadie...you start over there, and I'll start right here.

Before they went to work, I had just a few seconds to lay out the two borders and get an idea how this will look when it's finished. I think I have enough of the red fabric for the back. If not, there's always the banana fabric with the red background. Heck, I might even decide to use that instead.

This quilt will be called "Going Bananas," and I should have enough time to sew the whole top together today. I like this particular pattern for Quilts for Kids because it goes together fast, and it uses a good bit of fabric. There are several free patterns, including this one, on the Quilts for Kids website.

So that's where I'll pick up with my sewing today. Right now, I have two kitties boring through me with their eyes. They haven't had any kitty treats for all of five minutes, and they are pawsitively starving to death.