Baby Goodies

Happy Friday! I have some personal projects to show for the first time in a long while. These baby gifts are for a few friends having little boys. I love making these 60 degree triangle quilts for babies, so simple and dramatic.  I like to choose a backing fabric and then pull fabrics for the front based on the colors in the backing. (You can see a couple others here.)

This family is honoring a grandfather who was a pilot, so mama-to-be especially loved the backing fabric. I was happy to use some sock-monkey fabric on the front that I've has since about 2011. 

Next, I did some cyanotype dyeing. I usually do these by setting them out under the bright sun for about ten minutes, but because the sun moves there can be some slight blurring. This time I tried using a UV light rigged it up in a light box. The trade-off for more crisp, clear lines is that I can only do one at a time and it takes nearly 4 times as long exposure time as under the sun.

I have plans to do some more dyeing soon, if only the cats weren't quite so helpful it would be easier!

The face of a boy who brought in a lizard off the catio into my bed to wake me up

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1400 so far! The April-June block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved.

 

 Linking to Finished or Not Friday

A Quilt for Every Baby

As all quilters know, every baby needs a quilt! Is there a better excuse to play with fun fabrics, experiment with new quilting designs, and whip out a quick finish than a new baby? I can't think of one.

I made this quilt for my cousin's soon-to-arrive baby boy from a Gingiber "Thicket" charm pack and panel.  I made this one for his older sister two years ago.  Unfortunately, not every baby is welcomed to the world with the fanfare they deserve.

When a baby is born with Down Syndrome doctors, medical personnel, and even friends and family can be negative and less than tactful about the diagnosis.  Parents are often in shock and unsure of the way forward.

An unexpected and unknown diagnosis can be scary for new parents, but Down Syndrome is nothing to be sad about.  (By the way, there's a lovely story here about grieving the child you expected while loving the one you have). I have the privilege of being friends with a young lady with Down Syndrome and I can tell you she is a delight!  She's smart and hilariously funny and full of love.

Jack's Basket is a charity that meets parents in the confusing days right after their child's birth and gives them a gift basket full of useful items, information about Down Syndrome and local support groups, blankets and clothes.  More than that though, Jack's Basket gives them hope. Hope that their baby is beautiful and has a bright future. Hope that other parents have been here before. Hope that different is not a bad thing. 

 

I have loved seeing updates from those of you gifting blocks to Briawna while CiL's block drive is on hiatus.  Thank you! You can certainly continue to contribute to her in June but I wanted to recommend another great charity to you.  Jack's Basket appreciates baby quilts to add to their baskets.  36" square makes a large baby quilt, that would take just 9 of CiL's usual 12.5" blocks.  

If you make a quilt for Jack's Basket please leave a comment or email me a photo, I'd love to know!  If you just want to make a top you can send if to me and I will quilt it and send it along (email CoveredinLoveTx@gmail.com for the address.) 

Jack's Basket
2960 Snelling Avenue North L-105
Roseville, MN 55113

Thank you all for your support and patience while I am catching up. I have already quilted over a dozen quilts and I can't wait to share them all with you.  This week's quilt delivery to the hospital put us up to 331 quilts total.  In the meanwhile, thank you for sharing the love!

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts and Finished or Not Friday

A Cat, a Baby, and a Ferret

Super-duper block assistant

Happy Friday! I've actually had a super productive week, but not too much of it was very photogenic.  For one thing I sorted a bunch of hunter's star blocks and laid them out on the design wall so I can assembly-line sew them together later.  Probably half of them I have ready to go into tops now. I also pieced 3 string tops together and made some backings.

I also made and finished this sweet quilt from a charm pack for a little baby who was born too soon and is hanging out in the NICU for the next few months.

I just loved this charm pack, SUCH pretty colors and sweet little designs. Foxes and bunnies and birds.

For now it can go over her isolette to keep it dark and later she can wrap up in it.

I also made a couple of these reversible preemie gowns.  The baby isn't big enough yet to wear anything, but inbetween when she gets a bit bigger but can't wear clothes yet hopefully she can wear these. Like adult hospital gowns they go on easily and have room to tubes and wires to come out.  And they're cute!

the fabric line for that charm pack

My other "finish" was a ferret bed repair.

This big boy is Bubba Bear and his very favorite bed is a tent I made. Since ferrets sleep upward of 20 hours a day beds are very important to their lives.

For unknowable reasons Bubba likes to scratch at the floor of the tent and he had scratched a hole right though. 

I patched it with a couple pieces of fleece to reinforce the floor and he's already moved back in. Note the sag in the floor of the tent in the picture below, that's a sleeping ferret.

Seriously, these two.  The trouble they cause never ends.

Covered in Love is taking a break from the block drives for the next 2 months so I can catch up, but don't go anywhere! I still need your blocks. Check out details HERE.

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts and Finished or Not Friday

Midweek Works in Progress

There has been a lot going ton lately around here.  All the H2H quilts have me so inspired! Last week I made backings for all the the tops I had built up, some from yardage and some from stash.  The 'to-quilt' list is bulked up again and soon I will have a quilting day.

Rory has also really enjoyed all the H2H quilt arrivals, primarily because she gets new boxes to lie in.  I've also started sewing together the May blocks drive quilts.

 

I decided to do several different layout for these blocks.

I love these simple blocks!  I have made 2 baby quilt variations of these blocks, too.  One is going to be my "Friday Finish" this week and the other is not yet done.

In this case I melded together the middle rows of small blocks into 4.5" squares.  This quilt is going to be the companion quilt to this one for a friend at work having twins.  That's what is happening around here, I hope you're having a good week!

Prairie Points on Safari

Sometimes (ok, a lot of times) between other more involved projects it's nice to do something quick and fun.  This little baby quilt with its row of decorative prairie points was just the ticket.

The entire center of the quilt is a panel, pulled from the remnants bin at Hancocks. Somehow I also ended up with 2 coordinating prints, so I sewed them all together into a quick top one afternoon.  The prairie points were a new-to-me skill from this tutorial here.

It proved to be next to impossible to get a good picture of the finished quilt due to the light colors. The colors in this are more saturated than they show in the pictures, but the palette is still quite muted.

Quilting was a quick stipple in the panel and side blocks, leaving the sashing unquilted. After a wash and dry the points come out with a little bit of a bed head, but lay flat after a quick press with an iron.  I actually kind of prefer the wrinkled points. The remind me of sunflowers for some reason.

The quilt measures 40" square, a generous size for a baby quilt. Backing is a super soft blue flannel; I decided to go with something brighter for the backing since the colors on the front are so soft.

I was planning to list this quilt in my store but sold it has already sold to family friends for their soon-to-be first grand child. Perfect timing ;)


Linking to Finish it Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Black and White and Red All Over

Q: What is black and white and red all over?

This top for Covered in Love is being sewn up out of scraps and stash. It actually started because I had cut 24 of those red squares for another project but ended up not using them, so they went into scraps. I needed a way to use those squares in a top and then I saw this tutorial: perfect!  FYI, I used 5.5" squares and 2.5" sashing (both unfinished measurements).

And here is the latest progress on my crumb blocks. 8 sashed, 3 to go! I am doing pretty good if I can tackle one of these per day.

 

Also, I had this baby panel and a couple of coordinating prints in my stash for some reason, probably a remnants bin find.  I stitched it together and, in the interest of trying something new added prairie points.  

For anyone interested, this is the tutorial I used and it worked great.  Since the front is so muted I think I may go with something nice and bright on the back ;)

Linking to Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework and Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.