Gray and white gingham baby quilt

I can't believe it's been nearly a year since my last quilting adventure! Yikes! I really do enjoy doing so many different types of projects, but that often means I don't do any one of them as often as I might like.

This was a refreshing bit of sewing, made for a family friend (Hi Blair!) who is expecting a baby soon. The gingham pattern left little to fret over. No selecting and coordinating prints. I do love that aspect of quilting, but it takes some time and brain power, both of which I could stand to have more of these days.

The finished quilt measured 34" x 52.5". My squares ended up being 5" finished, so 5.5" to start.

For the record, I was inspired by the design of this gingham quilt. I ripped it off, yellow binding and all.

To keep it looking lighter and more babyish, I made sure the edges were bordered with white & gray, not gray & dark gray. That avoids the whole dark frame effect that might look too heavy on a baby quilt.

As for fabric requirements, for the front, I bought half a yard of the dark gray, half a yard of white and a full yard of the lighter gray.

For the backing, I used a single 1.5 yard piece of fabric (Michael Miller Baby Zoology in Sea). It's really hard to find cute gender neutral prints, but I think this was a perfect choice.

I didn't have time to bind the quilt by hand, so I machine sewed the binding on this one. I tried a different technique and got better results sewing back side up instead of blindly sewing from the front side. Definitely sticking with this method for the next quilt. The fabric I used here was Robert Kaufman Metro Living Circles in Marigold.

See more quilts here >> 

In my Etsy shop: DIY Birth announcement printables

Have you been to my etsy shop recently?

I just listed a bunch of new things, so go check it out! But before you do, I want to talk a bit about my birth announcement wall art printables.

These are fully customizable prints that you can create yourself and print at home. All of the words and numbers can be personalized. If you don't like the specific language I used, you can change it! The fonts and font sizes are locked in place; it's impossible to mess this up!

If you've downloaded my kids birthday interview sheet or my handwriting worksheet, you are probably familiar with the format. You just type directly into the fillable PDF file and print.

Couldn't be simpler! (The updated version of Adobe Acrobat Reader even lets you save your changes. How great is that? If you have to take the file elsewhere to print, it's totally do-able.)

They print in black (I'm a firm believer that it shouldn't take half an ink cartridge just to print something) on your choice of 8.5" x 11" paper. My favorite is the brightly colored textured card stock available at craft stores by the sheet. The printed area fits within an 8” x 10” mat or frame opening.

I kept the designs simple so that the print will look just as good in a teen's room as it does in a baby's. And if the color scheme changes in the transitions from nursery to big boy/big girl room to tween to teen, just print another that coordinates better.

Buy once and make one for each of your babies!

Yes, that's right. You can create and print as many times as you like.
(This excludes commercial use, of course.)

But hey, why stop at your own kids? These quickie prints have become my go-to baby gift. Just insert the baby's birth info (most people tend to share the stats on Facebook, right?), print on card stock, pop it in a frame and you have just made an extremely thoughtful gift you can take along to your visit to see the new baby.

So all this is great, you say, but what do they cost?

Just $5! Yes, on sale now for five bucks.

Drop by the shop and check them out!

p.s. I'm totally game for custom changes. E-mail me and let's see what we can create together!

p.p.s. These files are intended for personal, non-commercial use only.
Redistribution, resale, or sharing of these PDFs online without permission is not OK.

p.p.p.s. Infomercial over!

Sewing for baby: Handmade blankie

I noticed that four-month-old Etta was showing signs of wanting some sort of blankie. (I guess they call them "loveys" now? That term is so weird to me.) She was snuggling with burp cloths, and I thought we could do better than that. She needed a blankie and what better blankie than one your mama makes for you.

I've been itching to make another quilt lately, but time has been tight. So this simple sewing project certainly scratched that itch. I hadn't sewn anything since December, which meant I hadn't really played with my fabric stash since then either. Please no one let me buy any more fabric. It's bad, you guys. But that also means I was able to do this project start to finish with what I already had on hand.

I had a remnant of pink minky fabric that was just under 15 inches wide, so I used that to determine my dimensions. I layered it with a pretty cotton print and a layer of flannel in the middle to give it some weight. (I thought batting might be too bulky.)

I cut three rectangles, sandwiched them together and bound the edges using a solid gray cotton. I probably would have used store bought bias tape to save some time if I hadn't been trying to whittle down my stash. The finished product ended up being about 18" x 14.5", which turns out to be the perfect size for grasping and chewing and rubbing on your face.

All in, it took two hours start to finish. Looking back that's sort of hard to believe it took even that long, so perhaps I'm out of practice. Or tired. Or both. These two are certainly keeping me busy.

Kid's room: Double E monogram wall art

I never thought I would be one of those people who names their kids all with the same first initial, let alone the same first and middle initial for both kids, but here I am! Elise Elliott and Etta Emily. It's kind of fun. And not many people have the same initial for their first and middle name. (That was something I really wanted to repeat whether we chose an E name or not for baby #2.)

Anyhow, as soon as we settled on Etta Emily, I knew I wanted to incorporate the double Es somewhere in their shared room. Last summer, I found two E's at an antique mall for $1.25 each. They are made of some type of plastic and are fairly heavy. I don't always have an immediate plan for the things I buy, but if they are cheap enough, I buy them anyway, and they usually become useful later.

