Are you ahead or are you behind? It's that time of year again - time to start freaking out about all the holiday gifts I haven't started making yet! My list this year includes one lap quilt, one minkee baby blanket (both from Bend-the-Rules Sewing), and a softie toy for a little cousin of the boys. Yes, sewing is in this year at the Hansel Christmas worshop. The elves feel that we can get more done if we don't try to knit everything. (There's still plenty of knitting to be done though - more on that tomorrow!)

First up is the softie toy for 2 yr-old cousin. I searched around for an easy-ish pattern and found pointy kitty, a free pattern from the amazing Hillary Lang of wee wonderfuls (she also did the wee elephant softie in Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts). I pulled out some pretty red floral fabric I had bought to make a dress for wee one, along with some leftover blue ribbon fabric from my rulers quilt and got started cutting out pieces. Look, they look like kitties already!

I decided to start by making a practice pointy kitty for wee one with the blue fabric. Hillary's pattern really is wonderful. There's a good deal of easing and pinning that you have to do, but it was okay once I took the time to do it right. She warns you that pointy kitty is tricky to turn right side out and to get all pointy again after sewing, but after dealing with some of those teeny limbs on the sock creatures, I wasn't too worried. And actually, it was only that tail that gave me any real problems. By the end of the night, I had practice pointy kitty parts ready for attaching and final touches.

Cute, cute, cute. And I love that it stands up on it's own. The boys immediately recognized that it was supposed to be a kitty. I always find that reassuring when they have a positive reaction to my stuffed toys and can identify what they were supposed to be. But this is more than a kitty. It's a head-start on my holiday projects!