More Baby Blankets

I am still loving this tutorial for quick and easy baby blankets. I made a new batch of 6 of them today. There are 3 each for a baby girl and boy, both due in October.

The girl team. The one on the left has purple flannel with the cutest little green turtles on the back and this teal seed-pod sort of fabric on the front. The middle one has some vintage style red fabric backed by teal monkeys. And, on the far right, more of the Pooh fabric I inherited.

The boy team. The one on the left is cartoon dinosaurs and navy blue, then more of the Pooh fabric, and finally cute, cute MODA bug fabric backed with blue flannel.

I can't tell you how addicting these little blankets are. They are just so quick and satisfying!

Pencil Roll-up

I finally got around to making one of those pencil holder roll-ups everyone has been doing. A friend's little girl is turning 8 years old and requested "arts and crafts stuff" for her birthday.

I knew this was going to be a quick project, but I was still surprised how easy it was to make. 24 sharp, new, colored pencils fit comfortably and it rolls up easily. To make the elastic to hold it shut I sewed a hair tie into the seam.

Now I just need to wrap it up along with these color-them-in folders and it'll be all ready for the birthday girl.

Little Bits

In between projects I whipped up three of these little receiving blankets from this tutorial. They are seriously addicting! I made a boy one, a girl one, and one that could work for either.

Don't you just love that Pooh fabric? I have a lot of it, at least 3 yards or so, that I inherited from a relative. The monkey flannel with the stripes is probably my favorite. I highly recommend these for quick, easy projects with big reward. A nice break between bigger projects.

Placemats and quilting progress

There isn't much to say today, just uploading these pictures of the random-pieced scrap placemats I made my mom for her birthday.

They are about 13" square, but in retrospect I wish I'd made them bigger. (Inspiration from these pictures.)

Can you guess what I'm quilting?

Undersea Mobile

Hello again after another long hiatus. I made this mobile for a friend's baby shower a few weeks ago.

The boat at the top has the baby's name embroidered on it and hanging below are six stuffed sea creatures.

Most of the animal patterns I drew out myself but a few I found various places around the web. The cute little octopus was a Moda Bake Shop pattern from here. I reduced it by about half and it still worked well.

The whale came from here. I also reduced that pattern by 50% and modified it to give him a belly. The jelly fish was one of my own creations and I was really pleased with how he turned out. He has long, dangly legs that I did by sewing a running stitch down the middle of two strips of fabric and then bunching them.

I assembled everything with brass hoops from Hobby Lobby and fishing line and used superglue to set the knots so nothing would slide. I had to put it together hanging so I could see how everything worked so I suspended it off the ferret's cage.

She was extremely curious about the whole undertaking.