Embroidered Pillowcases

 I really love embroidered pillowcases.  I think they belong on a bed with a quilt. I also enjoy doing the embroidery.  I like the variety of stitches required. I finished another set.

Placemats

 For the last few years I make placemats for the kids who eat at a table (That excludes Jim and Martha). At first I though these looked ugly but the kids encouraged me to finish them and I think they were wise. They were more time consuming than I had expected.

I also made clothes for the girls' American Girl dolls and Bitty Babies. The Black and white jumper was a Simplicity, Daisy Kingdom pattern. Think before you attempt another. Most of these patterns were passed down to me from my sister-in-law, Katherine, who is now in a nursing home.

My Red Wing Fan

 As a pre-Christmas present for Martha, I made a Red Wing throw. Martha is an avid Hockey fan. Her living room is decorated with framed pictures of the team, some of them autographed. I imagine down south there isn't the enthusiasm for ice hockey like there is farther north. I used the attic window pattern and machine quilted in a red wing symbol.

More pre-Christmas gifts

 This is a throw a made for Jim. The pattern is called "Card Tricks.

" The first block was really tricky but after that I put all the pieces together one part at a time so that I wouldn't get mixed up. I chose the pattern because Jim likes to play bridge. I machine quilted it and tried to be fancier but it didn't work out as well as I wanted.

Pre Christmas presents

 I made throws for the kids for Christmas.  I will send them early because they are made of Christmas fabrics and they can put them out on the sofa or where ever as a holiday decoration. I used up most of my Christmas fabrics. One of the women I had gone to water aerobics with offered me a lot of her Christmas scraps, some were very small. So I made an Irish chain. the squares are only 1.5 inches. 

  I machine quilted it.  I am still learning how to do that. I used a snowflake stencil.  I was quite pleased.