I'm attempting to blog a week of quilts here. Day Two and I'm still kicking, so that's good, right?  You can find Day One here, my StoryTime quilt. 

Today I'm sharing a comfy, cozy little snuggle blanket I made for Lucy for Christmas--- what we call her "softblanket". I had made her a beautiful quilt for when she was born (coming up later in this Quilt Week),  but I confess-- I never used it as an everyday blanket, and it just didn't have the "cuddle factor" I kind of want for bedtime stories, etc. I still have high hopes for Lucy's formal baby quilt... but it felt like it was time to get her hooked on this new little "everyday" quilt.

 

This quilt was actually inspired from reading the Under the Sycamore blog. They'd brought home a sweet baby girl from China, and her attachment item quickly became this bright, colorful blankie made from vintage sheets. (She posts about it here. Her little one has a cleft lip and will eventually have several surgeries to correct it. I think she's beautiful just the way she is, and love reading about how she is thriving with her big, marvelous family.)

I had purchased from a fun Etsy shop a vibrant set of fat quarters that were all vintage sheets, so I started imagining a cozy little blanket for my own little girl. Fate sealed the deal in the form of a big heavy box that came in the mail one day from a friend in Washington DC. (Shout-out to Brenda! Woot!) She'd been making lovey blankies with soft minky fabrics, but was ending that endeavor and had lots of extra material. She shipped it all to me!! Included in the amazing box was a soft ribbed minky in a bold pink. I knew in an instant that would be the fabric to tie Lucy's blanket all together. 

Also included in the package was a set of three pieces of white fleece, each machine-embroidered with Lucy's name on it in different fonts. My friend had included these pieces as a thoughtful addition to her package, in case I ever wanted to make Lucy a taggie/lovey of her own. I love that! And I had to include one of them in her softblanket. So the name piece became the center of the quilt. 

As for assembly of the blanket, I cut 5" squares from each of the vintage fat quarters and assembled them in a loose pattern (you can see the rhythm: dot, pink floral, plaid, orange floral, thin pink stripe). Because the fleece name piece was already cut to a certain size, I had to adapt those two rows of squares to fit the name piece, so you can tell they're not perfect squares, but a bit shorter, making rectangles instead. It works. 

I machine-quilted every other seam, right in the ditch, and tried to keep it tidy since I used dark pink thread. And for binding, I decided to try a technique my mom uses--- making the back fabric 2-3" bigger all around, every side, then folding it inward toward the front twice and pinning it. I machine-stitched it in place using a pretty small seam-allowance. I still mitered the corners, just winging it. 

And there ya have it- Lucy's softblanket. Which she has quickly adopted into her heart and loves dearly. I think it helps that I used my powerful "you will love this" lovey skillz I've talked about in this post, How to Introduce a Lovey Into Your Baby's Life. I just kept bringing it to storytime and making a deliberate effort to call it by name as I tucked her in with it every night. I'd grab it to cuddle with her if she was crying, etc. It's become dear to her this way. I'm pretty much the Lovey-Whisperer. Ask Quinn. 

Meanwhile, somewhere between almost-2 and 2, which just happened two weeks ago, my baby girl is not a BABY AT ALL. I'm flabbergasted at the shift. I was craving some "get out of the house" time last night and asked Joe if I could steal Lucy away and go putter and run errands for a bit. He was all too happy to have Boys' Night at home, so off my girl and I went.

I've run plenty of errands with Lulu before. But this outing felt DIFFERENT somehow. She was old enough to not sit in the cart the whole time.... She had curiosity but was able to keep it in check and wait for me to give her permission before she grabbed things. She parroted almost everything I said to her--- it's her current stage of language and it is so cute. She didn't fuss or whine, didn't ask for much. We went to World Market and I let her have a fan as her "treat". She loved it, but moved on to a rain stick toy and gave me the fan back, no arguments. Then she spied a Hello Kitty candy necklace and that was IT. She gave the rain stick back and clutched that treasure the rest of the time, asking for me to open it here and there, but being patient when I told her we had to wait. We then headed to grab some dinner and I let her stand/sit in the booth next to me instead of a high chair. She didn't have a bib on. And she did FINE. 

I think it was all these little milestones combined, and me having the luxury of being solo with her to really NOTICE, that is making me so flabbergasted by her changes. No stroller. No need for the shopping cart. No high chair. No bib. No tantrums. Just my little buddy who I SWEAR was a baby just a few months ago. I mean for pete's sake, we didn't move her out of the pumpkin carseat til this winter! But here she is... spring is here, she's turned two, and she is officially a KIDDO. 

I know that's a random tangent.... this is a quilt post, yeah? But looking at these photos while the memory of last night's girls' night is fresh, and it all wraps up together into one thing. I'm just grateful she still cuddles with me and her blanket and her bunny and that she still thinks I'm her universe. I am not at ALL ready for her to get too grown up on me. 

Okay. Back to quilts. Tomorrow, I'll share another vintage sheet quilt I made, one that is so cheerful it ALWAYS makes me smile. 

Til then.... ta!

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A Week of Quilts- Day One: StoryTime Quilt

Well lookie here! Who's on a roll with blogging, eh? 

