Ending 2015 as a Crafty Lady...

Ended my 2015 crafting myself silly.  

It began with the annual ornament making. Every year I make about 75 homemade ornaments to be given to family, friends, neighbors, people we work with, etc. This year I made candy canes out of red and white beads strung on pipe cleaners so they could be molded into a candy cane shape.

Then, I started thinking of things I wanted to make and the projects started to roll out of my sewing room, fill totes I could carry with me to work on while I waited or Claude drove, spread out on the love seat in the living room where they could lay there and wait until those moments when I sat down again to work a little more. Basically, my sewing room and home were in a 'facilitate Sandi accomplishing these goals' mode.

I took pictures of a few: a taggy blanket for soon to arrive great grandmonster, a Red Wing set of bib, burp pad and blanket, and an afghan for our first grandson-in-law in his beloved Red Wing colors. Katelyn sent me the picture of Felix taking up residence on the afghan. The afghan is made of 10 long strips that are crocheted separately and then attached together. This is a great crochet project for carrying to work on when away from home.

While we were in Michigan in October for the baby shower, I purchased the Red Wing fabric. You just can't get that here in Kentucky. The goal was to make Red Wing pajama pants for Drew and Katelyn. Enough fabric was purchased to make them and then the items for Raelyn. The PJ bottoms were fun to make. They go together pretty easy.

I have always wanted to try my hand at making a rag quilt. Making one for Raelyn was a perfect excuse. I did make that blanket and have tucked it away to give to her when she is born. Here is my first attempt at a rag quilt. I would love to more make of these but I need to purchase the special scissors to snip the fabric so it will fray in the laundry.

I realized I have a drawer full of fabric that belongs to my daughter. She and I made a small wall quilt years ago when they bought their first home. She bought way too much fabric and for some reason I have been the keeper of that fabric. I thought about just boxing it up and giving it to her. But it would end up as a box of fabric in her basement and not be used. Then I decided to make a simple quilt for them for Christmas. I got my graph paper out and my calculator. I knew how much fabric was in a flat queen sheet. That would be my backing. Using those numbers I figured how many 4-inch squares I would need across and down. Then I made a pattern starting with two squares from Michael's plaid flannel shirt that was the center of their original wall quilt. I cut all the squares and over a 3 day period I made a quilt for the kids. I really like how it turned out. Christmas morning they opened their gift and immediately recognized the fabric in the quilt. Michael was so happy to see squares from his favorite old flannel shirt in the center. Michael was also especially happy I didn't send home another box to go in their basement. 

One last little project was the Swiffer Dusters. Someone posted a link on Facebook about making your own duster replacement out of fleece fabric. I had lots of left over fleece. So I made one for each of the kids for Christmas. The nice thing about them is that you just toss it in the washer when you are finished dusting, then the dryer, then back on the handle it goes. No more purchasing the disposable ones. 

That about covers the crafting for Christmas this year. Lots of hours but it was really fun to be back creating things again.