New blankets!

 As previously mentioned, my double-layer fleece blankets are popular, whether around this house or as gifts.  And sometimes both!  (As an aside, now that I look at previous posts, I see that I haven't made any new fleece blankets for my house since 3 years ago!  All of those are holding up very well and in heavy rotation, so that's a good thing.)

Thing 2 loves Angry Birds, so when I was walking through HF last month and spotted this fabric, I immediately thought of making him a blanket!  Of course, I'm also frugal, so I had to think on it for a few days and crunch the sale price before I went back to get it.  But in the end, it was under $7.50/yd, so who could pass that up?!?  This one is backed with a solid black (on a great sale at JAF - $2.99/yd) and then bound with the red fleece that I already had on hand, wound onto a "wheel."

And of course, if one gets a new blanket, the other will want a new one!  So I started looking for a good fleece print for Thing  1.  I really liked this Agent P fleece that I found, and I knew that he would, as well.  It is backed with a solid blue in the same shade as the background (also at that great JAF sale), and bound with black fleece that I already had prepared for binding.  I think it turned out great!

My boys were thrilled with their new blankets and immediately wanted to put them on their beds.  :)  And I have two more blankets that I want to make for general house use - the prints are both from long-time stash, though I did buy the backings at the big JAF sale.  Hopefully I'll be able to blog about them soon.

Another set of pillowcases

As previously shown, I love making pillowcases as gifts.  They're quick, easy, practical, and fun.  Even if someone's decor doesn't lend itself to fun spurts of color, a pillowcase reflecting their favorite colors or interests is usually welcome.

I found this winter print while searching my stash for something else.  It has snowmen talking about quilts, so it's more winter than just Christmas.  My grandmother used to quilt a lot - not sure if she still does - so I thought she'd enjoy this.  I have no idea how long I've had this or why I bought it, but it's got to be at least four or five years ago.  The green contrast was a cotton I purchased a few years ago with the intent to make it into a shirt for my husband, but he didn't like the feel, so there it sat.  And then I added red piping for interest - mainly because I had some on hand and didn't want to have to go out to get anything else for a contrast - and I got to use my new piping foot for the first time!  I like the way this turned out, and hopefully my grandma will love it.

Key fobs

So last year, I made a bunch of key fobs as gifts for teachers and friends.  It was the first time I'd ever done that, and they seemed to go over pretty well.  So I figured that I'd make more this year, especially since now I have a fair number of coworkers.

I made more than what is pictured, but these are all the unique combinations of print/color.  This time, all the supplies were purchased through a single online coop, run through FaceBook.  All key fobs are made with poly webbing and ribbon.  I still like how the fabric ones looked last year, but I think that these are easier and quicker but look just as nice.

I purchased 15 yards of the pawprint ribbon (middle to upper right), so that the roll could be ordered.  (The coop requires a certain number of yards to be ordered/paid for, or that print will be dropped.)   I've only used approximately 5 yards so far, so there's plenty remaining for future years.  I hope everyone likes these!

Some stockings....

Remember my awesome tree skirt, 6 years in the making?  Well, each pre-quilted panel came with two pre-quilted stocking pieces.  And when you use 4 panels to make two tree skirts, you end up with enough for 4 stockings.  I've been ignoring these stocking pieces for years, because as gorgeous as I think the print is, I just didn't need them.  (I made us our own awesome stockings two years ago!)  However, I'm trying to be mindful of not wasting things, and sewing down my stash, etc.....so I decided that I would go ahead and make up these stockings, and then I could find recipients to fit them.  

I used my Three Kings cotton print as lining, just because I could. ;)  And I used different bias tape to trim the tops, so they can be easily distinguished.  The blue, skinnier bias tape is the commercial stuff I used on my aunt's tree skirt.  The navy is actually made from the Three Kings print - I had thought about using it on my tree skirt, but decided against it.  And the gold swirls is left over from my tree skirt.  My aunt is getting one of the gold swirls, even though it won't exactly match her tree skirt.  I just think it's super cool-looking.  I'm glad I finished these.

Some applique!

My church adopted two needy families for Christmas this year.  We grabbed three wishes to fulfill, and one was for a shirt/blouse for a toddler girl in a 2T size.  I got a plain black T-shirt and a purple waffle-knit henley, and I thought it would be fun to add a winter applique to the black shirt.  The applique design is from etsykim.  While I was at it, I pulled out the purple T-shirt that I'd previously bought for my niece - because if you're making one, you might as well make two, right?

I think that they turned out really cute, and I hope that both little girls love them!

New boxers....and a thought....

Years and years ago (eight, I think), I made my husband a pair of boxers from a blue fabric with red chili peppers all over it.  He really liked them!  Sadly, time marches on, and those boxers desperately needed to be retired.  So when I saw this fabric in the thrift store, I jumped at it!  These became his birthday gift, though a little late....oops!  I didn't make any changes - this is my TNT pattern for him.  But I do really like how they turned out.

And the thought is that I've seen patterns for quilted wallhangings that are designed to look like boxers in the blocks.  I think it would be fun to make one, using pieces of retired boxers to make the boxers in the blocks!  I'm currently thinking about this one, which is for sale, or the free Laundry Time pattern.  It won't get anytime soon, anyway, so for now I'll just think about it, and hang onto the "retired" boxers.

A Birthday Gift

I had made a pair of PJs for my BFF two years ago, and she loved them!  She sews as well, but apparently she wasn't doing a very good job of prioritizing any sewing for herself. ;)  So she requested a new pair of PJs.  I had a queen-sized flannel sheet from the thrift store that I thought she'd love (the print), so I used that for the pants and the front/back of the shirt.  There wasn't quite enough for the sleeves, so I used a coordinating navy flannel instead, and also used it for the neckband, which I brought to the outside again.  

I used M3006 for the pants and M5504 for the shirt.  Unfortunately, my notes were a little vague from when I made the pants the last time, and so they are a few inches short.  But I will add cuffs to them when she sends them back, and that will lengthen them correctly.  Fortunately, I have quite a bit of stash fabric for the pair I'm making her for Christmas, so I can cut a new, properly lengthened pair of pants and use the ones I already cut for someone else.

Back to sewing....(and why it's been so sparse)

So it's been quite awhile since I blogged, and I thought I should share why!  We lost our older dog Zoe over the summer, and it took awhile before we were ready to think about looking for a new dog to share our life.  Well, this little guy came and found us, right after we went to the wedding in October.  So he's been taking up a lot of our time and attention.  But I did manage to sew up a dinosaur costume for Halloween. :)  I've never been one to really dress up my animals, but I did think it'd be funny to have him wearing a costume, especially since he went out trick-or-treating with us.

This is Cooper at about 3.5 months.