There is something to be said for teaching your new baby to nap on his own. I dragged my feet for two huge reasons:

1. I was scared he'd sleep less because he wasn't sleeping in my arms, and sleeping less equaled crying more and crying more equaled Crazy Mama. And no one likes Crazy Mama. 

2. I truly LOVE holding my sweet baby while he sleeps, and had a really bittersweet ache at the thought of losing that time with him. 

But there is a season for everything, and really, his season of being held for every nap was nearing its end. The itchy, restless part of me was beginning to emerge and the willing-to-put-everything-on-hold-for-a-baby-in-arms part of me was losing some of her hold. 

So Quinn naps twice or thrice a day in his rock-n-play in our room. A few times a week I'll scratch the morning nap routine and take him and Lucy somewhere, lulling him to sleep in the Moby wrap... so I still get some holding naps and that sweet snuggling fix. 

The rest of the time, I get at least a couple of small windows a day where my arms are free and I am able to begin inching forward with a few things in my life I've been missing. Really simple things, like tidying up the house. Sewing a little. Editing photos. Putting away laundry. Baking, maybe. Definitely more concentrated one-on-one time with Lucy or Noah. Naps of my own. 

And a wee bit of blogging. 

So. Here I am. Ready, (I think), to undertake a whole week of blogging in honor of my nearing completion of Quinn's baby quilt, which I began and nearly finished last week.

I'm relative new to quilting, and definitely a beginner with simple aspirations. But in the two years I've been doing it, I've managed to make 5-6 small quilts, and have never actually blogged about them. So with Quinn's quilt as the last post of this coming week, I am going to blog one quilt a day until then. Because I love them. I'm proud of them. And I actually think I can manage these small, mostly-photo posts this week.

So, up first--- one of my favorites. This is my StoryTime Quilt:

This fun lap-quilt is based off of an amazing quilt I saw on Pinterest right when I was first introduced to the site. It was the first "quilts I might be able to achieve" pin I pinned. The original quilter, Nettie of "A Quilt is Nice", talks about her version of this quilt here: http://aquiltisnice.blogspot.com/2011/03/storytime-baby-quilt.html. I am so enchanted with her version, all pink and rounded-corners and stripey edges. I still want one just like hers, even after making one of my own. 

The idea is that you gather bits of fabric with characters or images that can lend a starting point or plot point for a story, and you patchwork them together into one block. I did not have very many character fabrics, so I went to an old friend who adores vintage fabric and is a collector of amazing and rare fabrics, and begged for her help. (Thanks, Jaime! You're AMAZING.) 

I asked her for tiny bits of fabrics that might tell a story... I let her pick what she thought would work, and I offered to pay her for her time and her materials. She did not disappoint. Most of these darling little rectangles below are from her package she mailed me. (Opening that package was just about the most fun  I've ever had getting mail. I'm serious.)

Once the quilt is complete, you have a collection of "story starters" that you can run wild with. Ask your kiddo to choose one or two of the images, and begin weaving your own story from them. You can make up a new story every time, tell some beloved existing stories (there's a Princess and the Pea on here that I love, as well as a Red Riding Hood, some Hansel and Gretel, etc.) It is a neat way to spend quality time with your little ones, tucked under the blanket on your laps, using your imaginations.... I love this whole concept.   

 

As for that actual sewing of this project, I did not use a pattern or plan for my quilt blocks and I did not piece together story elements in any kind of organized way. I started just by trimming fabric into squares and rectangles that kept the characters/images intact with some extra for borders. I then worked to piece them together in long tall strips first. (You can see on the left, the first "strip" is the one with that red rooster next to a small princess/green polka dots. If you see green polka dots, you know that's where I filled in gaps where I didn't have a story swatch to fit.) (The second strip is the one with the soccer kickers and the green polka dots. Etc.)

I then trimmed and pieced together all the tall strips into this final rectangle. It's far from perfect. You can see on the bottom where I lost some of the image in many squares because I had to trim the whole thing up to be square. Oh well. It's close enough. 

As for the quilting part, I machine-quilted it. But since I still don't have a walking foot, I decided a "safe" and funky way to quilt it would be to stitch rays radiating out from the asymmetrically-placed story section. Working from the inside of the quilt to the edges, I was able to avoid any bunching or snagging underneath because I wasn't using a walking foot. And it all kinda fits together--- funky asymmetrical quilt lines with a funky asymmetrical quilt. 

It's backed in a fun stripe that pulls all the crazy colors on the front together, and then it's bound with a red swiss polka dot. I pretty much LOVE polka dots and they find their way into so many of my projects. 

And there it is. (I fancy that little girl putting on Daddy's shoes is Lucy. She LOVES shoes.) There's a fun blend of vintage and current fabrics. Some boyish elements and some girly elements. There are lots of actual characters, and some patterns that lend themselves to stories (rainbows, cherry blossoms, hearts, bubbles, etc.) 

Noah and Lucy got this quilt this past Christmas, and Quinn has even enjoyed it recently as a play quilt he can lie down on. I expect it will see lots of use and love as time goes by, and will get that loved-in look eventually. 

For now, it's still pretty fresh and new, and is easily one of my favorite sewing projects I've ever done. 

Up tomorrow--- I'll share Lucy's "soft blanket" I made her for her Christmas present... all girly with vintage sheets and pink minky backing. 

Til then.... happy Monday, happy May, and hooray for free hands!

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