The monkey troop

 The Sock Monkey troop is already to be gifted to their new homes.

A Sock Monkey with a quilt and book will hopefully be a keepsake for each of my grandkids.  The two boys received theirs on Christmas and they seemed to be a hit. The boys each hugged their monkeys. These little guys are already for lots of adventures and hugs with their new owners.

This coming weekend my granddaughter will receive hers.  She loves to dance and sing so  I decided to make a special tutu for her little monkey.   They can dance and sing together.

In May she will be a big sister.  I wanted to make her a baby sock monkey to go with her monkey so they could practice taking care of a little one.  I only bought extra large rockford socks which was too hard to make the baby.  I've ordered some smaller socks so I'll give my granddaughter the baby sock monkey for her birthday in February.

I think I've gone bananas over these little guys.  Being a little more time consuming than I anticipated, but fun as they started to develop a personality.  Searching through the internet I see there are many different animals to make from socks.  Hmmmmm.  I'd like to tackle a couple different sock animals in the future.  I'll add this to my future to-do-list.

The Cycles of Life

A couple years ago I made a quilt for a little guy that I've babysat occasionally since he was born while his mother worked.  My husband and I have become very fond of him - like he's part of our family.  The quilt had fabric from Maywood Studios called "Cycles of Life".   I choose this fabric because of the bicycle patterns on the all coordinating fabrics.  You see we bought him two of his first bikes and he also learned to ride them at our house.  We also bought him fun things like horns and lights to jazz his bike up.  It's been fun watching him grow.  He loved that quilt and would take it to bed every night.

A few days before this past Thanksgiving there was a fire at his house.  Their dryer caught on fire.  That quilt was in the dryer and caught on fire.  the quilt was burnt and damaged.  Cutting off the worst part and soaking and washing what was left couldn't save the quilt.

Looking through my stash fabric I found leftover fabric from this original quilt and went to work to replicate this quilt the best I could.   Well, yesterday I finished his replacement quilt and it looks pretty closed to the original, same size, same colors and some of the same fabric.

I headed over to his house to give him his new quilt.  The temperatures have been in the teens and having this quilt can help keep him warm on these cold wintery days and nights.  He was excited to see me and had a big smile on his face when I showed him his new quilt.  The colors were a lot brighten this new quilt  than his previous quilt which had been wash numerous times and well used.  I showed him a picture of his first quilt when he got it in February 2021 to assure him it was almost the same.  (There is a post on my blog with this first quilt dated February 24, 2021 ).

I asked him if I should make him a pillow or a teddy bear from some of the better parts of the burnt quilt or just throw it away.  He asked if I could make him a teddy bear.  So now I have a new project to work on.  

I know he will enjoy his new quilt and when he wraps up in it to stay warm I hope he remembers that he is loved.  I'm sending  hugs.