a few sewing projects for baby...

I didn't get to the vast majority of my baby project list before my little girl was born, but I did get a wee bit of sewing done this summer.

Here are a few of my popular reversible flannel receiving blankets...

Done in girlie fabrics, of course.

And I also made some center stripe changing pad covers.

This fabric reminds me of rick-rack. So cute.

And I made a quilt top using these lovely fabrics (and a few others not pictured)...

The quilt is basted and just sitting by my sewing machine, waiting to be quilted and bound. Hopefully I will get to that soon. But with a cuddle bug newborn and a potty training toddler to attend to, I have virtually zero time to myself these days. I'm just itching to tackle my to-do list...patience is difficult!

dinosaur strip quilt...

After several months of working on this quilt on-and-off...it's finally done!

This is actually the first quilt I've ever completed.  (This bad boy is still sitting in my craft room closet.  Waiting to be quilted.  2.5 years later.  Yikes!)  I pieced, basted, quilted, and bound it all on my own.  I definitely made a lot of mistakes and may have committed a few quilting atrocities along the way, but it's still cute. :)

I got the idea for the strip design from Film in the Fridge, if you're interested in making one.  

I also did a self-binding...that's how my mom likes to finish her quilts.  (And I was feeling way too lazy to cut binding strips anyway.)  Make it & Love it has a good post about self-binding, although I did mine a bit different.

I got it washed up last night, so it's all crinkly and soft...just waiting for my little guy to make his grand entrance into the world.

Speaking of baby--I've lined up several guest posts for November/December while I take a little blog break for maternity leave.  I'm sure I'll pop in every now and then, but I hope you'll show my guest bloggers some love.  (8 days until my due date!!!)

oh boy!...

Last week we did a gender check ultrasound.  

We just couldn't wait to find out if it's a boy or a girl...

My husband and I are so excited to know that we have a son on the way.  It's much nicer being able to refer to him as "him" rather than "it."

And I'm super stoked to get started on this little guy's nursery!  Now that I'm over my nausea and almost over the never-ending monster cold I caught last month, I finally have some energy to get some projects (and blog posts) done.

Fortunately, we painted his bedroom a couple of summers ago.  It was the most hideous shade of pale yellow-green when we moved in, so I picked a color that I thought would work for a boy's or girl's room in the future.  We went with Valspar's "Surf Spray" from Lowe's.

It's a bit brighter/more saturated in person, I think--a very happy color.

For the bedding and decor, I'm planning on an aqua/turquoise, green, and gray color scheme with bright pops of yellow-orange.  Here are some fabrics from my stash I'm thinking of using for a baby quilt...

(I'm on the hunt for a good gray geometric print to throw in there, too.)

Truthfully, I've been hoarding the dinosaur print for several years.  

It's from David Walker's Oh Boy! line.

I fell in love with it and HAD to have it just in case I ever had a son.  :)

new toy...

posting has been pretty light around here this week...

i'm finally making myself clean up the post-christmas disaster that is my house. (now if it will only warm up enough so we can take down the outdoor lights.  sheesh!)

in the meantime, i thought i'd share one of my christmas presents...

my mom bought me a free motion quilting foot!

i have no idea how to use it, but i have really been wanting one 

(so i can finish this quilt properly).

i'm going to have to practice first.

new potholders, perhaps?

creativity pays off...

amy of diary of a quilter recently created a new quilt pattern and turned to the blogging world to find a name for it.
i submitted an idea or two...and she chose one of my ideas!

a copy of "Chain Linked" is heading my way...

this isn't the first time i've won a "name this and i'll give you something" contest, either.

(one of my former roommates used my idea to name her photography business.)

maybe i should become a professional namer and start charging the big bucks. ;)

work in progress...

i finally finished the main body of my quilt top. my squares don't all line up...but it adds character, right?
i got in a fight with row 6, but we have since reconciled.
i'm planning to add 2 borders--one solid and one patchwork--just to add some interest and make it a little bigger. and i STILL haven't picked a backing fabric yet.

so this one's still a work in progress...

not your grandma's quilt...

when i got my sewing machine, i knew i wanted to make a quilt. but not one of those old lady country quilts that grandmas make for their cats to sleep on. i wanted a contemporary quilt made with bright, graphic fabrics. so i scoured the internet for patterns and settled on this tutorial from cluck cluck sew. i liked the circles and figured i could make it work for my purposes, but thought it was still simple enough for a beginner to tackle.

raw edge circle quilt

next, i went fabric crazy. some are "designer" (a.k.a. extra pretty) which i picked up from a quilt shop in payson and an etsy seller. others are just generic finds from joann's and walmart.
i ended up with 32 different fabrics...most are dots/circles and florals, with a few stripes for contrast. and a couple ugly ones. my aunt is an amazing quilter and she swears that the best quilts have a few ugly or mismatched fabrics thrown in, so i went for it.
i officially started working on my first quilt on monday. first, i washed my pile of fat quarters in a mesh bag to prevent fraying. then i ironed out wrinkles and trimmed loose threads. next i cut out 48 - 8.5" squares and 48 - 6" circles. then i matched them up (fun part!) and sewed each circle in the center of a square. they looked so pretty i had to take a picture of a few...
...but these aren't the finished blocks. today, i cut each square into fourths. (i was a little sad to chop up my pretty squares, but i toughed it out. haha.) i ended up with this fat pile of 4.25" squares--192 to be exact.
then, i laid out aaaaaaaaaall of those little squares into reassembled scrappy squares (another fun part!). it took awhile because i'm crazy and had to make sure the same fabrics weren't touching and the colors/values were balanced. :)
once i got all of the obsessive-compulsive tendencies out of my system, i carefully pinned and labeled each row. now these little beauties are ready for me to start sewing tomorrow.
not too shabby for my first 2 days of quilting, huh?

i can hardly wait to finish the top so i can order my backing fabric! i think i'm gonna go flannel back. we like snuggly blankets at our house...the snugglier the better.