My nephew, who was ten months old at Christmas, is simultaneously the easiest and hardest person to sew for. He is easy because he is young, loves visually stimulating bright colors and has not developed his personal taste yet & hard because he is too young for most of my ideas. In hindsight, I should have just sent him tissue paper filled box since the paper was the biggest hit of the day!
My nephew is the proud owner of my first ever quilt. I had a lot of assistance from my Mom this summer, but I did the all of the cutting and sewing! I machine pieced the top and machine quilted but I decided to do the binding by hand. I am incredibly happy with how it turned out. The quilt top is bright and bold while the back is a soft flannel with just a line of the bright fabric.
I had just enough fabric to make a slightly larger than normal grab ball. For this one, I made the top solid blue and each triangle of the ball is a different set of fabric from the quilt. It took a lot of planning, note-taking and thought to get it to come together but it was worth the effort.
If you decide to make a grab ball with multiple fabrics, plan your sewing carefully! I assembled the ball first with straight pins and took notes on which fabrics got sewn together complete with fabric swatches. Once the triangles are sewn and stuffed, pin the ball together again so you know exactly which order to sew each piece together. The ball can only be assembled one way to get all of the interior triangles to match.
Last but not least, Dr. Seuss Stacker Rings! My mom and I did this project together. We picked out the fabric and pattern while she was in Pennsylvania this summer and we completed the project over Thanksgiving. She did all of the machine sewing and I did the copious amounts of hand sewing and stuffing. (I love hand sewing and finishing so it was perfect for me!) After completing the rings, my mom and I both agreed that this was a one time only pattern. It was a lot of work but the end result was worth it. We modified the pattern and made the last, largest ring removable and added a padded, wooden base for stability.
What did you sew up for the holidays?
Tagged: baby, christmas, fabric, gift, handmade, holiday, quilt, quilting, sewing, toys
andpins 
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