What Do You Prefer? Papertowels or Snackmats?

I realized I'm always setting snacks out on paper towels for the girls.  It does make it easy to clean up, but it doesn't look very nice.  And I'm a quilter.  How easy it is for me to make snack mats for them.

 These are all ideas that I found on pinterest.

 

 I quilted the background first and then fused my applique pieces on top of that and stitched around them also.  Some are zig-zag, some are straight stitch.

 I even used nice backings for them. 

 And the girls really enjoy their snacks on them.

This is the last snackmat that I finished after the rest.

My Welcome for Julia

Julia is a new child for some friends of ours.  And the first girl in that family.  So I am welcoming her with a new quilt for her crib.  Her mom told me what colors she likes and this is what I came up with. 

 The clouds are not really yellow.  They are white with little gold dots in them. 

 I did steal the idea from a quilt that I had pinned.  It had different colors but is otherwise much the same.

 It came together very quickly as it is all fused on.  There was no sewing until I did the quilting.

 I put an extra layer of batting behind the clouds to let them puff out.

As I am generally not a modern quilt person, I had a daughter who helped me with the fabric picking and the design.  I did turn out to be a soft looking quilt.  The pictures are not a true look of it.  It turned out much nicer than I had almost thought it would.

Quilting Small Quilts

 I've been quilting smaller  quilts for customers these days.  January is usually a slow month for me.  This is a smaller quilt month for me with more small ones to come.  These are crib quilts.

 This is Vicki's quilt

 I doodled this quilt.

This is Lynne's quilt.

 I did a swirly pattern on this one.

Small Things

I've been knitting and also doing some crocheting lately of small things.  I knitted this hat for the prize box.  Maybe one of the  girls will pick it sometime. 

Ravelry link 

It was an easy hat with a nice pattern.

 

I've also been making little animals.

 This is a little mouse.  He will be a gift to be shipped.

 Ravelry link.

 

And once in a while something I do is crocheted.  I really don't like to crochet, but there are a few cute things out there that I just have to try like this owl.

 Ravelry link

The last thing so far (I am working on more) is this tiny little turtle.  It will go to my daughter, the schoolteacher, for her prize table.  Some of those 12 year old girls really like these small toys.

 Ravelry link

If you go to the ravelry links, you will be able to find the free patterns for these items. Of course, you are going to my ravelry page.  You just click on the "about this pattern" on the right side and it will take you to the pattern source.

 

Jacob's Ladder Wall Hanging

 I finished the Jacob's Ladder hanging that I've been working on for a while.  It took me time to get it quilted and then bound (or that is, I forgot about it for a while).  You can see that I blogged about it last in October.

That is too long. But here it is finished.

 It could also be used as a large table topper.

 I copied a  quilt that I pinned.  Here is the original source and she also shows how she does her quilting design ideas.  It's very helpful.   I copied the quilting exactly as she had hers done.

 

Winter Vacation Time

Our family took a short vacation to Seaside.  It is just a time of relaxing.  The weather was beautiful outside and our room had a great view.

I took several projects along with me.  I worked some on my Love Entwined.

 

 I started a new hawaiian wall hanging.  I cut it out about a year ago, and don't know really how the flowers were meant to go on.  So I'm cutting the flowers and making them smaller.  This will totally be my own creation when it's done.  You'll have to come back to see it.

 And I knit hats.  These are 2 Seahawks hats I knitted for my sons.

We are Seahawks fans so anything that way is a hit.

These were knit with some old Red Heart yarn that was laying around just screaming to get out of my drawer.   Now I'm getting ideas for more hats. And with better yarn.

 Here is the Ravelry link.  This is a free pattern.

 Sometimes hats can get used for other things than just keeping your head warm. My son was getting a sunset time lapse and the hat was helpful in that way.

Sleeping Bags for Dolls

Connie has this great tutorial for doll sleeping bags.  I thought they were so cute that I had to make some.  I made them for my Narnia knitted dolls, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.

 Here they are camping out.

 The tutorial is a good one and these bags take very little time at all to make.

 Before Eloise can go look at them, She has to eat her Seahawks cookie. Those cookies were fun to decorate.

 Eloise takes sewing lessons and this is one lesson she'll be able to do.  It's great for young beginning seamstresses.