… just doesn’t have to mean not to sew, either. I just realized that my last entry dates from before CHRISTMAS and of course, I’ve made a couple of presents myself. Admittedly, though, one of the meant-to-be Christmas presents took longer to come into being – I finished it today. But, first things first:

bonnets

I found a bonnet pattern in ottobredesign and figured it would be nice to make one for my son and one for each of the little ones of friends of mine. I ended up using the same fabric for all, just changing the colour of the little „ears“ and the binding. Having all of these hanging up was actually quite a nice sight! I did manage to send them out at Christmas, too.

I also made a log-cabin sofa cushion for my sister and her husband but forgot to take a picture – so I can’t show it here rigth now.

Then, well after Christmas, a friend of my son’s became a big brother – so I made a little dress for the baby girl – the pattern is also from ottobredesign (for which, by the way, I’ve been given a one-year subscription for my birthday by my ever so thoughtful sister, thank you!):

Baby dress

I used some fabric I had left over from another project and orange quilting fabric for the lining and the buttons.

Then there was mardi gras – a day for kids (and some grown-ups, too) to dress up and make believe. Since my little boy is always eager to cook (make-belief and for real) it was pretty clear that to turn him into a chef would be nice. Of course, I’d never even thought about how to make a chef’s hat, but I did find a pattern. I had to adapt it’s size which took some math (remember how you calculate circumferences? It’s all about Ï€!) I also made an apron – just slightly adapting this pattern (in German, though). I added a piece of binding to hold a wooden spoon or some other fitting tool. Anyway – here’s what the little chef looked like, don’t hate me for obscuring his face, please (he’s just not able yet to give his informed consent to having his picture published.)

Chef’s hat and apron

And now, at last, the missing Christmas project: my husband’s cousin (can you say cousin in law?) had a baby girl in October and I had planned at first to make a dress for the baby. Then I made the aforementioned sofa cushion and it was done so quickly that it make me think of making a blanket for the baby. I spent hours at my favourite fabric store online, the „Traumwerkstatt“ to find just the right fabric. I figured I’d go for large log-cabin blocks but then decided to keep it simple and cut squares. I assembled them on the floor to figure out which order to put them in:

Squares

When I’d attached all of them to each other I figured that some kind of a „frame“ would be nice and  went to a quilting-utensils store here in town and had a nice talk with the owners as well as two very nice ladies who were there for fabric shopping and project-showing (one of them had made the most amazing hexagon quilt – I’ve never seen anything quite like that before!) during which we figured out the fabrics to be used for my „frame“. I finished the blanket today (just in time as we were meeting my cousin-in-law today, too) and here’s what it looks like:

Baby blanket - back side

vorn.JPG

That said, I guess I’ve posted just about all of my recent projects – there are more to come, though, for sure! So, come back and see for yourself,

Katrin