Feltin' and Quiltin'

I have been thinking about what projects I want to work on with the cold and yucky weather that continues here. Crafting is the only thing keeping me on the saner side of things lately! Cabin fever is setting in to even people that actually like winter, so I guess I'm lucky to have so many hobbies to keep my hands busy (when they're not busy with kids and animals, that is). One of my current addictions is making felt pins, thanks to Grace's (katmom) felt pin swap on the MaryJanesFarm forum. I had thought it sounded like an interesting swap, and I had tons of felt laying around that I use in scrapbooking, but I had no idea how addicting they could be! The ideas keep pouring in and I find myself with more felt now than I started with, as I feel the need to have each color and shade of felt I can find! Here are some of my creations:

Another thing I have been doing a lot of in the past couple years, is learning to quilt. I love fabric and colors, so what better to use that for than in a quilt! I really enjoy the process of chosing a quilt to make and then going to the fabric store and picking out fabric. Definitely my favorite part of the process! Next comes cutting, which isn't one of my favorite things, but with a rotary cutter, isn't so bad. Then comes lots of sewing and ironing, which I like to do, but sometimes can get tiring, running back and forth from the sewing machine to the ironing board. Next is putting all the layers together and actually quilting it, which I'm still learning. My previous quilts I've done by machine, but I have a huge one I'm working on that I want to do by hand. I have been working on a quilt sampler so I can get the feel of it first. Last is doing the binding, which is one of my favorite steps. I love whipstitchin' the binding on and seeing the quilt all come together!

This is a quilt I made for my niece for Christmas. It has a lot of fun fabric with cats, birds, ballerinas, and flowers in pinks, blacks, and blues. This is the first real quilt I've ever made, and it turned out really well.

I also tied some fuzzy periwinkle blue yarn in the corner of each block.

This is another quilt I made for my niece when she was younger. It was made with different pink flannels and each piece was quilted individually, which made it easy to handle and quilt on the sewing machine.

It is in the shape of a cat and is from Simplicity pattern #4993, in which a bear and a dog are also quilts that can be made. I'm thinking of doing those for my boys. The way my sons like soft things, I know one of these quilts would get lots of use!

Next is a quilt I made my dad for Christmas. I saw this fabric, which has fishing, hunting, and camping scenes on it, and inspiration struck. I designed this one myself, which was a first for me. I quilted it with clear nylon thread, which was somewhat difficult to work with.

I have a few other quilts in various stages of construction. Some I just have the fabric, or just the fabric cut out, and I have one that the top is almost finished and ready for quilting. I am also working on a yo-yo quilt for myself, which will probably take me years to finish, as I usually chose to do projects that are intended for family before anything else!