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So this has been a rough year for me. I lost my sister and brother within 6 months of each other. We are a very close family, so it has hit me hard.
Still I have other family, particularly nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephew who are wonderful. At Christmas, many of them want handmade gifts. Even a nephew whose wife is sooo particular in their decorating, I’ve never dared make them anything, I did this year and they loved it.
Because handmade gifts take time — sometimes a lot of time, they don’t always get done on time. My family is very understanding of this. Gratefully.
So this diary is about some of the quilted gifts I made this year, or are in the process of making.
I gave my namesake niece, Pauline Winifred, a choice of two wall hangings. One with cats and one Believe in Yourself. She chose Believe in Yourself as a saying and I designed the wall hanging above. My pics aren’t always the greatest, but you can still see what they are.
My niece, Dale, loves lighthouses, so I made her an appliqued picture of one that actually exists from a pattern by Quilts and Stuff. I changed it a bit as I am wont to do. As she is planning on severely downsizing in 2 years, she asked that it be turned into a tote bag. Because of the heavy applique on it, the tote can’t be made in the standard way. (I’ll do a diary on how to do that another time.) Below is the front of the tote and then the pieced back.
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My nephew Andy and his wife Lisa are going to be the last to be finished. They are both wildlife enthusiasts, and they also wanted a tote bag.
The basic concept is from a pattern by Karen Yaffee at Pieceful Gathering. Again because of the heavy and multiple layers of applique, the tote will be done the more challenging way.
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As usual, I’ve changed things a bit, including painting the rock as bit to make it more realistic. The back piece of this block will be a gold Dresden plate applique. The concept being a sun image.
For my nephew Dan, I did a wall hanging for him. Unfortunately, somehow I let it get away without a picture and he is in Hawaii, so I can’t ask him for one, but it is very similar to one I did for my niece Dale several years ago.
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Hopefully next week, I’ll have a picture of his. The main difference is that I did a Coneflower as the flower on top. They live at a development called Prairie Crossing. A lot of native plants for front yards.
So how many Christmas projects were you late on?