Carhartt Stocking

Claire isn't the only one getting stockings! This one is for my brother-in-law. He works at Carhartt and sent me a couple Carhartt patches. I wasn't sure what to do with them, but while I was making stockings, it occurred to me that the patch would fit right on my mini stocking pattern, and wouldn't that be just a lovely holiday addition to his office! They are adhesive patches, so I didn't even have to sew them on!

A Flurry of Stockings

These stockings will be for 2017-2020. Apparently I have a lot of snowflake fabric. The blue snowflakes have been used for ornaments, and the snowmen have been used in ornaments and a stocking. The green snowflakes showed up in my yo-yo tree, but this is the first time I used the red snowflakes, which is my favorite of the snowflake fabrics.

Heart Stocking

I've decided the Santa stocking will be the 2015 stocking and this will be the 2016 stocking, since it matches the purse and ornament I made for Claire this year.

Penguin Stocking

Last year I made Santa stockings for Claire and her friends. When I went home for Christmas, my sister thought it would be nice to have a stocking for each year. So I came home and started churning out stockings with every kid-friendly holiday fabric I had. Turns out I had 6 fabrics that met the criteria. I had to backdate two since this is her third Christmas, and I figured four years into the future was plenty. This is will be the 2014 stocking, to match the baby-friendly penguin ornaments I made for her first Christmas. I love these penguins!

Christmas Ornament Exchange 2016

This last ornament is courtesy of Chris and his mad crochet skills! The horn is a seashell, which is screwed into the head (and covered in glitter if you can't tell in the photo)! This unicorn will definitely be joining me in the craft room year-round!

Christmas Ornament Exchange 2016

Amanda, who must have the patience of a saint, cross-stitched me a unicorn on wood! It sits on a little stand, and will definitely be displayed in the craft room year-round!

Christmas Ornament Exchange 2016

Amanda made me an armadillo ornament too! It's way better than the one I made her!

Christmas Ornament Exchange 2016

Amanda made me a button tree for Christmas! She loves buttons, so it's perfect!

2017 Goals (aka 2016 Goals - Take 2)

I set quilting goals for the first time in 2016 and, out of my five specific goals, I finished number two and number three. Granted, another baby quilt got added to the list, and we ended up moving 1,400 miles to a new state. I'm still slightly annoyed that I didn't finish the scrap quilt I had ready to go, but at least I finally made a quilt out of one of the fabrics I listed very broadly under goal 6. As a result, my 2017 goal is to finish up my 2016 goals! I have at least been thinking about them, so I've made some a bit more specific.

Goal 1: A quilt with this bird fabric, for which I've already planned a design:

However, I'd planned a design and cut all the fabric for the quilt that was goal #1 last year, so we shall see how this goes! Update: Completed! January 2017.

Goal 2: A quilt with these scraps of fabric:

They are small rectangular scraps, so I am thinking perhaps a Dresden plate design. I don't have many scraps, but I probably wouldn't have the patience for many Dresden plates anyway. Update: Completed! February 2018.

Goal 3: A quilt with these fabrics, though I have only a vague plan so far:

Update: Completed! March 2017.

Goal 4: Another scrap quilt. (All the pieces are still bagged up and packed from the move. Once I start, I'm going to have to stop myself from switching out squares with new fabrics.) Update: Completed! May 2017.

Goal 5: Fix my Pink Star quilt. You'll notice there's no photo of the back of the quilt in that post. That's what needs to be fixed, but it requires ripping out a lot of quilting. Update: Completed! May 2017.

Goal 6: Brainstorm and research what to do with the hexagon blocks. I may not actually start any sewing on this quilt, but I do plan to at least do some planning. Update: Returned to Amanda. April 2018.


As I learned last year, I'm sure new projects will come up! (Though there are no baby quilts on the horizon yet this year!)

Updates: 

Goal 7: A baby quilt for my newest niece, who will be arriving in November! Update: Completed! November 2017.

Goal 8: A string quilt, which should have been on the list last year as well, but now I have a design in mind! Update: Maybe I'll do a string quilt next year. I did iron and sort all my strings, but then I decided to lay out pieces for a scrappy granny square quilt out of my stash of 2.5" squares.