Christmas is over, and I'm still not ready!

'Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the studio... Oh, I was stirring alright. You know how every bank teller and grocery cashier will invariably ask, "are you ready for Christmas yet?" NO. I'm not ready yet.

I was making the cutest frogs last week for Christmas but I started too late to finish enough of them. I was also trying to simultaneously make mini sandbag frogs, embroidered makeup bags for the girls and new place mats. I really need more time. : ) I got a prototype for each of the above completed but no further before Thursday.

Back to the cutie frogs. The designer is Karen Brow, and her site is http://www.javahousequilts.com/. The pattern includes a butterfly and turtle case as well, called "Just In Cases". These little darlings are supposed to be cases for glasses, scissors, rotary cutters or any other thing you might like to keep in them. I decided to use them as mini stockings, hung on the tree. The clear pocket on the belly makes the perfect holder for Christmas money or a gift card, and the body is just right to hold lip gloss and nail polish and files etc for my girls. The tiny 2" green frog here is my experiment with sand stuffing.

I was so pleased with how the first "frog case" turned out that I digitizing the pattern on my embroidery software. The little arms and legs have tiny fingers and I can fit several pair per hoop on my machine. The next obvious step for me was to digitize the free motion quilting for the "frog back". I drew out a flower and vine pattern, modified the seam and cutting lines to accommodate the "arm holes" and generally engineered the automated sewing so I can put out a big batch of these for party favors and hostess gifts next year. I have a bagfull of bodies and legs stitched out now waiting to be assembled.

And we had a marvelous Christmas (even without the finished frogs).

with kindness,
Jain