Baby Goods

My Bee Sewcial mates and I threw a virtual baby shower for one of our own recently, and I can now share what I made for Kari/quiltsforthemaking and her new little boy.



One of the items I've enjoyed making several times for baby gifts is a travel changing pad from Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones. I used this pattern to make a couple for grandgirl when she was a baby, and they worked and washed really well. I didn't think to get a photo that better shows that the inside is made from terry cloth, but it's soft and cozy. Having participated in the heårtland Blog Tour along with Kari, I knew she liked the line and had made a quilt for baby with it. Kismet!



Another go-to baby pattern is Little Baby Bibs by Jennie/Clover & Violet. These were especially fun with the fussy cut animals from the Hello, Bear collection by Bonnie Christine.



Sweet little baby items are always a fun sew. I keep adding to a Sewing for Baby pin board, so I'm prepared with ideas when the need strikes!

Pixelated Heart

New arrivals in our extended family means baby quilts are definitely in order, and admittedly, I've gotten a very late start. But with this pixelated heart quilt, one can be on its way.

The pattern is from Blue Elephant Stitches, and since I had alot of 2 1/2" squares already cut, I used them rather than the suggested 3" squares. To up-size the quilt just a bit, I added two extra 'background' rows on the left and the bottom.

I used my everyday Aurifil 50wt 2021 (natural white) to quilt a grid, sewing on the right side of each column and the bottom of each row, just to add to the 'offset'.

My original idea was to grow the quilt even more with a 2" finished binding pieced of several of the low-volume fabrics. Which worked great - but as I was sewing it on, I realized it reminded me of the satin edge on a baby blanket - and I liked that alot.

The finished quilt measures 36" x 38" and is super sweet, exactly as I was hoping it should be.

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday!

Oh, Baby!

Last weekend, daughter dear and I had the pleasure of hosting a baby shower for my goddaughter, Jessica. Besides silly games, tasty food, and goodie bags, it seemed like we just had to have some sweet fabric bunting. I was lucky to happen upon a tutorial by my guild friend, Louise of I'm Feelin' Crafty. She includes a pattern for the triangles, which I thought were the perfect size. I chain pieced all the triangles, and then happily made scrappy gray binding right out of the scrap basket. I found that 20 triangles sewn edge to edge made a 10' bunting, of which I made 2. I attached the binding with a narrow zig-zag stitch, which made the buntings secure while adding a decorative touch. And now that the shower's over, they will be sweet hanging in baby boy's room, right?

Of course I wanted to make baby a quilt. Jess, Rachel, and I happened to already share a baby quilt ideas Pinterest board, where Jessica clued me in to a few of her special favorites. I chose the Star Cluster, an enlarged version of a block by Judy Martin. Judy's block pattern makes a 12" or 16" block, where the baby quilt measures 40" square.

photographed before washing

The front of the quilt is a scrappy mix of baby's nursery colors, all set on Kona white. For batting, I used a baby-sized Pellon Legacy Wool Batting, fully washable, and therein lies just a bit of an issue with this little quilt. Though the batt description says otherwise, I did experience some bearding after a wash. If anyone else has had this experience with wool batt, I'd love to hear about it . . .

The quilt's backing is a teal and navy print from Waterfront Park by Violet Craft. For quilting, I cross-hatched each block using my machine's serpentine stitch as long and wide as it would go. All piecing and quilting was done with Aurifil 50wt #2021 (Natural White), the cone that stays on my machine for most of my everyday sewing. And binding was another scrappy mix, this time of white on white prints.

photographed after washing

The Star Cluster was a perfect block for supersizing and using a varied palette. Plus I think it's super sweet for baby.

This project is on my 2015 Q1 Finish-A-Long list.
Linking up with Finish it Up Friday.

For Baby

I couldn't resist sewing up some baby goodies for my friend, Marci, who is due any day!

Daughter dear suggested a bapron. A what? New to me, but the tutorial for this baby apron was fun and easy to follow. {here} Love Jess' blog name - Craftiness is not Optional - so true!

Wouldn't you know that the day I started on these burp cloths, Marci posted a similar project. {eek!} Considering I  had already purchased the supplies, I forged a head. Can't have too many, I'm sure. I used this tutorial {here} by Cluck Cluck Sew. I liked how nicely the bound edges finished them off.

And lastly, I made a travel changing pad, based on an Amy Butler pattern in this book. I used this pattern to make a couple for grandbaby a year ago, and they have worked and washed really well. But the book has since gone missing, so I just used one of grandbaby's as a template, and that worked just fine.

All in all I had great fun trying the new tutorials and doing something a little different than my norm. The fabric line, btw, is Backyard Baby by Patty Sloneger for Michael Miller Fabrics. I thought it was really cute without being too babyish. And now that Marci has received the box of goodies, I can show them off and publicly say to Marci, "Wishing you the best!"

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday . . .