Handmade Christmas, Part 2

This past July, I decided to make a quilted wall-hanging for my mom's Christmas present. The pattern is called "Tuscan Village" and I thought it would complement my mom's decor quite well. It all started with a bunch of thin strips of fabric . . .
cut and pieced to form a nice little, log cabin square . . .and then stitched together to form a row. Many, many rows later, this is what you get:This was my first ambitious project, since my other two quilts were pretty basic. I got to try my hand at free-motion quilting, mitering corners, and stitching "in the ditch" which I hate. There are plenty of mistakes, but I won't point them out to you! Overall, this was a fun project and I am very happy with the results. And this was going to be the only handmade present I would make this year. Yeah right, then I had to go crazy . . .I finished it last week by sewing on a patch so that all posterity can learn from my quilting errors, while blaming me by name.This football was inspired by my friend Sarah, who has one for her little guy. Thanks goes to Debbie, for letting me use her machine to embroider it. Truth be told, I stood by and chatted while she did all the work!

These are wristlet wallets/purses that I made for my two teen aged nieces and my lovely great aunt, who is a seamstress and quilter extraordinaire. Inside are two pockets, to hold money or your cell-phone. I love these so much that after Christmas I must make one for myself!

And since the best part of making gifts is the moment you give them away, stay tuned for the pictures of our Christmas celebration from this past weekend!