I've just begun to blog!

I've just finished a quilt for a baby, the third son of a young mother who was recently widowed. She was a dear friend of daughter Susan's in elementary school. Therefore, it seemed fitting and sentimental to use some of the leftover blocks I had from quilt projects for Susan's son Malcolm, as well as my grandson Locke. Here is that quilt, with a transportation theme

Lately I've been working on a quilt for a great nephew, whom we fondly call "Little Mac." But his quilt isn't yet done, so I'll wait to talk about it when it is.

I'll share two recent projects, though, that were, in one case, gifts for grandchildren and, in another, Christmas crafts with two of them. First of all, the gifts. Grandson Locke, his mother Kathy, and I were in New York City together in November. I found a book of dolls called Wee Folk that I hoped to make with Locke. They proved to be challenging for me to make, so Locke's chief role was that of designer. He would specify colors for clothes, hair, eyes, etc. Because he loved these dolls so much, and had such fun playing with them in New York, I made some additional wee folk for him of favorite book characters: Robin Hood, Maid Marian, and Friar Tuck. Later, I added to the Robin Hood collection by making a Little John and a Will Scarlet as Valentine gifts. These dolls are made from chenille stems (crafting pipe cleaner-like products), felt for the clothes, embroidery floss to cover the doll's body, wool fleece for hair, and in many cases, an acorn cap for the hat. (Locke helped locate acorn caps in Central Park!) For Locke's sister Lia for Valentine's Day, I made her a Harry Potter and a Hermione, both from the Harry Potter books.

These are 3 of the first Wee folk dolls. Notice the acorn caps!

Below left are 3 of the Robin Hood characters and Harry Potter.

Then with grandsons Malcolm and Dawson in Michigan, we made snow men from small, old bottles which I purchased on an online auction, basing my design on an article in the magazine CLOTH, PAPER, SCISSORS. We stuffed the bottles with shiny, glittery objects like "pearl" garlands and tinsel, used snowflake and letter stickers on the outside of the bottles, hung found objects around their necks like luggage locks and keys. We made the heads from white air-dry clay, sticking tiny pins with black heads for the "coal" eyes, orange clay or felt for the carrot noses, and then doll top hats or cowboy hats.

These projects are history! Soon, I'll blog about on-going ones!