Andrew's collar stay catcher

I was really struggling with my sewing machine (the bobbin thread wouldn't stay in its tension guides) and then finally gave up and sent it in for service during the two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving -- which is unfortunately when we were slated to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family.  Thus, nobody really got any handmade gifts from me.  My machine was ready the day that my parents and brother flew home, so after lunch we raced to the store to pick it up.  I then sewed like a maniac and very, very quickly whipped out three of those thread catchers for my dad, my little brother Jordan, and my brother-in-law Andrew.  I didn't get a shot of the first two, but I had Erin send me a couple of photos of Andrew's!

Andrew is using his to hold stray collar stays (say that three times fast) that tend to float around in the master bedroom.  I might need to make Corey an official place to keep his too, actually.

For the outside, I used some more of that fabulous black pleather that Erin bought for me in the remnant bin.  The inside is red Kona cotton.  I tried to free-hand quilt the red fabric to the felt batting, and it turned out kind of okay-ish.  My feed dogs are not really huge fans of working with felt, so I should have stuck some muslin on the back for better control.  Maybe Andrew just needs to put about 80 more of those little stays in there to camouflage the shaky stitching.

Dad's and Jordan's baskets/catchers/whatever are identical to this one, but I have no idea what amazing things they are being used for (if anything).

Thank you for taking the pics, Ernie!