Sewing Update, January

 Welcome to the 'What I Sewed For Christmas' edition of my monthly sewing updates.  Now that everything has been gifted, I have finished pictures to share.

First up, the Disappearing Hourglass quilt I made for my parents. It is undoubtedly the largest quilt I have quilted on my machine.  It was a bugger to get through the throat of my sewing machine at times.

It was also a bear to layer nice and flat and even for basting.  I definitely need to rethink/rework my sewing space for future quilts that are larger than baby quilts.  Hopefully as 2022 progresses, a portion of the basement will become a wide open quilting space.  A longarm would be great, but I doubt that is a realistic purchase in the next handful (or more) of years.  So I'll be looking for a local longarmer to do the quilting on several future quilts I have planned.

Despite this quilt being oversized for my equipment, I did get it all quilted (stitch in the ditch around the stars and diamonds).  My parents really love it; they were quite speechless when they opened the box I'd wrapped it in.

For each of the grandkids, I made a reading pillow (free tutorials abound, if you want to make some of your own there are lots of choose from).  They have an envelope style back which made them quick and easy to make, and have sparked a new addiction for me.  I all ready have fabric, forms, and plans to make some throw pillows for myself/this little place here in the coming months.  

From left to right in the picture below are the pillows for Faline, Rascal, Toad, and K3.  Each is 18" x 18", with a handle for easier carrying, and a pocket to hold a book

Last, but not least, is a pillow for DD2.  I had actually had the idea for her pillow back in 2020, when I found out that one of my sister-in-laws had some burlap coffee bags that she posted on Facebook Marketplace.  A few of them were from Peru, and I asked if I could get them from her.  My thought was that I could make some throw pillows with them--something DD2 could decorate with that would be sort of a reminder of the study abroad in Peru that she had done back in 2017.

Unfortunately, the coffee bags were HUGE--adults could do sack races with them they're so big!  There was only one with the logo/wording/design small enough to fit onto a throw pillow sized form.  So that is the only one that so far I've been able to actually use so far.

The coffee bag is the front of the pillow, and some llama fabric I ordered online in 2020 is the back.

She thought it was really neat and has given it a place of honor on her bed.  I showed her the remaining coffee bags.  We're hoping to come across a good way to repurpose them.

So far this year, my focus has been on cleaning the existing craft/sewing/grandkids sleepover room; it got rather choaticly messy during the countdown to Christmas sewing frenzy.  During the rest of January, I hope to also get the area in the basement designated as the new sewing/crafting spot cleaned out (it currently mostly holds DD2's household goods that she had while living on her own in and right after college but is redundant while living at this little place here).