Some Secret (Santa) Sewing Revealed!

I've been a bad blogger, a bad follower these last few days...but it's all in an attempt to be a good daughter. I've been working on my mum's quilt (which she has been waiting a loooong time for) and because of the block I close, I had to make a few of them.  After stealing the batting from the quilting fail that was my Stained Man with a Curious Nature quilt, it's basted and ready for quilting on my mum's machine after we get back tomorrow. So there should be a finish before the New Year...and I shall re-quilt the man quilt in January!

So you may remember I'm a member of the Stitch Tease bee.  This is a great group of women and the brain child of lovely Di. A few weeks back, when I had a happy machine, I suggested a low stress Secret Santa swap and the mama and fellow bee mates agreed. We gave some helpful suggestions to our partner and one of mine was a stocking for Zaki.

My partner was the funny and very talented Katy and look what she sent...

Photo courtesy of my mum

...the most gorgeous stocking with dinosaurs appliqued on to it and his name of course. Zaki is completely dinosaur obsessed and a dinosaur quilt is on the bucket list.  I haven't shown him the stocking as I want it to be a surprise but I just know he is going to LOVE it. Because of the unpredictability of the postal systems at this time of year, Katy sent it to my mum's - I can't wait to see it and to give it to Zaki!  Thank you Katy - you did an amazing job!

My partner was lovely Danny, who hangs out in Arizona and has a totally edible 1 year old called Clara-Mae.  One of Danny's requests was for a Christmas toy for Clara Mae.  I decided to make her a Christmas soft book.

I used some Essex linen for the outer cover and  Kona Regal for the inside lining.

I appliqued some Christmas themed pictures...

..and as I am in Morocco, there had to be one of the wise men's camels and a Christmas star.  I think this one is my favourite.

As I was making this on my old machine and without a walking foot, I wasn't able to top stitch the pages or bind the book with a central seam - there was no way I could stitch 3 layers of pages together!  So I had no choice to to tie the book together with some embroidery yarn.

While I like the look, this isn't ideal for a one year old and I hope Danny will cut the ties and whizz the book through her machine. I hope this book will be chewed and loved!

We leave for England tomorrow so more once we're back!