Monday, May 10, 2010

Baby Sewing Projects


Sewing for baby has been very fun and wonderful. I have enjoyed it because it has been a time for me to focus on expressing my love in a simple way for someone I have yet to meet.

Dashing Boy says its been a crazy experience to prepare our baby's space for him. Bare or filled and it wouldn't make any difference to him, but it has been a sweet little time for us together and we enjoy going in his room and being in awe at how our family is changing.

This love for a soon-to-be family member can be expressed in so so many ways. Not just ones that use domestic skills.

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Sewing is something I have watched my Grandma do my entire life. She is amazing and is a true artist. With her so close by, it has been a blessing to be able to learn from her and see her love and dedication to her art.

Grandma's enthusiasm is contagious and now one year into really sewing-sewing I love it very much.

Here are the baby projects- a baby quilt, curtains and bedskirt.

The Quilt:
Vintage Circles Quilt by Yo Yo Mama Designs (I can't seem to find a website!): I fell in love with this pattern when I saw it at a local quilting store. There is no piecing to it, and the entire quilt is sewn and quilted in one go. So basically you baste your backing to the batting, then your top layer to the batting, then you arrange your pattern and sew all three layer at once. Pretty nifty.

I enjoy staring at it and seeing different shapes form. When I look at it I see pinwheels first and when dashing Boy looks at it he sees circles.

My cute Grandma came up to my house to help me baste the quilt layers together. She showed me a fast way to draw a grid on the quilt to properly space out the pattern! She knows all sorts of tricks that I would never think of.

This pattern was fairly easy to follow but the biggest frustration came from the pattern stating that charm packs could be used for either the 4'' or 5'' size patches (you can choose either one).

I ordered my charm packs accordingly for the 5" size. But when it came time to cut it out there was absolutely no way the 5" template would fit on a 5" charm square. Very frustrating.

(I just received a sweet message from Yo Yo Mama Designs and it looks like there was a distortion in the first printed patterns and some were sold before it was caught! The pattern has been revised so this shouldn't be a problem for anyone! Also, they are in the process of making a website! Very exciting, as I am absolutely in love with this pattern and excited to see and make more Yo Yo Mama creations!)

I ended up cutting them out in the 4" size. The charm pack fabric I used (Recess by American Jane) is out of print, and it was a little tricky to find so I supplemented them with some fat quarters for the rest of my patches. I'm happy with how it turned out!

Here it is all completed.


The Curtains:
Dashing Boy was a great sport and joined me to the fabric store where he chose one print and I chose another. I was going to make reversible curtains but with such light prints it was easier to just make two sets that we can rotate around.

I chose little birds.

And Dashing Boy chose cool cars!

The Bedskirt:

Nice and easy to make with the bedskirt pattern in Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones.


So there you are sweet baby. Keep the projects coming!

7 comments:

Heidi said...

Your quilt is amazing!! I love it. And you have such fun colors for your little boy's room. =0)

ashley said...

I can't tell you how much I LOVE the quilt! SO darling! Your grandma is the cutest and sweetest! I have been working on a quilt for emmaline since I was 6 months pregnant and I am still not done with the piecework...wish I would have had a pattern like that.
you are and will be the best parents!

Bonnie said...

This quilt is so cute. Your domestic skills are amazing.

Cristie said...

Jenny, your quilt is just beautiful! I love it. I just talked to your grandma about it and you and she is so proud of you. I love the pattern you chose, the colors and everything about it. I can't wait to see the nursery in person now that you have it all set up!

Gigi said...

i can't wait to see the baby in all these things!

ACH said...

Jenny, this is so great! The quilt looks fabulous. You are so talented. I have been wanting to finish a quilt for a while...I will have to check out this pattern!

yoyomama designs said...

Hi Jenny..
YOUR quilt turned out WOnderfUL!! It was so fun to run across your blog :)
I was sorry to read of your frustration however, we had a distortion in the first printed patterns. Unfortunately, some were sold before it was caught. I would love to send you a new revised pattern, free of course. Please email me at yoyomamadesigns@yahoo.com
(and a web site is in the works)
Thank you!
..and really, you, your quilt, your Grandma stole my heart!
Sincerely,
marlene