Angels

 

Angel ornaments from my mom's hankies

     My mom died last year in November.  This December would have been her 90th birthday so I decided to have a party for her.  It was a nice way to get to talk about her and our memories of growing up.

The final result

     As a keepsake for everyone to take home, I made angel ornaments from her box of hankies. She had dozens of them.  I looked on Pinterest for some directions and started making them.

Original angel I made

    The first couple I made, I used stuffing to make the heads and tried to starch the hankie so it would look like wings.  I only did a couple as I wasn't too happy with the results.  I then went to Hobby Lobby and found some some balls to form the heads.  I used two different sizes depending on the size of the hankie.  I looked for crochet or lace shapes that I could use for wings but didn't see anything I liked.  Then on Amazon I found some fabric wings. 

'Heads' from Hobby Lobby

Wings from Amazon

     I was going to glue the wings in place, but then I remembered the double faced tapes I had bought for doing window treatments and thought that would be much less messy and faster.

Tape I used

     After I got these items all in place, making the angel ornaments didn't take long.  I believe that this was a nice way to remember my mom.

     It was so nice to get together with family and just talk about my mom.

      Rest in peace mom

Christmas Presents for Friends

Gingerbread man mug rug and ornament

      I have two dear friends that we get together for brunch once a month.  We started out talking about our businesses but now it's more about just us.  This year for Christmas I made them a mug rug and a matching ornament.

    I bought these cute designs from Designs by JuJu. I did the mug rugs first and then used some of the same fabric to do the ornaments.  

     For the backs of the ornaments I used some of the flannel left over from making pajama pants for my great niece.

     I even used some metallic thread to add sparkle to the ornaments.  These were fun and easy to do using some of my scraps I have saved over the years.

     Even the mug rugs were mostly scraps.  A great way to use up leftover fabric.  I love the designs from Designs by JuJu and the accompanying directions make them easy to do.

Christmas Jammies for the Grandkids 2024

 

Getting those last two pairs cut

     I decided once again to just make the pajama pants for the grandkids and embroider store bought t-shirts.  These are gifts from St Nick (the 8 yr old figured it out this year that grandma probably makes them as they are all the same.)  I bought matching t-shirts from Old Navy and flannel from JoAnn Fabrics.  I figured I needed about 10-11 yards of flannel to make their pajama pants.  Unfortunately the bolts only have 8 yards on them usually at JoAnn's.  I bought a full bolt of one with ice skates and sweaters and three yards with gingerbread men and Santas.  The plan was to cut the four older grandkids from the larger piece and the two younger ones from the smaller piece.  However with some creative cutting layouts, I was able to get all six pairs from the one piece.  As they get older and bigger I'm sure that won't be an option.

      For the youngest, I used the pants pattern from Sewing for Baby.  For the 3 year old, I used the pants pattern from Sewing for Toddlers and for the four oldest, I used McCall's 8311 that I have in multiple sizes.

For Violet, 1

For Gabriel, 3

The four older ones

     When it came time to do the embroidery on the tops, I was debating between ugly sweaters or ice skates.  I chose the ice-skates pattern from Embroidery Library after I found I was able to buy HTV from Amazon in white.  I thought this made for a more realistic looking ice-skate.  For the girls I did pink laces and for the boys I did blue laces.  For the two youngest I chose the smaller size embroidery and for the four older ones the larger size.  I just hope the HTV holds up in the wash.

Embroidery detail

     Maybe I can get a picture of all 6 of them wearing them when the come here to celebrate Christmas.

Christmas Pajamas for the Great Nieces

 

     I made some Christmas pajamas for my great-nieces in Arizona.  I had enough fabric in my stash of Christmas flannel to make one pair of pajama bottoms only.  I ordered some pink long sleeve tees from Old Navy to use as the tops.  So off I went to JoAnn Fabrics to buy more Christmas flannel.  Since I had already ordered the pink tees, it had to have pink in it.  I did find a cute gingerbread man print.

     All the seams were serged to prevent fraying.  I left the shirts plain this year as I thought they could wear them at other times if they wanted to.  I sent them off via USPS.  My niece let me know the package arrived though it was quite smashed in on one end.  Good thing there was nothing fragile in the box.

Violet's Pillowcases

 

     We celebrated our youngest granddaughter's first birthday yesterday.  I gave her the pillowcases I had made for her to celebrate the holidays.  I make fourteen in all, and with her as grandchild #6, I have made at least 84 pillowcases for grandkids.

     After she was born, I first looked through my stash to see what I had, then I went to various quilt shops and even JoAnn Fabrics to buy what I needed to make them.

