Upcycled Sweater Baby Blanket

A friend of mine at work is having a baby.  Yes, it's the same one I made the Seven Seas quilt for.  But every baby needs a stroller blanket right??

I made this from repurposed sweaters, both wool and cashmere.  I added some vintage trims for texture.  And this time, I added some basic quilting, stitch-in-the-ditch style, so that it would hold it's shape when it got washed.

What's your favorite baby gift to make?

What the heck I've been up to

So I finally got to go on that vacation that I've been whining about. I took the kids and we went to visit my cousin, his wife and newly adopted son in Virginia. It was my daughter's first plane trip, and my son's second. He said he was too little to remember the first one, so he felt like this was his first too. We had a FANTASTIC time.

Our first day we spent at the National Zoo. It was close to 90 and just downright steamy. The kids are wet from the water sprays they have along the walkways to keep cool.



All that they cared about was seeing the pandas, which we did. From far away, but they were live pandas nonetheless.

The next day we spent at the Museum of Natural History and walking the National Mall. It was a wonderful day, but LONG for little legs.

The true excitement was being in a terminal at Dulles when the EARTHQUAKE hit. The whole terminal sort of slid side to side. Some pieces of tile fell from the ceiling. After a brief "huh, what was that?" my kids went right back to reading their books. Really. They are tough to impress apparently.



Now that we're home, I've been working on this blanket for a co-worker. I've made so many of these "a la Betz White Warm Fuzzies" style blankets now. They are really loved. I try to put some of my salvaged trims on each one. The blue on this one is one of my favorite and almost gone.



I usually put flannel on the back and they are just super soft and cuddly.





Last but not least, I am still on my two-per-week pace of making pillowcases for Conkerr Cancer. So far I've got nine. My goal is to donate a cool 100 over the course of the year. I'm hoping to find time to branch out and use different patterns as the year goes on. This one is just so easy and sews up so quickly, I've stuck to it for now.



What are you working on these last few days of summer??

Babies, Babies everywhere

For the last week, the only sewing I've done is to make two baby blankets. They're done in the style of one of the projects in Betz White's book Warm Fuzzies. I've made so many variations of these great blankets since first buying Betz' book it seems. It's such a quick project, and people really seems to love them.

The first one is a very small version, for my cousin's newly adopted son, Jaden. Dave and his wife traveled all the way to Korea, and are home with their amazing new family addition. This one is traditional blues and greys.





The second was for a co-worker, who is going to his niece's christening later this week. This blanket is for a baby who lives in Miami, so the backing is quilting cotton instead of flannel. One thing we talked about is that even though they're in Miami, everything is air conditioned, so a warm blanket is still top on a new baby's list.



I try to include some vintage trim on every blanket. It feels more personal to me that way. And bigger babies and toddlers seem to like the textures to run little fingers over.




You'd think I'd learn my lesson about taking photos indoors. No more. Chilly weather or no, back outside I go. The colors are just not vibrant enough.

Up next...I picked up my November BOM project, and I have a blanket started made out of actual baby clothes. Should be fun! The blocks look really cute so far.

Some of the things that have kept me busy

Whew!  I had no idea so much time had passed. I've made all kinds of cool things, and never posted any of them.  I've also been making a bunch of things to open my shop on Etsy, but never posted any of them either.  So...before I post about the Etsy shop, here are some of the things that have been keeping me so busy...

First, there is the handsome Charles, with his cashmere sweater...he poses like a pro!  Charlie is our sitter Nikole's dog, who both of the kids adore (I mean the dog, but they adore Nikole, too!)

Then, there is the apron I made for my mother in law Kris for Mother's Day...



I love this because it was made from a yellow Mary Englebreit fabric and FREE pattern I got from Fabritopia (which is an amazing website by the way), and the poppy fabric is vintage purchased on Etsy. The whole apron took me maybe an hour and a half. It was only supposed to take an hour, but with kids, interruptions...you know, and hour was kind of wishful thinking. And Kris loved the apron. I will most definately be making more of these.

Last but not least was my very first special order baby blanket. It's made from upcycled felted sweaters, both wool and cashmere. The person who ordered it wanted the baby's name appliqued on the front, and simple, classic colors. The back of the blanket is new flannel, with an owl pattern. These glorious photos are courtesy of my husband.






So for today...I am going to sew up my very first quilt square, from a class I had last Saturday. It's a block a month class, so I want to make sure I'm done early in case I have to redo it.

Looking forward to posting that the first items have gone into the Etsy shop...

I'd love feedback on any of these things.  It's hard to make constructive changes when you're in the middle of making things.  

Rrrrrribbit!

Well it's finally finished!  This is what I've been working on for the last 2 weeks.  It's a baby blanket for a co-worker (and neighbor!) who is having her second baby very soon!  She had mentioned to me that she and her husband bought a frog stuffed animal for the baby, and I remembered this great flannel that I had for the back...

 

I'm actually at the point where I've made enough blankets that I'm ready to move on to something new!  I've got some ideas all ready and the fabric all purchased.  Now all I need is for my new Pfaff to get here!

It's Out of This World!

I found this wonderful flannel fabric a few weeks ago and have been working on this since then.  It has aliens and space ships, and really great colors.  Including orange, which is my absolute favorite.  (Side note, what does it say about me that orange is my favorite color?)

The blanket itself is actually pretty basic.  Felted sweaters, cut into squares or rectangles, with little patches on top in random places, and my friendly alien in the upper left corner.  Much to my dismay, neither of my usually camera-hoggish kids would pose with the blanket, so I was left with Stella (the doll) as my model.

My wonderful, patient photographer-husband let me try all different things to get the pictures how I wanted them...The last two pictures are ones that I took, just so you can see the whole thing and the great fabric on the back.