Lots o' Pictures

This cute little baby quilt is ready for gifting to a Benton Avenue grandchild.

Scraps were used for the back.  All from Zen Chic's Fragile collection.

 The Sloan Travel Bag, pattern by Sew Sweetness, is finished.  For each outer part, there is an inner part.  Pockets, straps, zippers, lining - preparation is sometimes laborious.  But I do love this pattern, and it is my travel bag of choice.

While it is a complicated bag, I do love Sara Lawson's patterns.  Her directions are thorough and illustrated with tons of pictures.  Fellow bag maker Sally said her secret is that she's good at following directions.  And that certainly has become a strength of mine.  At Patty's request I included a detachable cross-body strap.  This bag has one outer pocket, two small outer pockets on the sides with magnetic flap closures, a zippered top closure, two inner side pockets, and two inner zippered pockets. 

The finished Sloan Travel Bag

I spent a quick weekend in Santa Fe with some local quilters, and this project is what we worked on - Sugar Skull Art.  Mine turned into a self portrait at various stages of life - acne, braces, glasses, hair.  I'm still working on adding some fabric details.  I think perhaps some hand quilting before the machine quilting, too. 

My travel agent client - you'll never guess when and where she went to high school - wanted pillows from these two t-shirts.  One of for her - the other is a Christmas present for a classmate.  I used 16" pillow forms. 

Finishing up projects means I can put away patterns and pieces and various piles of fabrics.  And that's what I did.  But in between putting things away and vacuuming, this baby/napping quilt happened.  These fabrics were leftover from quilts I did for Virginia and my sister-in-law Pam.  It's going to be 55" x 70".  And despite the various unfinished hand projects, I think I want to hand quilt this one.  Just because. 

Christmas Gifts

These pillows for John's sister Chris are finished.  These are both 24" by 24" and will be part of the window seat in her dining room.  Chris uses color the way I use black t-shirts.  So it's always fun to work on something for her because her color sense is so different from mine.

This iron is a Christmas gift for the studio, and I am pretty excited about this.  It's the Rowenta Steamium and kind of futuristic-looking, isn't it?  I've had two other Rowenta's, each lasting for over 10 years.  Considering that an iron is something I use as often as and in conjunction with my sewing machines, I'm happy with their lifespans. 

The heat control of this older iron has come off - broken plastic parts - so that this iron now has one temperature: HOT!  Also check out the number of steam holes on this new iron. There's supposed to be 400!

In the true spirit of the season, I won't use my new iron until December 26!