Smothered in Kisses Pillow

After seeing this tutorial, I decided it was time to start preparing for Valentine's Day.

I used the Sizzix to cut out my hearts, but I didn't have the "Primitive Hearts" die, so I used what I had. I like how it turned out.



I loved the one heart using the background color. I cut out two and blanket stitched them together and stuffed the heart with a little batting before completing the blanket stitch. I love it!



Here's the back of the pillow with the one lone heart sewn on.



Here it is on the couch where it will spend the season.

Primary Music Time - Snowman

My daughter is a Primary Singing Time Chorister also and gave me this idea to reinforce the music for our new song, "If I Listen With My Heart." After teaching the song, you have the pianist stop in the middle of the song. You pick one of the children to tell you the next word. If they know the word, they get to build a part of the snowman.

I loved the idea. This is what I did. I drew a snowman onto a poster board using almost the entire piece. I then cut a hat, a scarf and a carrot out of the leftover poster board (or in the case of the hat, cardstock.) I took some flat, vase gems that I had which happened to be blue. Because I wanted them black, I painted the backs with acrylic paint. If I hadn't had the gems, I would have turned to buttons or rocks. Those are the eyes, the mouth, and the buttons. I had some leftover minkie that was unusable for anything else and draped it over the scarf form and hot glued it on the back.

I then used black felt on the hat plus a strip of leftover material. Attach the felt to the hat. In my case, I had adhesive felt, so it was a simple job. I cut the leftover material twice the width that I needed and a couple of inches longer. I was able to glue the raw edges of the width so that they met in the center and then glued the material to the hat. I wrapped a little around the back so the raw edges did not show on the sides.

For the carrot, I took the carrot shape and used spray adhesive to attach some leftover batting onto the carrot and then glued the orange fabric (that was cut a little larger than the carrot) on the back of one side of the long end and then pulled the fabric so that it would stretch across the batting and glued on the wrong side opposite and continued around the carrot.

The last thing I did was outline each part of the snowman and cut the snowman into 3 pieces and put magnets on the back. I used lots of magnet strips on the back of the white pieces and used button magnets for everything else.

This is the disassembled snowman.



And this is what the children will see, when they know the song well..

The reunions

It is a custom in my husband's family to have a family reunion sometime in the last week of the year. It is also known as "The White Elephant Party." We were so excited to see the family! It suddenly dawned on me, that my son and one of his cousins were throwing a ball as adults (they each are parents of 5 or more children) just like they did when they were 10. I also watched Richard's son organize the children and play active games with them, just like Richard did when our children were young.

This reunion is a one-night celebration and since so many people live close, it is a potluck. We each bring a white elephant gift and enjoy giving and getting odd, sometimes useless gifts and occasionally gifts that tickle our fancy. It is a tradition that has lasted for many years and at least one generation removed from ours.

As is my tradition, I took no pictures, so you are just bored stiff reading.

Over the New Year's weekend, my side of the family had a rare family reunion. It was a 2-day affair held at my sister's ward building.

I planned and executed much of it, but my extended family really came through. They gave me money to help defray the costs, they did dishes and cleaned the building, they prepared games, they entertained the children, they provided recipes for a family cookbook. It was a fun occasion! We had meals, a talent show, a time to talk and prepare the cookbooks, and the highlight of our time together, a discussion about our parents by my brothers and sisters. We were all surprised when we received a copy of my father's diary that my brother had transcribed during the summer. Many of us read it before the weekend was over and loved what it had to say.

Once again, I didn't take pictures, but someone borrowed my camera and took a few pictures during our discussion the last night.

Gifts for friends

Besides the toffee that I make for friends and family, I always make a few gifts to give away. This year I found a cute little angel at a nearby boutique. This is the original.



This is my version. I like how it turned out.



I also fell in love with this ornament and had to make some of my own. This is how one of them turned out (I'm sorry about the glare. Did I ever tell you that I'm a horrible photographer.)

For the babies

We had two grandchildren this year and I wanted to make them receiving blankets. I don't really like to make quilts because I don't like to quilt or piece them. I am, though, a product of my time and can machine embroider appliques pretty well. See what you think...

My grandson is slated to have a robot decorated room, so I sent this.



Using this backing for my pattern...



I was able to create this applique on the blanket.



My granddaughter's blanket was based on this fabric.



And here's what she got.

A not so nice looking Christmas gift

My oldest grandson got a pair of homemade pj's for Christmas and though I have a picture, I am not sure I want to show the evident mistake I made. Oh well, I'll do it anyway...



It's too bad he didn't want an over the shoulder look, cause he certainly got it. Not one of my better sewing projects!

Apron and more...

I decided that each my granddaughters might be at the right ages to enjoy an apron, so they can begin to cook with their mom. I bought an apron pattern and then added some fabric flowers that are pinned on.

I found the pattern for the chef's hat on this very talented woman's blog



I then decided to take the general idea of a personalized order pad and did my own thing. This is how it turned out...



My granddaughter modeled for me on Christmas day.