Skirts!

Going along with quick, easy projects I've discovered a new sewing love- SKIRTS! Not for me, for my 18 month old. The first one I made was this easy wrap around skirt. I lined it with coordinating dots. Let's face it, she's not going to keep those chubby knees together so the inside is going to show.

Then I got on a roll. I discovered that I could make an easy skirt in about a half hour out of scraps I had from other projects.

How many skirts does an 18 month old need? I want to keep going but I should save some fabric for another size. I also made two coordinating skirts for my nieces with just the main color and the band fabric switched. I forgot to take a picture though.

Baby Shower Gifts

Saturday my mother-in-law and I had a shower for my sister-in-law. She's having a baby girl at the end of January, but with the holidays we decided to have her shower a little early.
I made some burp cloths . I love these kind made out of cloth diapers. They are so absorbent. I made some bibs at the last minute too, but for whatever reason the picture will not upload.
The other thing I made for her was this kitten quilt. The pattern is from American Quilting in Orem. I love how it turned out. I think I need to make one for my baby girl!
Here is a close up of the cats. I embroidered the faces and then appliqued them using a running stitch and black floss.

More Bibs!

I just can't stop making bibs out of my scraps, which is a good thing. My baby is now eating solids and if she doesn't like it (think canned mashed beef) she spits it out. Really can you blame her? Would you put that in your mouth? I have made about 10, but I feel like I need at least two a day if not three. I like making them because they are a quick project that I can actually finish. Finding time to finish anything lately is rare, so these are perfect.

I have 3 or 4 more in the works made from the leftover blocks from this quilt. I don't have fabric for the ties though but they are almost finished!

Save the Clothing!

Has your family had a summer of sickness like my family has? We've spent a lot of time at home this summer because people have had some sort of ailment all summer long! In addition to our newest ones reflux we've had swine flu, 2 sinus infections, stomach flu, a weird fever thing, pleurisy and now I'm waiting for a call from the doctor to see if my 3 year old has tonsillitis. Seriously, isn't this suppose to be the season of good health?

Because we've been home all week with the sick 3 year old I decided to make some more baby bibs. I used my scraps from this quilt. I made a few of these bibs awhile ago and I love them. I think I'm even liking them better than burp clothes. They are super absorbent and do a better job of preventing the neck cheese we all love so much.

I have another bib pattern that I will be trying shortly. I'll post those pictures soon!

A special blanket for everything!

My project of the day yesterday was this car seat blanket. I've seen two people at the stores since our baby was born who had them and I was curious. I have always had a problem with the blanket in the car seat falling out. It's usually when I'm trying to herd the kids into the store and it falls out in the parking lot. Then it gets dirty and gross. Hopefully it's not raining. I decided to make one myself. I used Timeless Treasures Strawberry Field. for the fabric with a meduim pink ric rac. It was pretty easy to make. We haven't left the house (or the front porch) today because my oldest has the stomach flu. I can't wait to try it out though!

Ellie Fun

This is not my typical style of fabric. I saw it several months ago and fell in love with it though! I love those cute elephants. Usually I like fabric for a baby that isn't necessarily baby, but could be used for a baby. I like novelty fabric in general, just not baby fabric. When Olivia was born I had to get some of this. This was the only piece that the quilt store near me had. I need to buy the other pieces online. I have no idea what I will do with it, but I love it.

So remember yesterday when I was getting ready to quilt my flutterby quilt? Well... I got it all set up on the frame and my stupid Pfaff would not work. It's been having trouble for awhile now. It has never kept the speed up very well. It's suppose to do 1000 stitches per minute. Well, yesterday I was lucky if I could get it to do 1. Then when it did the stitches were the length of my shin. Ahhhhhhh! There is almost always something wrong with my Pfaff. It is seriously less reliable then my mom's old White she hated when I was growing up! Thank goodness for my trusty Bernina, however it doesn't have a long enough neck to quilt on the frame.

Baby Quilt and Burp Cloths

I used my first honey bun this last week. It's Hello Betty from Chloe's Closet. I can't say that I loved working with a honey bun. There aren't many patterns out there so I made up my own. I was thinking I'd have a good sized baby quilt. WRONG! It's a small baby/ doll quilt. I haven't put a border on it yet and I'm not sure if I will. It's so busy that I don't really want one. I may just wait and she can use it now and then use it as a doll quilt when she is bigger than a doll herself.

I also made Olivia some more burp cloths. Really, can you ever have enough? I feel like I need at least two a day, especially if we go somewhere so that I don't have to take one that already has spit up on it.

This one totally clashed with the others so I took a picture of it separately. I still feel like I need a few more. I made some others earlier when she was very first born, but they were in the wash and I never got around to posting pictures. These are the most absorbent burp clothes I own made from cloth diapers.

I really, really want to start a new quilt. I would love to buy jelly rolls of American Jane's Snippets and make Black Diamonds. However, I'm trying to first finish what I've already started and second only buy fabric I need to finish what I've started. I keep telling myself that I can buy the fabric online after it's no longer in stores and also new fabric that I always LOVE is always coming out. Hopefully I can resist, but I just had a birthday and my birthday money is screaming to be spent on fabric.

GIRL stuff!

I've been having fun sewing girl stuff. It's slow going, but I'm trying to find time to do it. A few months ago I made a smock and booties as a baby gift for my sister-in-law. I have enough of that fabric to make one for Olivia, but I'm out of the ric rac. I had all the stuff to make this one though out of Sandi Henderson's fabric. I love the way it turned out. I made the 0-3 month size. It's suppose to be a shirt to wear with pants or a skirt. This is more like a jumper on her. I love that's it's reversible. Here's the other side.

And the back.

I guess I'll be using it for a jumper for now and later it can be a smock over a cute onesie. I want to make the booties too, but the smallest size the pattern comes in looks huge for her. I may take the pattern and do it a quarter inch smaller all around. Her feet are only a little longer than my pinkie. It's so much fun to have a girl!

A New Diaper Bag

I spent the weekend making this diaper bag. I've realized I'm really not much of a seamstress. Quilting is a lot different than sewing other things. The fabric is called Metro Blue Goes Green. The pattern is called The Nappy Bag by Amy Butler.

Handmade Baby Gifts

I've kind of been trying to keep Olivia home since she is so little. She was 5 lbs 1 ounce at birth and is still probably under 6 lbs. Our neighborhood has been so excited to meet her. Last night we went on a little walk. We kept getting stopped so people could see her. One lady came out with a gift.

She knitted these baby booties and brought the out to us. Aren't they cute! I can't wait until Olivia can wear them.

She also crocheted around this cute blanket. I LOVE the flowered fabric! And who doesn't love polka dots? The flowered fabric reminds me of my grandma's sheets. I just love it.

Aren't hand made gifts the best! They are the kind of gifts you know you will keep forever, to pass on to your children's children.

Busy, busy, busy

I've been busy this week. Not only taking care of a newborn, a toddler and a 5 year old, but making stuff for the baby. I love having a girl! One of the things I've been doing is making headbands. I need people to know she's a girl! I made the above one. It's a little big, but she'll grow!

Here are a few I worked on last night. My husband thinks the korker bows look like fireworks. The green and pink one was my first attempt. It's rather large for her tiny head. I will need to wait to attach it to a headband that will fit her head later on.

Here is one I made of tights. I bought the green bow in a package of bows that have alligator clips on the back. I put a loop of grosgrain ribbon around the tights so that I can use the same headband and just switch bows. Can you tell Caleb is a proud brother?And here is a sneak peak of the quilt I'm making for her crib out of Bubblegum Basics. Hopefully I can finish it this week.