Hot Pads, a Thread Catcher, and Some Girly Bibs

Recently, I participated in a service auction with some of the women in my neighborhood. I donated a set of hot pads and a set of bibs.  In return, I ended up with an afternoon of babysitting AND a free haircut! I'm calling it a win.  Anyway, it's time for me to share what I made with you.  😊

My friend requested something with this blue/gray print for the hot pads:

I made them with hand pockets.  😏

For the quilting, I did cross-hatching, swirls, and outlining.

Oh, and I bound them by hand. These babies were THICK!

Next up, another friend requested girly bibs for her granddaughters, and since I didn't have very many in the shop, I decided to make a whole bunch and list the extras in my shop.

And lastly, another friend saw the little thread catcher/pin cushion I made WAY back when I first started sewing, and asked me to make her one for her sister-in-law.  I roughly followed THIS tutorial, because I wanted the hanging basket to be removable.

That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by!

Also, the bibs were one of my goals (#4) from this quarter's Finish Along, so I'll be linking up!

Emily's Picture Perfect Baby Quilt

I made something!  Yay!

A friend of mine had a cute baby a month ago and she NEEDED a baby quilt from me, so I whipped one up back in January.  It is always so fun to work on a baby quilt.  They are so quick and easy - practically instant gratification.  :)

I was lucky enough to receive Kristin Roylance's book "Sew Sweet Baby Quilts" for Christmas.  It is SERIOUSLY SO ADORABLE!  I loved it so much I splurged and bought her first book "Cute Quilts for Kids."  This is really saying something since I've never actually bought a quilt book before.  I usually prefer to figure out my own patterns.  Anyway, check her out HERE.

I was determined to make one of these cute quilts for baby Emily, but in the end I went with a stand-alone pattern she had handed out at a guild meeting many many months ago (did I mention she's local?  Even better, right?).  It was really nice to work from a pattern where someone else had already done all the math and all I had to do was follow directions.  :)

The pattern is called "Picture Perfect" and it features these fun 3D flowers.  It came together really quickly.  The flowers were probably the most time-consuming part of the whole quilt.

The fabric (most of it) is called "Blushing" and it's by Margot Languedoc of The Pattern Basket.   I was super lucky to win it in a giveaway awhile back.  It's SOOOO pretty!

For the back, I found this super soft and cuddly fleece at Walmart.  It was actually kind of funny, the lady warned me before cutting it up that it was on the pricey side.  I told her I'm used to buying my fabric from quilt shops, so this was nothing to me.  :D  It actually was on the pricey side (for Walmart), but SO worth it.  It is divine.

The thick, plush backing ended up making quilting a bit interesting, though.  The fibers making up the fabric are so long, that they popped through to the top of the quilt with every. single. stitch, making it look like there were little pink dots throughout the whole thing.  So I ended up doing half the quilting from the BACK of the quilt!  It was a little weird, and hard to see where I was going, but it worked out.  :)

The sweet mom I gave this too was very grateful, because she's made a quilt or two before and knows what a labor of love they are.  Now.  I need to make more baby quilts.  Who needs one?

Quilt stats:

Started: January 2016

Finished: February 2016

Fabrics: "Blushing" by Margot Languedoc of The Pattern Basket

Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 100% Cotton

Finished size: Approx. 41" x 41"

Recipient: Baby Emily

Methods used:  Piecing, Free Motion Quilting

Binding: Hand stitched to the back

Time to make:  Approx. 11 hours

 This was finish #6 from my Quarter 1 Finish-Along list.  Linking up!

The BABY Quiet Book

We have had a few first birthdays in our family these past few months.  I decided it was time to create a small quiet book that could be held in tiny hands and enjoyed by tiny fingers and mouths.  :)  I was also looking for something that was quick(er) to make that would be a more inexpensive item to list in my shop.  These are what I came up with!

The little pages are only 3" square.  My sister-in-law loves hers because it is small enough to stick in the diaper bag just like another toy.  My little Noah loves his because he can hold it in his little hands (and it's completely safe for him to chew on, which is all he cares about right now...).

Of course, each page has some sort of interactive element to it.  The dinosaur has ribbon taggie spines.  The elephant (my personal favorite) has a stretchy elastic nose and loose ears. 
The fun yarn noodles are fun (my mom thinks the N page looks like a nest, which works too).  The kite slides along the string.  Anyway, you get the picture.  :)

Each book comes with all the letters in the child's name. 

The rocket slides up and down, and the alligator's mouth opens and closes.

 

I had to get a few pictures with Noah's chubby little hands for perspective.  :)  Don't you just love baby hands?

These are currently listed in my Etsy shop.  ;)

Baby Stuff

The past few months around here have been all about baby!

Meet Baby Noah.  He arrived on April 28th and he's the sweetest baby. 

And in case anyone was wondering, having one baby at a time is WAY easier than having two. ;)  Of course, I love my twins and I wouldn't trade them for anything (well, most of the time - wink, wink).

Before Noah arrived, there were a few other baby things happening around here.
First of all, the sweet ladies in my Do.Good Stitches Charity Bee all got together and made me this super awesome plus quilt!  I had NO IDEA they were doing it and I am so touched!  And the quilting on this one is so cool.

And THEN a bunch of local guild friends got together and made me this log cabin quilt!   Once again, I was totally surprised and floored by the awesome gift.  Aren't quilty friends the best?  Noah is definitely spoiled.  :)

But before even any of that, I had a burst of creative baby-stuff-making (for some women, "nesting" means "clean all the things."  For me, it's "sew all the things").  I cleared out my shop quite a bit so that I could take a few months off Etsy orders to focus on baby and it has left me with some glorious free sewing time.  It's been so nice making whatever I want to make lately, without having to finish priority projects first.

So I made Noah a few new bibs/burp cloths, and a onesie.

And then I couldn't stop myself and I made a whole slew more to add to my shop.  :)  Bibs are so fun and easy to make.  I love adding little bits of quilting to mine for added character. 

Up until a few weeks before Noah was born, I was watching my friend's little girl twice a week.  We really loved having Adele with us and miss her so much already.  She turned one right around the time we stopped taking care of her, so I made her this fun quiet book.  I've been wanting to try a book that is more appropriate for really little kids - everything is fully attached so that there are no choking hazards for little ones.  There are also lots of different textures and things for little fingers to play with.  And since I can't seem to make anything without following some sort of theme, I went with colors again (and shapes, actually.  I just realized you can't see it in any of these pictures, but every page has a different shape hiding behind the felt square flaps).  I was so excited to give this to sweet little Adele!

Noah is already a month old and I can hardly believe it!  I'm already back in the swing of sewing as much as I can - hopefully I'll have some awesome quilty things to show you soon!  Thanks for visiting!

P.S. The bibs and quiet book just happened to be part of my Finish Along Goals (#2 and #12 - original list HERE).  Wahoo!

Linking up: