With working 10 hours a day and babysitting the grandbabies at night, I haven’t had much time to get any new projects done so I thought I would share with you some things I completed last year.

I started the year finishing a UFO which was a quilt for my son. He had a wonderful sweet white Pit Bull named Khane that had died about 6 months previously, so I made my son a photo quilt to remember him by. I had only known his dog for about a year, but when he died, I also cried like I had lost a family member. Between me, my son, and his girlfriend, my husband said he felt like he was at a funeral home. Khane was the best dog and I would have another one like him in a heartbeat. Anyway, I picked out 10 pictures that really showed his personality, designed a easy blocky pattern, picked out some masculine fabrics, and made a memory quilt in his honor. The pictures were printed onto colorfast fabric sheets so hopefully they will last for a while.  My son loved it!

My wonderful son

Khane memory quilt

Not exactly sure what I did after that.  My photograph library is pretty slim up until summer. It might have something to do with working 50-60 hours weeks.  I hope to do better than that this year.  So fast forward to summer.  I was still working 50-60 hour weeks but decided that I needed several simple things to sew.  All of our sandstone coasters were broken, so I decided to make some scrappy fabric coasters.  I just love these coasters.  They are colorful, they were quick to make, and they work wonderfully.  I even took one to work to use on my desk there.

Up next, I made a laundry bag for my son’s girlfriend.  She was headed off to college at East Carolina, and every college student needs a big, sturdy bag to carry home all their dirty laundry.  I found some ECU fabric and matched it with some solids.  I lined the inside with duck cloth to make it stronger.  The original pattern came from the InStitches book by Amy Butler, although I did make a few changes as I went along.

To round out the end of summer, I made an apron for the monthly challenge with Art Gallery Fabrics.  This was the first monthly challenge I participated in and I won!  I was thrilled!!!  Honestly, I would have participated in all of the monthly challenges, but I had just found them while searching the internet one evening.

The apron is my original design, it is reversible, and turned out so cute!  I love the Art Gallery fabrics — they are so soft and so easy to work with.  I am currently about half-way done getting this written up into a pattern.

The next project was also for an Art Gallery Fabrics monthly challenge.  The challenge was to make a computer bag and it had to have an insert pocket.  Well, I really wanted to make an iPad cover, so I ended up making both in matching fabrics.  This was made with their Indie line of fabrics.  These are also original designs.  I hope to get them written up into patterns this year also.

Guess I’ll close for tonight.  Until next time, may you have blissful dreams.