Presenting sock monkey presents

This year my presents to my grand children were sock monkeys with add-ons.

Last year I came across sock monkey ornaments at an after Christmas clearance sale.  I quickly bought a bag full.

A few months later I ran across the sock monkeys on display at Quilt Etc. in Sandy.  They had classes but I kept leaving town when they were offered so I finally bought an instruction book, shoes, sweaters, and Fox River socks and struck out on my own.  I also found sock monkey fabric so soon the add-ons included pillowcases, a book, and a flashlight.  This is Oscar's sock monkey before I added red yarn hair.

Then it was time to make some girl monkeys.

I dressed them in dresses made from a Simplicity pattern for 15" baby dolls.

The dresses were made from Bonnie and Camille fabrics leftover from the birthday quilts  I made for sisters Ruby, Sadie, and Mabel.

I purchased the handbags from the BYU Bookstore for 99 cents each.

I decided that they needed a bit of sparkle.

I found the flower clips and headbands at a local craft booth store.

I made an assortment of pillowcases.

One for each sock monkey recipient.

Into each pillowcase went an age appropriate book, a flashlight and Sees suckers from grandpa, and a sock monkey.

Then I tied them shut with a ribbon and a sock monkey ornament.

The sisters monkeys went under the Utah tree along with their finally finished quilts as they were coming to spend time with the other side of their family.

I wanted them to have them early to enjoy the weekend before Christmas.

When back in Arizona, I put together four more monkeys for my oldest son's family.

They were all dressed in sweaters.  I hand embroidered some blue and red trim to help differentiate the boy monkeys.

I embroidered each face a bit differently as well.

The girls had skirts to go with their sweaters.

And they all had sneakers.

Once again they were packed into pillowcases along with books, flashlights, suckers, and tied with ribbon and ornaments.

One for each grand child.

Toby

Heather

TJ

and Julianna.

I was worried about TJ's reaction but someone told me, "You are never too old for a sock monkey!"

Bonnie & Camille quilts, finally three finishes before the new year

Back in May I began working on Ruby's quilt.  I wanted her to have a quilt made from the Ruby line from Bonnie and Camille.

I purchased a layer cake because I wanted a bit of each fabric in the line.

By the time I got it all together, it also had a border from Modern Vintage.

With the new machine, I jumped right in and machine quilted it.  I even got brave and used the BSR stitch regulator on my new sewing machine.

She and her sister share a room, so I'd been waiting for Marmalade to make an appearance.

This one is for Sadie, it coordinates but is different.  More about it here.

It also has a border of Vintage Modern and a bit of Ruby to finish out the blocks.

Baby sister, Mabel, has a smaller size quilt made from the leftovers.

I used the same Ruby fabrics for sashing and corner squares as I used for Ruby's quilt.

I just reversed the colors, with blue/gray dot sashing and red dot corner squares.

I loved the splash of orange and yellow in Marmalade.

I also made labels for the quilt backs using the new sewing machine.  I included a bit of selvage for each one to identify the main fabric line.

I used two layers of fabric for stability, then I trimmed the under fabric edge by 1/4 inch and needle turn appliqued the labels to the back.

It felt good to be able to add the "2012."

Three finished quilts for three cute sisters.

And it all began because one was named Ruby.

Charm pack gift card holders

This year we gave some of our adult children gift cards for Christmas.  I decided it would be fun to present the cards in a fabric gift card holder.  I looked at several tutorials online and then decided I could adapt them and use charm pack 5 inch squares.

I had three charm packs which were passed out at Quilt Market in Kansas City that coordinated well.  I had two of Tulip Festival by Jackie Robinson and a smaller charm pack of Bordering on Brilliance by Jenny Beyer. 

For one card holder you will need 2 squares which coordinate for the outside (I have already used the skinny strip on other holders), 2 matching squares which match, and 1 square which contrasts with the matching squares.  Having two of Tulip Festival provided me with the  matching squares.

Stitch the outside pieces together using a quarter inch seam allowance.

Press seam towards narrow strip.  (Sorry for the dark dots on my lens.  Can't figure out how to clean it.)

Trim to a rectangle of 5 X 6 inches.

Take matching squares.

Fold wrong sides together matching edges and and press.

Place on both sides of rectangle matching edges.  (Beyer squares were slightly larger than Robinson.)

Sew with quarter inch seam allowance on each side.

Now you are ready to add the final contrasting square.

Place it in the middle and don't worry about raw edges on the sides.

Stitch a quarter inch seam along the top and bottom.

Trim off the corners above stitching.

Turn so all right sides are facing out.  See how the raw edges have disappeared.  Push corners out.

Give a final press.

Fold in half.

The Jenny Beyer border print looks lovely with a finished edge either way,

Find the gift cards you received for Christmas.

And insert them in your holder where they will remain safe and all in one place until you decide to go shopping.  So far I've made 5 holders from my charm packs and there are still possible combinations left.