I finished the holiday penny rug that had been taking over my brain. I am really happy with how it came out. It's in wool felt and I made it almost entirely by machine. I know, pretty cheat-y, but dang it, it's not the time for methodical hand sewing right now. I just can't balance this cute baby (who seems to nurses 24/7) on my lap while hand sewing. I can do a lot while nursing, but hand sewing isn't one of them. And when I'm not nursing I am trying to get someone out of pj's.
I made card stock templates, drew around them onto the felt, stitched a blanket stitch by machine (I love my Bernina so much) then carefully trimmed out the shape without trimming the blanket stitch outline. Then I used a combo of hand stitching (so the shapes wouldn't shift) and heat and bond to place them. Lots of steps, but I am really happy with how the process went. It was at times harder doing this by machine then it would have been sewing this by hand, but I was up for the challenge and was dying to use my machine blanket stitch. I was also dying to make this sometime this millennium, which wouldn't have happen if I have stitched by hand, I am sorry to say.
It lives here, in very good company.