Trying something...

IF this works, you can see pictures of the quilts I made for the kids and my husband for Christmas...  here goes...  :)

This is Abigail's - she picked out the fabrics long ago, and they went into my fabric stash containers as we prepared for a move...  four moves and five years ago.  A little belated, but she was very happy to get it!

This is Rachel's quilt - I haven't tried this design before, and it's actually upside down in this picture - which I noticed *after* uploading it (and it's on her bed now, too, so it is what it is *grin*)

 This is Sarah's quilt - she loves, loves, loves bright and happy colors - for some reason this makes me think of a starburst...  even though starburst doesn't have blue in it.  Ah well.  Her squeals of joy made my heart sing. :)

 This is Andrew's quilt.  He is my John Deere tractor man...  He loves tractors almost more than he loves trains, cars, and planes all put together (and that's saying a LOT if you know Andrew!)

 This is Rebecca's quilt - it's hard to see in the picture, but the fabrics (pink, green, and yellow backgrounds) all have white butterflies on them - she LOOOOVES butterflies!

 This is Benjamin's quilt- like big brother Andrew, he LOVES tractors...  any and all "mighty machines", really - he was giddy over this quilt and I was treated to many smooshy kisses and Ben-Ben giggles!

 This is Hannah's quilt...  I'm not sure why, but the colors appear so much darker than reality in this picture...  however, the colors are not pastels...  I learned long ago that pastel colored quilts for little ones usually get ruined by stains - the solution?  Darker colors!   Preserves the color integrity and lets the quilt last so much longer :)

 Finally, this is my husband's quilt...  I made one with the same fabrics for his sister and her new husband after they were married, and he really loved the quilt...  it's been several years since I made theirs, and I finally got around to finishing one for my beloved - this one is bigger than the large throw-blanket size that I made for the newlyweds, it easily fits on our queen sized bed with a bit extra on all sides.  He was very pleased with it, and honestly, so am I!  I haven't attempted that much hand sewing on any quilt before, but I love the result!

 Here is a closer-up of the hand sewing...  burgundy thread (burgundy is his favorite color) sewn around hand drawn hearts - you can't see it in the pictures, but I also stitched our first names in the upper left hand solid/ cream colored corner.

 Now, I'm not sure why this landed on the bottom here, because it was the first one I clicked to load, and my husband's quilt it the last one I clicked to load...  but this is Natasha's quilt...  she's entered the age where she's still a little girl at heart, but she is growing up...  and so I wanted to make her quilt a bit more grown up, too...  the solid white squares (well, they aren't really - but it appears that way in the picture - in reality there is a tiny white on white floral/ vine print there) has lavender thread hand-sewn hearts.  I guess I captured the little girl becoming a young woman well enough for her, because she loves the quilt and I got some very sweet teeny-bopper kisses and thank yous from her - I couldn't ask for a better response!

So, that's Christmas day three...  (oh, and my very thoughtful husband - who knows I prefer practical things over frivolous things almost every single time - gifted me with the uberly wonderful gift of a smoker!  Now when we butcher the animals we raise for meat, I can smoke them!  Yeah!!!!  and for the record, home-raised, home-butchered, home-cured, *and* home-smoked ham is THE BEST I have ever had...  something about that hickory smoke flavor...  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....  :)  Thank you, honey!)