Handmade sewing caddies/needle folders for friends' winter birthdays

January of 2012 I was busy making gifts for friends.  My birthday is December 24, my s-i-l on January 22, our three friends in February.  We get together to quilt when we can, though I have been on hiatus at times while working on grad school.

I let them decide who got which one, but it ended up being pretty much what I predicted, which friend would pick which one.

Inside pages are made of wool felt, to hold those needles and pins; pockets of coordinating/contrasting hand-dyed fabrics keep smaller scissors, and other essentials.

One of my favorite fabrics, Bolero, I think it's called.

These batik pinwheels came from a UFO tablerunner I got at a quilt store "garage sale" for $2.  I unsewed, then resewed into these:

The Asian print has some shiny gold in it.  I love it.  The red and gold on the bottom of this pic is the one I wanted, and the one that was left for me.  The two blocks came from a local church garage sale.

Now I have to think of a gift for my four friends for this winter!

Quilt for my Grandma

Here is a quilt that I made for my Grandma Gwenny, who just turned 87. She has been living in a nursing home/assisted care facility since June. She's not too happy about it, so I had the big idea to make her a quilt, something that might help her know that I think about her every day. It was meant to be more scrappy, but it turned out all right. It had to be an appropriate size, about a lap/throw size, for a few reasons: first, Grandma's not very big in stature; second, it needed to be a quilt that wasn't too big for the bed; third, it needs to be machine-wash size, so that her caregivers can easily clean it, just in case of spills and other senior moments.

The label is from "Make Your Own Quilt Labels!", by Kim Churbuck.  I love her art!