Project catch-up!

This morning I was archiving photos on my computer, and discovered photos of a whole mess of projects that I haven't shared on here!  And I also realized that I failed to take photos of about 90% of the Christmas gifts I made this year, and that that must be remedied!  I'll go in the order they were made, going way back to July 2010!

Probably one of the largest projects I've ever taken on (in yardage, at least) was this bivy sack for Red!  (A bivy is a waterproof cover for one person, in place of an actual tent)  I was ecstatic to find an excellent resource for outdoor fabrics, Outdoor Wilderness Fabrics, which has everything you could need to make tents, packs, etc.  Including the pattern for this bivy!  It was fun to make, but the design needs some tweaking.  It's difficult to get in and out of, so it needs an opening running along the side or across the top.  Also it's VERY warm, which is good some of the time, but without better ventilation could be rather uncomfortable... But the important thing is it's very lightweight and quite waterproof!

 My next project was this quilted casserole carrier that I made for Red's Grandy Jean.  She handed down to me a huge stash of fabrics, and this fabric was in the stash.  She had sent me photos of a friend's casserole carrier, and from that I came up with the pattern for this one.  It was a bit of an experiment, and I ended up tweaking the construction for a carrier I made my mom for Christmas (which is one of the projects I need photos of, cause it came out AWESOME).  This was my first project that I did freehand machine quilting on, and while the quilted swirls were by no means perfect, I'm still pretty proud of it ;)

My next project was a wee one, a fabric covered business card display holder.  I actually made two of these, the first didn't come out quite as well constructed, but this one is now currently in use displaying my cards at the Country Market!




This year I made Wyatt's Halloween costume, he was a Garden Gnome! (Specifically, David the Gnome, though I didn't realize I had made a nearly exact David the Gnome costume until after it was already made!  But even the colors are just like David's outfit!)  At the Vallecito Service League's annual kids Halloween party, his costume won Most Original Costume!  Yay!  I had a lot of fun making it, and Wyatt had a lot of fun wearing it!  (If only I could get him to wear the beard!)

Next up came the Christmas gift rush.  Despite having made nearly all the gifts we gave this year, I only have photos of one of them!  Whoops!  I made Red this apron, which he actually requested (so it's not weird that I made my husband a cooking apron, right?)  For other gifts we gave, there was the aforementioned casserole carrier I made my mom, which I really must get photos of because it is probably the first larger-scale project I've ever sewn that I didn't have to rip out a single stitch on!  (Hopefully you can appreciate how big an accomplishment that is!)  Also, the quilting on it came out SO well, if I do say so myself!  I also made everyone embroidered fleece hats, neck tubes and scarves, and they came out awesome!  Hopefully I can convince my family to take photos of themselves wearing their goodies?  Hint hint! ;)  

This winter I also started a quilt for Wyatt, and though it was originally intended as a Christmas gift, it isn't anywhere near finished yet, since it got backburnered in favor of the fleece things and other gifts.  It's a crazy quilt, made of about 22 miscellaneous fat quarters I had in my stash that I finally decided to do something with!  Though you can't really see what fabric is what here, it can give a sense of just how involved even a simple square patchwork quilt can be!  There are somewhere around 400 patches to be sewn, just for a twin sized quilt!  Fortunately it's pretty easy going, as they're all square and I'm not following any particular pattern, and no funky angles involved or anything. 

And that's the rundown of all my sewing projects since last summer!  :D