Liam's monster

I seem to be in the business of making presents for children. What's with all the kids being born in and around this month? Here is a monster I made for Liam's birthday. I was shooting for scary but really don't know that I did that. Quirky, yes. Silly, yes. Scary, not so much. It also fills Barbara's request to trick Liam into having a pillow (finally). It should be just right for that.

turtle without a face

I saw a pattern like this in a book a while back and thought I'd try making it myself. I made it without actually having the pattern in hand, so I had to improvise a bit. It worked, but I think I'll try again with the knowledge I gained from this trial. I like the shell. I just don't like the material it's made with. Picky picky picky.

just for fun

Here's the elephant all finished:
and a panda for Kaia:

in honor of Adam

It's an elephant. Trust me.

softie?

I've been doing some research on softies. No, not the diapers. Softies like hip stuffed animals. If you're familiar with Ugly Dolls, you're familiar with softies. I decided to start with someting easy that doesn't have a lot of dimension to it. So I found this:




















and thought I could do something similar. I'm sort of happy with what I created, though I have a few things I would change, which is good motivation to make another!

don't read this Amanda!

Okay, now that Amanda's not reading this, I can continue. It seems this is the month for my friends' kids to have birthdays. Kaia just turned one and is having her first party next weekend. So what did I do but make her a new blanket! I had some fabric laying around that I bought just because I liked it and knew I'd find something to do with it eventually. And here it is:
It doesn't look like much in this picture, but it's the best I could do with it. I guess this is really a see-it-in-person quilt. I used the same fabric for the background and the applique, just at different angles. I hand-quilted around the applique pieces and tied the rest of the quilt to give some definition. Oh look! You can see my foot in the picture! Ha! Okay. Here's a close-up of the bird that's in the upper left-hand corner:




You can see the fabric and stuff a little better in this shot. I think it's perdy. Yup.

yup

Chloe likes the blankie, too. I'm all finished already. Justin- I ended up hand-quilting the applique squares and tying the green parts. So the answer is: yes. All kinds of quilting techniques, and I feel like I'm getting better at all of them. I may even be ready to join a quilting circle. Maybe.

tah-dah!

I'm almost finished with the top of Ella's blankie. Here it be:

I need to finish the trim on the sides then it's time to quilt! I like the butterfly square the best I think. The embroidery doesn't show well in the picture, but that's what I get for being lazy and using my phone for pictures.

Won't Ella be excited if I finish by her birthday? Yeah, okay. She's turning three so she probably won't really care because it's not a noisy toy. Carolyn and I will be excited, and that's what really matters, yes?