Mission accomplished!

Well, I did it...I finished the gifts for my friend that is having twins.  I know I should keep it a surprise, but I doubt she is checking my blog, so I'm going to share what I have done.   She is having a boy and a girl, so I made things appropriate for each.  She said she liked the fringe tied fleece blankets, the taggies, and the play mat.  I had fun with the play mat because I tried something different from my others.  I wanted to be able to hang the animals, so I needed to find a way to make the arches.  With a little creativity, I came up with the idea to use pcv pipe to give the arches the necessary strength and flexibility that they needed.  I had the pad finished, but realized that it would be too wide for the arches to be high enough.  I had to cut off the border that I originally had, and reattach the loops to the bottom of the mat to hold the arches in place.  It was quite a bit of work, and I really didn't want to do it since I thought my project was complete.  But, I figure a project worth doing is a project worth doing right, so I took the extra time to take it apart and do over.  It was just what I wanted it to look like, and I was so happy that I took the time to do it right.  Now, I can feel pleased with the outcome.

This is the play mat with the border.  Looks nice, but the arches are too flat.

This is the mat after being revised.  It is smaller, but the arches are much higher for hanging animals.

This is what the mat looks like with the animals hanging.

Laughing Leo the Lion

Gentle Gerry the Giraffe

Energetic Ellie the Elephant

Crazy Christopher the Crocodile

Happy Holly the Hippo

Zany Zach the Zebra

Kissable Kerry the Koala

Mischievous Maggie the Monkey

Terrible Terrance the Tiger

This is the boy's fringe tied fleece blanket.

This is the girl's fringe tied fleece blanket.

This is the boy's taggie with Patriots on one side and the Red Sox on the other.

This is the girl's taggie with the zoo animals on one side and plain purple fleece on the other.

 Now that I have finished these projects, I am back to working strictly on the things for Eva's big order.  I cut out a lot of things yesterday and started sewing them tonight.  I finished a corduroy skirt and a vest tonight.  The material had embroidered horse patterns on it.  It was hard to cut out because I had to do what my sister calls a "fussy cut" where you have to cut around the individual pattern piece that you want.  It wastes a lot of material to do it, but in the long run it looks much better to do it that way.  Now, I need to go to the store to get some plain white rib knit to make a onsie that will match.  I hadn't planned on doing this outfit, but after I found the material on my shelf when I was looking for something else, I decided it would make a cute outfit for a little girl, so I made it.  I'll save the picture for it when I have finished the onsie.