     I cut everything out and got it organized.  Then it was a few hours at the computer getting all the embroideries ready to be stitched out.  I used the same font for each grandchild on the same holidays such as the Cajun font on each of their Mardi Gras pillowcases.  

     After I stitched out the name on the band, I assembled each of the pillowcases using the hotdog method and French seams as detailed here.

     I always enjoy choosing the fabrics to make these pillowcase and sewing them up is now quick and easy.

Prairie Crossing Wallhanging

Prairie Crossing celebrates 30 years

      During the summer on one of my walks, a neighbor stopped me to give me some quilt blocks she had.  She was trying to clear the house as she would be moving and found these.  She was given them years ago.  I guess when our community was celebrating a different anniversary, some of the people made these blocks.  She was supposed to make them into a wallhanging at that time and never did.  There were eleven finished blocks and one blank piece of muslin.

Adding the fusible batting

     The blocks were not all square and not the same size.  My first step was to press them and then square them up.  I then added a frame to each one and then cut them to all be the same size.  

All pinned, ready to quilt

     On the blank piece of muslin, I embroidered "Celebrating Prairie Crossing 30 Years".  I felt this was a good way to know what the wallhanging was for.  I sewed the blocks together and then ironed on some fusible batting.  As this will be a wallhanging and not a usable quilt, I like this option so I don't have to do much quilting then.  I pinned this to a backing piece and stitched around the blocks.

Trimming it up

     I then trimmed the backing and batting before making the binding.  For the binding, I cut the fabric on the bias so the stripes were on an angle.  A little more interesting I think.

Quilting around the blocks

    I did use a matching thread for the quilting around the blocks that also blended in nicely with the backing fabric I chose.

Label

     I added a label on the back with my name and the year.  I stitched the binding to the back and then brought out around to the front and machine stitched it.  When I do bed quilts, I stitch the binding onto the front and then hand sew it in place on the back.

Title block

One of the blocks

     It was interesting to see how different people approached the making of their block. there was fusible used and lots of hand stitching.  Unfortunately I don't know who made the blocks and their story but it is fun looking all the same.

Quilt for Baby Maeve

Finished quilt for Maeve Margaret

      We had another baby girl join the family.  My husband's nephew and his wife had their second baby in the middle of October.  I had several baby boy quilts ready to go but only this one for a girl.  It worked out just great as when her big sister was born, I had given her a quilt with these same fun giraffes.  Check it out here.   This is also the same pattern I used for my roses quilt.  It looks so different. 

Block detail

Borders with flannel binding

     I had bought this as a kit on-line so I didn't have the option of adding more of the polka dot fabric to the three yards to make a matching binding.  I used the same flannel as I used for the backing.  As the flannel is a little thicker than quilting cotton, there was more uptake when turning over the binding.  I should have used a slightly smaller seam allowance when sewing the binding to the front of the quilt so it wouldn't have been as hard to stitch it down by hand on the back.

Label 1

Label 2

     I used the flannel also for the labels, it makes them blend it nicely.  Thanks to my embroidery software, it is easy to design the labels.

Quilting detail

     And check out how cute this quilting design is!  A giraffe!  So fun to be able to have the quilting relate to the fabric.

Roses Town Square Quilt

Finished Roses Town Square quilt

     I fell in love with this roses fabric while browsing the quilt stores.  I bought two other coordinating fabrics to make a three yard quilt.  I chose the Town Square pattern to really highlight the roses.  The fabric was bought at Patched Works in March 2023.  I always buy an extra half yard of the fabric I think I will use as the outer border(unless it is a kit).  The patterns call for single fold binding and I prefer double fold, hence I buy extra.  I cut it out at home and then pieced it at quilt retreat in October 2023.  I later added the borders at home. 

Block and quilting detail

Borders

     I like the pink and brown color way, in fact I am wearing a blush cardigan and brown pants as I type this up :-)  I found a cute flannel at JoAnn Fabrics for the back.  It was ladybugs, butterflies and polka dots in similar colors.  Barb Jolley who quilted this for me in June of 2024, found this cute ladybug quilting pattern.  I asked her to only do it in the blocks, so she then did stitch-in-the-ditch for the borders.

Label 1

Label 2

     I used my embroidery software and designed and stitched out two labels for the quilt.  I finished up sewing on the binding while on a little vacation In Fairfield Glade, Tennessee with my husband to enjoy the fall colors.

Flannel backing

     Isn't that backing cute?  This will be a nice lap quilt for the cooler months.