Christmas Finishes

Christmas was wonderful.  My Dad decided almost at the last minute to come and visit the family in MN for Christmas.  This is a sacrifice for him since he lives in Florida now.  ;)  We stayed in a hotel Monday night - found a great burger place nearby, did some swimming, and then played a game we traditionally played at "the cabin".

As always, I had no idea what to get my Dad - someone who can get himself anything within reason.  I had planned to make him a Minnesota wall hanging next year - but then realized if I worked hard, I could finish up my Twister wall hanging and give it to him.

When I had the top done, I wasn't sure what to do with the edges.  I bought the fabric with Minnesota lake scenes with a wall hanging for Dad in mind.  So I added one of my favorite scenes to the top, used pine cones in the corners, and bound it with the birch tree fabric.

I picked him up from the airport Thursday night, and he stayed at my brothers house.  Dad and I did a little shopping Friday (I had the day off as a Holiday and my kids were in school!!!).  One stop was JoAnn's - I told him I needed to get something to finish a Christmas present.  He actually stayed in the car and read a book.  Here is the fabric I found for the back:







We have always had a bird feeder and a bird book handy to identify birds.  I did have a hard time deciding how to quilt this.  I ended up doing stitch in the ditch around the outside edge of all the pinwheels, and then just inside the edge of each gold pinwheel.  Easy enough with a small wall hanging.

I also finished the placemats for my Aunt and Uncle.  But I didn't have a chance to take a picture of them during the day to show the colors in natural light.  Another time.

Last but not least, I made this cell phone cozy for my daughter.  And it ended up being an iPod Touch holder instead since her Dad bought her one.  I used the last minute tutorial on Fairy Face Designs.  Sidebar - do you know of good protective gloves to wear when rotary cutting!?!  I had a little accident while concentrating on the very small pieces.  Boy did that fingertip hurt and bleed, but it ended up not being too bad.  :)

My girl loves Mini Coopers and London, so I was pretty happy to find this fabric.  

All in all, a pretty productive Christmas on the homemade front.  Not too bad for a new quilter!

I hope you have a very Wonderful New Year!