Watch out! She's gettin' crafty...

I decided for Christmas I wanted to make Annie's gift from us. I did some google for ideas, thought a lot, drew it out on paper and then... waited until the last minute! Ha! And my machine jammed part way through, requiring a dear friend to come to my rescue with her Viking. Hello, like how am I supposed to go back to my dinky Kenmore after that?!

Without further ado, Annie's Christmas softbook:

Back page and Front page- I put a layer of fleece between each side to give it a soft form.

The alligator ended up a little over from where I wanted him..  But I was please with my idea to put clear/shiny sequins around the bee wings(difficult to see maybe in the photo). 

That fusey fabric stuff was definitely my friend to get these pieced together!

Some fun buttons for 'peas' to add dimension. 

What kid doesn't love pointing out the moon?! And of course I needed some flowers... This is kind of meant to be a sort of opposites page.

And of course, shapes. 

 I had to hand sew the binding as it was too thick to run through the machine. I thought this would be really difficult but it ended up being no big deal with a regular needle. For the solid color fabrics, I just grabbed one of those fat quarter quilter's packs. My aunt sent a care package of the fun fruits and veggies fabrics! All in all I'm really please how it turned out. Oh, and I made it a ribbon closure.

Santa decided to also get in on the fun, too! I passed on a picture I'd found to him of this awesome barn. Of course, it isn't a project unless I make things more difficult so I requested some slight modifications.

Santa's barn

In the original, the loft part is open. I requested it closed and with a hinged roof so the kids can 'hide' things up there. Santa even added his own special part- a movable 3 section fence! He only got the one done before Christmas but has been informed he will need to make 3 more post haste! Didn't he do a lovely job? The kids play with it every day and their Schleigh figurines fit perfect. He doesn't know it, but Santa's also going to be making us a Tree House.... (bwahahahaha)