Christmas Cookies

 

I spent last weekend baking Christmas cookies.  Pictured here are the decorated sugar cookies (Wilton pans and Wilton recipe).  I've made these cookies for several years but I've never actually frosted them before, but this year I decided to take the plunge and do it.  I was sending some to my youngest, who lives in Michigan, so I wasn't so sure how well the frosted one would travel, but they actually arrived mostly intact.  He got them today and sent me a picture.

The icing on the trees got a little smooshed, but other than that I think they did well.  I had the frosted ones on top of the box and used some left over quilt batting strips for cushioning.  And I told them at the post office that it was fragile.  Overall, a much better experience than in 2020 when it took almost a month for his cookies to arrive.

Christmas Chair Quilt

 

I realized that I didn't have a little quilt to put on the back of the chair in my living room, so I decided to make one.  I designed the star myself and used fabric that I already had on hand to make it.  It came together pretty quickly and I'm happy with how it turned out.  It is machine quilted, in the ditch (mostly), and hand bound.

A Little Book

 

I made a little book!  I guess technically it is more of a journal, because it is just blank pages inside.  It doesn't use my handmade paper from the previous post or anything.  It's just made with copy paper pages cut in half and bound into 3 four page signatures.  

The end pages are made from a paper bag that quilting fabric came in.  I thought it would be a reasonably good weight for end pages.

Here is a picture from the edge so you can see the thickness.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Update: I gave it to my youngest son (an adult, btw), because he really seemed to like it.

Handmade Paper

 

My first attempt at making paper by hand.  These are about 3x4 inches.  I have no idea what I will do with them, but I enjoyed trying out the process.

Shadow Box quilt

 

This quilt top uses half square triangles to create the shadow box effect.  The top measures 41 x 50 inches. I had originally planned to make this quilt using the yellow and gray fabric shown and a Winnie the Pooh charm pack, but decided against the charm pack idea.  I felt like it would work better using the same fabric for all of the squares instead of fabrics with varying values.  I think maybe it does, but the yellow and gray are still too stark for a baby quilt.  Maybe it will be okay for a kid that is a little older.  The yellow and gray do create something of an optical illusion in the quilt that a kid might enjoy.

I'm really not sure how to quilt it.  I don't want to distract from the shadow box effect, but I feel like I will have to do more than just quilt in the ditch on this one.  It will probably end up with at least diagonal lines - maybe a crosshatch.  I don't know.  I'm not thrilled with this one anyway, so I really should just finish it up and move on.

Wesley's Wilderness

 

Even though he arrived well over a month ago, his quilt just got finished.  We won't be seeing him and getting the quilt to him until the end of May/beginning of June anyway, though. I'm glad to have it finished.

The quilt is machine quilted in a crosshatch pattern, following the angles created by the peaks in the mountain blocks, and hand bound.

Another Bear in the Mountains Baby Quilt

 

This is the finished quilt top for my newest grandchild-to-be.  It's a little boy due the beginning of March.  They decided on a mountains and bears theme for the nursery this time, so I thought this would be a good pattern to pull out and use.

Baby blanket

 

Today I made a receiving blanket for my soon expected grandson.  This time they are going with a bear and mountain theme.  I thought that the bears and other woodland creatures was really cute.

It's a self-binding flannel blanket like I've made before from a Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial.  She says that it takes about 10 minutes, but time must pass at a different rate in Missouri, because it took me well over an hour.