needles (the other kind)

Pin boy wizard

Charlie and I made this as a quick gift for my mother's birthday from a free pattern (PDF) by Heather Bailey.

It was a wildly successful collaboration.  He chose the fabrics from my scrap basket — not with any particular finesse, it must be said, but simply the ones nearest the top — and did the precision cutting.

 

 

I did the sewing, with Charlie standing next to my sewing machine and acting as coach.  "Slow down!  You're getting near the corner!"

I stuffed and he proudly displayed the results of phase I.

Phase II, tufting with the ribbon and sewing on the buttons, I did on the sneak when he wasn't around.  Sorry, kid, you're not much help when it comes to hand sewing, especially not when it involves a doll-making needle as long as your femur.

Quick cute present.  Highly recommended even if you don't have such an able assistant.

Out skirt

Now that the season is officially over, apparently it's time for me to post a photo of a Christmas project...from last year.

I found amandajean's tree skirt tutorial three days before Christmas last year and needed one for my soul. I had several weird scrappy blocks made from Christmas prints already, so I knocked out 8 little bitty Log Cabins, whacked them into a row, and framed them with some red snowflake fabric I'd bought in inadvisable bulk.

The back is a gingerbread man print ditto. What was I planning to make when I bought that stuff? A festive Christmas tree cozy?

True to procrastinating form, I didn't get a picture of the skirt until this year, and now not even until we were taking the tree down earlier today. I'm not worried; I'll surely have those pine needles to remind me of it months and months and months from now.