Books, Doll Quilts and an Apron

I've been a busy little elf sewing, embroidering, wrapping, and smiling.  It is so much fun to make things for loved ones at Christmas.  I wanted so badly to make little doll quilts with a book theme for the grand daughters this year.   (This idea probably came after reading this post on Kleios Belly .  She does really great embroidery, and has wonderful ideas posted on her blog, if you haven't read it, you should!)  I started with vague ideas, searched the net, found some really inspiring ideas, and got to work.  One of my grand- daughter's favorite story is The Little Red Hen.  My original idea was to make a quilt and give the book that goes along with the story, but since this particular little girl loves this story so much, I just had to make her a Little Red Hen quilt, even if she already has the book.  I'll just give her a different book. 

 The other stories all had fabric to match, like Little Red Riding Hood fabric for the Little Red Riding Hood quilt, etc.,  but I scoured fabric sites and came up short on The Little Red Hen.  However,  I found this amazing quilt and story on a blog ironically called  The Little Red Hen .  It is a beautiful blog with gorgeous photography, beautiful quilts and needlework, and just the idea I needed for my quilt!  I wrote Lynn and asked if she would mind if I copied the pattern.  She graciously consented telling me her sister had gotten the pattern from an old children's book .  You really must go over and look it, for my work doesn't do the pattern justice!  I'm very much a beginner as you can tell from the quilts.  

I didn't figure my oldest grandson would want a doll quilt so I made him a Thomas the Train apron.  He adores Thomas, and I found a beautiful book, The Goodnight Train, to go along with it.  

This has been so much fun!  I have another apron in the works, and want to do a Pokey Little Puppy quilt as well.

Now to start wrapping and cooking!