Hidden Foxes Quilt

 

This is undoubtedly the most beautiful quilt I've ever made. I just absolutely love the color combination. My sister asked if it was for my cousin's new baby and I said, "No! It's beautiful! I can't give it away!" It is a perfect little girl quilt though, and it does need a home. I had all the triangles cut and laid out last year, but I set them aside as motivation to finish the Hunter's Star quilt.

Hunter's Star Quilt

I finished my first quilt since 2020! I started this quilt in 2020, right after I finished the fox and feathers quilt. I made a bunch of half square triangles, was not motivated to trim them, and set it aside. Then we moved again, and that managed to consume an entire year. I was finally motivated to pick it up again because I cut a bunch of triangles for another quilt, coincidentally featuring the scraps of the fox fabric, and decided I should finish this quilt before starting another. 

A Very Cross-Stitch Christmas

Amanda has a long track record of creating cross-stitched ornaments for our exchange. After several years of procrastination, I finally made two tiny cross-stitched ornaments for Amanda, so naturally she sent me two much bigger cross-stitch creations! She selected the succulents because I have a bad track record with plants and managed to kill the succulents I bought earlier this year. She titled this ornament "Succulents you can't kill (a terrarium in cross-stitch)" or "How I spent 30+ hours of my life in December 2022." She estimates it actually took longer than that. I appreciate all her time and effort because they will last me forever!

Penguin Cocoa Mug Ornament

 

I have wanted to make a cocoa mug ornament before, but didn't necessarily want to go through the effort of working out the dimensions. I started with a toilet paper tube cut in half, then I rolled up some quilt batting scraps to fill it out and glued a pieces of brown felt to the top. Next I cut the felt to size, whip-stitched it and folded it over, then whip-stitched it to a circle to create the mug and inserted the cocoa. I rolled some felt to create the handle and glued it in place, then stitched in on. I wanted to decorate the mug, but didn't settle on a design until after I'd stitched it. (The penguin brads were previously used for stockings.)  I considered using pompoms for marshmallows, but ended up rolling felt strips and gluing them in place. The cocoa insert is only glued in where I inserted the baker's twine for the hanger.

 

 

Finished size: 2.5" high by 2" wide, plus handle

Cross-Stitched Metal Discs

I found these 2" metal discs on clearance at Joann's three years ago, because I know at least two Christmas ornament making seasons have gone by without using them. The first year I didn't even really try. Last year I did settle on the mail box design, but then I just couldn't bring myself to get started or commit to colors or something. This year, I finally sucked it up and it really wasn't too bad! After that, I was motivated to pick out and execute the cactus design fairly quickly, though I decided not to bother with a background. I glued felt circles on the back to finish them off.