I painted the E's a bright pink with craft paint, and then set out to find something to mount them to. I came up short at home, but found this "stunning" piece of "art" in the clearance aisle at Home Goods for $4.50. It's no 

70 cents, but it was the right size (12" x 16") and sturdy enough to hold the weight of the Es on it. A simple piece of lumber would have also worked, but this was halfway finished already.

When I got it home, I realized that the backside was even more perfect than the front. I could make sort of an open shadow box. (And I wouldn't even have to mar the true love print.)

It did have a few staples into the backside of the frame where the joints came together. I used wood filler to smooth those out, then sanded and repainted the entire frame with a couple of coats of white paint. I made sure to tape off the inside of the frame because I didn't want random paint splotches showing through the fabric on my final product.

After not finding anything that would work in my fabric stash, I found this pink scale cotton print at Hancock Fabrics. I bought a half yard, but only ended up using about a fat quarter. The piece I had cut was about $2. Cheaper than paper.

After ironing all the wrinkles out, I used Mod Podge to adhere it to the back of the frame. (For those unfamiliar with how to decoupage with fabric, this post explains how. Don't be intimidated. It's one of my favorite things to do.) After the Mod Podge was completely dry, I used hot glue to stick on the Es. Quick finish!

And it's just the hit of pink we needed on the wall above the crib!

Update: High contrast, black and white paintings for baby

Basically, this post is just another opportunity for me to show you more baby photos. 

But seriously, I was amazed that at only two days old, Etta was totally checking out the black and white high contrast paintings Elise and I made for her. We hung them right next to the changing table, and when she's there, she is fixated.

It made Elise feel pretty good that Etta was so interested in something she made. So good that she thought Etta might also be interested in her crayon drawings. Big sister/baby sister relations success!

Surprise! Introducing Etta Emily

Etta Emily arrived two and a half weeks ahead of schedule on Friday, March 8 at 5:32 a.m., weighing in at 7 lbs., 15 oz. and stretching 20 3/4 inches long. She is Elise's newborn identical twin.

Arriving with more than two weeks until her due date, a lot of things were left undone around here. Elise's Jenny Lind bed. The kitchen. My dad worked like crazy over the weekend to get our dishwasher and sink installed by the time we came home from the hospital. But none of that really seems to matter anymore.

She's only been alive five days, but I can't imagine life without her now. I feel completely lucky to be the mom to two such beautiful little girls.

I have a few posts scheduled for the coming weeks and plenty of projects to show you, but I hope you'll understand if things are a bit quieter around here for a while!

Quick and easy: Semi-handmade baby mobile

I wanted to make a mobile for the new baby; Elise never had one. (Instead, I made sort of a paper banner that hung high above her crib.)

But my pre-baby to-do list isn't getting any shorter, and so I concluded that semi-handmade was definitely the route to go this time. No tedious paper folding. No sewing. I needed it to be quick and easy and done in an hour or two.

I started off with a pre-made clip mobile. (I got mine at Amazon for $8.) You can clip nearly anything to it, and I like the thought that we can change it as the kids get older.

I didn't have a clear idea about what exactly it was that I wanted to clip to it though.

And then I found these laser cut wood "doilies" at Michaels (in the Easter/spring section). They were $2.99 for a 3-pack before coupon, which is sort of high in my opinion, but they were the first ready-made objects I found that I loved that also met most of my requirements. I had ten clips to fill and only nine doilies, so I picked up a bird for the tenth.

They are big enough that they won't pose a choking hazard, but still light enough to not cause any injuries if they should fall off. Perfect.

I gave them a quick paint job with craft paints I already had on hand...

 and clipped them on the mobile.

I hung it from the ceiling using a screw eye. Drilled a hole, screwed it in and it's not going anywhere.

Voilà! Instant mobile in less than an hour! It moves with the slightest breeze. Just lightly blowing on it puts the whole thing in motion.

It's not much to look at from an adult perspective, but from the baby's point of view...

It's really pretty. And that's what really matters, right?

Stimulating high contrast paintings for baby

We're still getting ready for baby around here! I put together this simple "sibling activity" to get Elise more excited about baby sister and their shared room. Plus, she's always up for any crafty project I can throw at her.

There's a lot of research out there that suggest babies prefer to look at black and white geometric patterns and high contrast images. We decided to make some of our own to hang up near the baby's changing table to give her something interesting to look at during diaper changes.

I bought some small 6"x8" canvas boards at Michaels for a few bucks. We covered them in office supply dot stickers and painters tape, creating different geometric patterns.

Then Elise painted the entire canvases in black. I didn't care that the coat of paint was uneven. Actually, I think it gives it some extra interest. But if it bothers you, a second coat of paint will take care of it.

Before the paint dried completely, I carefully peeled off the stickers/tape revealing the white below. The edges of the stickers came out a more raggedy than the tape due to the texture of the canvas, but that's OK. Handmade!

For the polka dot and striped paintings, that's all we did. Easy peasy.

The diamond pattern was a bit more complicated. Initially, I thought it would only take a couple of layers, but I took over and ended up doing multiple multiple layers of tape and paint. Honestly, I stopped taking progress photos, and I'm not sure it would be worth explaining in detail. Sorry. If anyone is super interested, leave a comment and I will write up an explanation. See below for a photo explanation of how I did it!

p.s. Of course, Elise had to take some project photos with her own camera. My little blogger without a blog.

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Update 03/25/2013: Baby Etta is fascinated by the paintings! Even at only two days old!

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 Added 02/24/2013:

A brief explanation of how to complete the diamond pattern, in photos.









[I don't have a photo of this, but paint the exposed gray diamonds in black, then peel off the tape.]