Baby Quilt

 File this one under "done is better than perfect."

I should have taken more time in squaring up the top after quilting to get the design centered better. Oh well! 

This is part of a baby mat panel that I have in my shop. I cut off the left side with the numbers because I wanted it to be just a quilt. I free-motion quilted it myself on my new Q20 using an all-over swirls motif. 

Here is what the whole thing looks like. It's about 42" by 54" off the bolt.

The idea of this baby mat is that you can put baby in the center on the right hand side and then use something like an embroidery hoop to mark the age of the baby when the photo was taken.

This is great for the mom who loves to photograph her baby every month. You don't even need to quilt it!

Huggable Bunny Book

We recently received three new soft book panels in my shop. This morning I got one of them made up.

This one is "Huggable Bunny." We have a dog one and a chick one too. I hope to get them made some time this week. They don't take very long to make and are a "beginner" level project.

These are from Studio E and are typical soft book panels with the directions printed right on the fabric. The book panel is a yard of fabric and I used fusible fleece instead of batting in between the pages.

I have a pet peeve about some of these books. To be fair, I've noticed this about some kit instructions too, not just soft books. My issue is that they say you need to purchase a yard of batting for this book but you only need three 10" by 18" pieces of batting for the book pages and scraps for the ears. With a yard of fusible fleece you would have enough for two of these books and at least some of what you would need for a third book! If you bought batting off the roll, a yard would be enough to make four or five books. I don't mind getting a little extra in a kit in case I made a mistake, but I don't want more than double what I need! 

We have made kits for these books in my shop but are only including a half yard of fusible fleece in the kit. We did the math and couldn't figure out how to easily give customers less than a half yard since you need 18" long pieces. A half yard is plenty for one book! Makes me wonder. Did the person who wrote the instructions not know how to figure out the correct amount of batting or were they just too lazy to do so?

Shop Samples

Most of my sewing these days seems to be shop related. We received some fun Halloween prints recently. One of them is for an apron. It's one of those printed on the fabric type projects. Very easy and fast. I made one in an afternoon in between customers recently. Here is one of my employees modeling it.

We also received some Quiet Bunny fabrics. One of them makes a book.

Another printed on the fabric fast and easy project! The satisfaction of starting and finishing something adorable in one afternoon is addicting. I have started a longer term project though which I will show you soon.

Letting Go

 

My baby is not a baby any more. I'm sure all parents understand this bittersweet feeling. Today I got out the remainder of the baby items we have saved in hopes of having another child - crib, stroller, bouncy seat, swings, toys ... I gave away all the clothes I had saved about a year ago. I had piles of stuff! I set up my basting tables (6' by 6' square) and set out the clothes on it. I organized items by size and invited my friends with younger children to come over and take what they could use. The clothes completely covered the tables and there was not room for two bins that I had to put underneath. I gave away clothes to six different families and each family left with armfuls of items!

Anyway, I have several friends who are new grandparents or soon-to-be new grandparents and a neighbor with a 1 month old. I hope to be able to sell or give these folks all of this stuff that is now cluttering up the room outside my bedroom. It's not doing anybody any good in our attic and it's in the way of our insulation project, so it's time to find this stuff a new home where it will be used. Just like the clothes, I'll be glad that it is being used and not taking up space in my house, but it is still sad to part with these things that have such personal meaning. It is also hard to finally let go of the hope of another child. But they are just things and I have the pictures and memories. The one child we do have is a really great kid and we are very fortunate to have him. It's time to move on.

The photo above was taken in September 2004, shortly after we moved here, at the Great Sand Dunes National Park located here in the San Luis Valley. Parker was 2 years old.