Table topper

In bringing out more spring-like décor for the house today, I decided I needed a new table topper to match the placemats I made in 2015. I still have plenty of the fabric left.

Machine embroidery sweatshirt embellishment

I thought this machine embroidery design would be ideal for Julia. Her Papa is German.

It's hard to find plain shirts to add embroidery to, so this one looks like a little boy's shirt.

Heart shaped coin purse

 

This is a small coin purse I made for Iris as a little Valentine gift. Yes, it does contain money! It's a machine embroidery in-the-hoop design from FiveStarFonts.com.

 

Valentine cards

For Emelie

These are the Valentine cards I made for family and a friend. I used machine embroidery designs. One of the ones I made mysteriously disappeared. I wonder where/when it will show up!

For Shirley

For Leslie

For Iris



For Sonja

For Julia

I-Spy quilts

I've finished the I-Spy quilt for Julia's 2nd birthday. These are the same fabrics that were in Sonja's quilt and backed with the world map fabric. Quite appropriate for this little German/American girl.

 

 

 

 

 

I then pieced the remainder of the I-Spy fabrics into two un-quilted tops which have been donated to Project Linus.

Knit scarves

Here are a couple of 2017 UFOs which are now TGIFs ... (Thank God It's Finished).

 

The first one is a herringbone stitch scarf that will be donated to our local Project Linus. I don't know if it's too late for this year's cold season, but should be good for next. The yarn is Lion Brand Ice Cream which is a fine yarn (#2). The herringbone stitch is knit with needles at least 1 size larger than called for, so for this fine yarn, I used a size 6 needle. The pattern is "Men's Mini Herringbone Scarf" which has a nice edging that keeps this pattern from rolling.

This next scarf is for myself. It's made from some leftover yarn which I love, but, unfortunately it has been discontinued. This pattern is from Ravelry called Terribly Simple. It's only one row and makes a crescent shaped scarf. I was surprised and pleased at the way the ends curl. It seems to go very nicely with this lovely old peacock pin that I've had for years.

Crafting with Iris

How wonderful to start of the new year crafting with Iris. They came for an extended weekend over Martin Luther King day/weekend. Iris was disappointed that she would miss the sewing club she is participating in. They were going to be making pillowcases. But she got to sew quite a bit with Mimi. She had ideas of what she wanted to make.

   First, I was showing Leslie some fabric I had that I thought would work for the background of a "bears in the window" wall hanging she wants to make. Iris really liked the fabric, and I happened to have some fat quarters that I had purchased of the same fabric, so she made a pillow with those fat quarters. She did a beautiful job of hand stitching the opening closed, too.
   

   She wanted to make some unicorn hair clips for a friend of hers, so we found a machine embroidery pattern on line. Iris liked them so much, she wants some for herself, so I will make her some to go in the next package we send to them. She impressed me with how well she could thread the machine on her own. It takes quite a bit of re-threading to get all the different colors. She chose the colors of felt and thread that she wanted to use. We also made some penguin hair clips for some other friends.
 

  Then she said she needed a cloth to cover her hands when she's learning keyboarding, so she picked some fabric and I had her serge around the edge. Then she decorated it with different colors of thread and decorative stitches that she picked out on my sewing machine. She did most of it on her own, and I wasn't even in the room.

   When she saw all the colors of felt I had, she decided she wanted to make a bag with some of it. She put a pocket on it and used some decorative stitches on my sewing machine for the border. She did this all on her own.
 

   I told her she could go back and tell her sewing teacher that she learned to use three different machines at Mimi's house: a serger, an embroidery machine, and a sewing machine.