Of all the things I'm grateful for, this one man is it! He's the man behind the costume! 
The photo may have a bit too much back light, but he's the most wonderful, perfect, patient, loving, and handsome-est man in my life! He's the love of my life, the spark in each day, and is TRULY the center of my whole existence!
I'm most grateful for my husband, and I will love him forever!


  Ever make a bandana blanket?

Well I did, and in the end, I realized a big oversight! It's terrible; never do this!

(read till the end to find out what that was!)


I'd been curious about making one of these for a long time, and finally, gathered the supplies and made one! It's a 9 square by 9 square. Each square is roughly twelve inches each side.


However, it's not the best quality. In fact, I got the bandanas from Amazon, which were cheap; and you can tell because you can see right through each one. I used scraps of leftover batting I had in my stash, which I stitched together (the pieces were not of equal size or shape) to make it fit the size of the bandanas. Then I had an old used (but in good condition) ivory colored flat sheet, that I cut to size, with enough overhang to fold over the top for a binding. 


After putting all three layers on the floor and lining everything up, I folded it up and put it away until I knew I would have time to tie it. 


And then, (drumroll, please) I pulled it out and tied it! On the floor. With no quilt frames or stands. Amazing! It reminded me of the early days of quilting when you didn't have any frames or stands, and everything was done either on the floor or in a quilting hoop.


The nice thing about a tied quilt is that you can work on it for a bit, walk away, and come back to work on it again (while its on the floor). Please note that in my case, there aren't any children around anymore to walk all over it, wrap themselves in it, and play with it while I'm not around!


It was so much fun to put together, that I think I'm gonna make another one! Overall, I'm pleased with the outcome. 



Okay, here's the big oversight: When I put all the layers together on the floor, and had tied all four corners (to keep it all in place), and had even tied the first row of 3 bandanas, I realized that I had sewn ALL of the squares, yes ALL of them, upside down! And how do you know they're upside down, you might ask? The printing of "100% Cotton" on each square is backwards! So all of my squares were upside down. The only positive and lucky save out of this whole project, is that the color on the wrong side of each square isn't faded like usual, and is the same intensity both sides! Next time, I'll be more careful!







Made from a little baby girl dress (shown in the previous post), 
this new crochet hook organizer has a scissors pocket included!
So fast, trimmed with white lace on the inside flap, this'll be a great organizer for crochet hooks! 


Although not pictured exactly as I would like it, 
this little dress I made for a new granddaughter!

I cut a size XS from the Simplicity pattern #1447 and top stitched the pleats instead of sewing seams.
 I also added a lavender straight stitch and a hand-sewn star on the collar.
The white edge is added extra, too.

The bloomers were super easy; I haven't sewn bloomers for many years and I like how fast they went together.

I can't wait to see our newborn in this new dress!

(as always, there are a few things I think I could have sewn differently, but I like the end product quite well)

 


I pulled out my few bags of my favorite Red Heart yarn to see what colors I had. (and this is only a few skeins) There were brights, pastels, white, and variegated shades of green, blue, brown, etc. So many choices! So many colors!
What to do.....

Looking for something to make with these. I'm sure there's a project that's resting in the back of my mind, I just have to pull up the list!

 


Fancy Dress Quilt made for a granddaughter. 
Machine appliqued, hand quilted in an original design, edged with fabric from the dresses.
Took quite a while to finish due to other activities going on, but enjoyed every minute of the quilting!
(I was afraid that by the time I finished it, our granddaughter would be married with 6 children!)




THE BAG
A put-together, piece-as-you-go, month long project that should have taken only a day to complete. No exact pattern, no exact process, no exact plan. Just throw it together a step at a time.
But constant refiguring, and reconsidering that next step took up a whole month to progress in increments.
Finally, I just bit the bullet and made it work. Not perfect, not exactly how I'd like it to have turned out, but it's done!