My Precious QAL

I broke out some fabric to make Esther a little summer quilt.  I haven’t quite finished it up yet and plan to add a coordinating border, but I pieced all the blocks and sashing this week.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to omit the batting and  just back it with soft flannel to make it even more summery.

The rules stipulate that this needs to be out-of-the-ordinary stash fabric, and I hope these blocks qualify!  I think they are Alexander Henry and I bought them years ago from The Fat Quarter Shop.  Each block depicts a different fairy tale, like Rapunzel and The Princess and the Pea.  They are just so fun!

There are Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella.

And what story is this fox from?  I have no clue, but I like him!

Linking up to Kelby Sews for her QAL.

They grow up so fast

My youngest baby is now 14 months old.  The time passes so quickly.  I have never made too many handmade things for my kids besides quilts.  I have spent hours staring lovingly at all the beautiful items in Anna Maria Horner’s Handmade Beginnings book, but actually making stuff, I’ve never quite gotten around to it.

For Valentine’s, I made everyone in my family a homemade gift.  New hairbows for the older daughters, and white-chocolate-chip-macadamia-nut cookies for the hubby.  But for the youngest, I got off my duff and made her an array of new bibs.

She will be wearing them for at least a few more months, and now that she demands to feed herself—which makes an unholy mess—they will get some good use before she’s too big to wear one.

Most of the materials came from my stash (fabric & Velcro) and I bought some really soft pink chenille from Joanns for the back of the bibs.  It wasn’t on sale, but with a 50% off coupon, a yard only cost about $7-8.  The flannel was super cheap—all the pieces were collected by me from the remnant bin that I check out every time I go in to Joanns, which is about once a week.  I found the Velcro in my sewing room stashed in a drawer.  I never used it before, but LOVE it!  There is no separate hook or loop piece.  Instead, the piece sticks to itself, so you don’t have to keep straight what piece you sew where.

The owl is my favorite bib.  I made two of these and two from the heart fabric (they were for Valentine’s, after all), so she has eight new bibs total.

The little owls have hearts on them!

I made two bibs to try out the pattern I drew before I committed to making the rest, and Ronnie wore them several times and they were washed in the washing machine and dried in the dryer, and they came out soft and cuddly and looking good as new.  I was a little worried since all the fabric came from Joanns, but I have a new faith in their flannel and chenille.

With a 1.5 yards of chenille, I was able to make 14 bibs total.  My cousin is having a baby this summer, so six of them will be for her baby if it’s a girl.  If it’s a boy, I’ll be buying some blue chenille!

Just finished up this cute baby quilt in the nick of time: 

I think it will look great draped over the carseat or in the stroller.  It took no time at all to whip up the quilt top.  I quilted in the ditch around each inner block and then I did Xs all the way across on point.  I left blue thread in the bobbin so you can see the quilting on the back, which is a super soft brown flannel.  It's bound with Connecting Threads Lifesaver in chocolate.  Since the baby lives in California, I just used a another layer of cream colored flannel for the batting.  The quilt is lightweight and has a nice drape.  Love it!