Christmas Snow Globes / Baubles for Grandchildren

I started a tradition in 2019 - the first Christmas that I had a grandchild - and made a "Snow Globe" with his picture. 

In 2020 - there was still only one grandchild.

2021?? - I missed that year (2 Grandchildren by then) - but made up for it in 2022 (3 Grandchildren)

2023?? - I missed that again!!!! - but have caught up!

Here are the boys for 2023 and 2024

and the girls for 2023 and 2024

Maybe I can keep up to date in 2025???

Granddaughters Quilts.

Guilty of lagging behind, dragging the chain . . . . . again . . .still . . . .

I should have had a quilt ready for GD1 (Peyton) when she turned 2 (August)...My Bad! as they say . . . and I should have had a quilt ready when her younger sister (Montana) was born (a week before GD1's birthday in August) . . again!!! My Bad!!!

Finally, both done & handed over...

GD1's Quilt 

I Spy on one side and a "map" on the other side.  I think Peyton prefers the map - but it was turned over several times when I was there...LOL

I quilted the outside of the roads, and the buildings, 

did lines for the trees and benches etc...
If only I could FMQ well.

GD2's Quilt

When GD1 was on the way - my daughter (DD2) asked for a Toy Story Quilt.  This time it was her partner's turn to choose a theme and he chose Jurassic Park Dinosaurs . . .challenging for a girl . . .
but after some online shopping DD2 found some fabrics . . I added more . . .and one thing led to another and we have double sided quilt. .  .I don't like to make things easy.

One side is mainly fabrics from Spoonflower - a couple of Spotlight ones and 2 machine embroidered blocks to show the Jurassic park logo.

The other side features an alphabet panel of dinosaurs - yes the common ones like Tyrannosaurus Rex, but a few odd ones . . .including a "Fukuisaurous".  In fact, a Fukuisaurus (meaning "Fukui (Fortunate) lizard") is a genus of herbivorous ornithopod dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous in what is now Japan.

I quilted dinosaur shapes, dinosaur feet in two sizes, 

a couple of suns and cloud shapes, 

using the embroidery machine.

I did hand these over in October and am pleased to have them both done & dusted.

Toy Story Bits & Pieces

When I delivered the cuddly blankie "thing" that I've just made to Peyton, DD2 thought a few might be good - one for home, one for daycare, one spare.
And she showed me a purchased Toy Story drawstring bag...

And of course I have so much free time now that I don't work , , , and a fair bit of fabric left over . .

So I made two more blankies, 3 small drawstring bags and a backpack drawstring bag.

I still have a load of fabric - but this will do for now.

I also downloaded and used a PhotoCollage App on my iPad.  Makes it easier to upload multiple pics when I don't need detail.

Esk Retreat - Sewing projects

My first retreat for the year - I went to Twight2Twilight at Esk from 10th March, til the 13th.

 Here is some of what I sewed.

A little "thing" for Peyton.  I had asked my daughter if there was anything she wanted made - to use up some of the Toy Story fabrics that were leftover after making the baby quilt for Peyton.
It seems Peyton is fond of grabbing tea towels and wrapping things - toys, dolls etc or just putting them on the floor and sitting on them.  My daughter thinks something like this might be a "comforter" thing as they move her to a new bedroom and a bigger bed. 

So the first project was to make up 9 blocks into a "thing".

I am going to make a few more as "spares".

Not long ago we acquired a (free) toy stroller - we were saving it to give to Peyton later on.  As her birthday is July and around the same time she will be promoted to "Big Sister"  status, we will make this part of her birthday present.

This is the stroller - we didn't keep the toys.

To go with the stroller, I made a small quilt and a matching doll carrier.

There were some adjustments made to the pattern - it was a tricky thing to make.
I do NOT plan to make spares of this.

Another project was to put this quilt top together.  It is 4 1/2" squares - off set by half blocks.  It will go to a DV family.

I also made a number of small projects - BUT it's all secret stuff.  I am not saying how many or what they are, but they are to go with this zippy pouch.

Overall, I achieved what I planned to do.
I had some "reserve" projects...in case.
I came home very tired, (every night was an after-midnight finish)
but feeling satisfied.

I had a fun time - apart from Maureen, the girls are people I only see occasionally.  That gives a totally different dimension to the retreat - compared to the ones I do with people I socialise with all the time.  The other girls are heavily into bag making - the range of bag hardware, zipper pulls, zips & webbing totally amazed me.   I was quite tempted to jump on board with some of the projects that they have or were doing.  But I'm home now and find I am able to resist being totally sucked in...for now anyway.

And to top it off - I have another retreat coming up - just after Easter!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

FNSI - December - Snow Globes 2021 and 2022

It's our last get-together for 2022.   😞

A huge thanks to Wendy for keeping us on our toes and encouraging us to show what we work on. .even if it s just a bit...It's great that she can gather us on blogs or on FaceBook...or both.

Tonight I finished off these two decorations - these are actually for 2021 when I missed making them . . .

and a day or so ago I had made three for 2022 

2019 and 2020 are here.

October Finish

It doesn't appear that I am getting much done lately - some if it is "secret" so it's under wraps for now.

But I did finish this little outfit for Miss Adorable Granddaughter.  Her mother loves pineapples, so I couldn't resist this fabric.

This picture was taken before I had adjusted the elastic so the legs look a bit odd.

I had originally planned to make this at my August retreat - never mind - it would have been too cool back then to wear it anyway.

ABC Book - Peyton

This ABC book is a bit more special...it does look quite similar to the one in the previous post...no surprise there...

Again - for my records - even more pictures this time  . . .

DD2 and partner live on 5 acres - in Brisbane suburbia - 

but they own 2 Lowline cows - (around 5 foot tall)

The dog is theirs

I had to make an "adjustment" to the "I" page.  There are not a lot of nouns starting with "I"...Someone suggested Indians (Cowboys & Indians...right???) _ so I found a picture of a boy & girl Indian...DD2 daughter asked what that was  . .  .I explained . . ."MUM - THEY ARE NATIVE AMERICANS"...so I found a new picture of an Iguana and used no-sew fusible webbing to cover the original picture . . . ooops

All done & delivered.

I think I can pack up the ABC Book gear for a little while now.
Eventually, there could be more for another of my eldest daughter's friends 

and then for extra grandchildren . . . 

but nothing in the immediate future that I know of.

Peyton's Quilt

When I first heard DD2 was expecting a girl, I thought about some of the lovely pretty fabrics sitting in my stash and thought they would make a lovely "pretty" quilt . . . Alas, DD2 is not a girly girl and she wanted a Toy Story quilt for her little one....

We found quite a few Toy Story fabrics - cut 6.5" squares - she selected the borders for each (from the stash) and the panel made a great backing - with added cloud fabric.

So, those pretty fabrics will have to wait a bit longer.