Make It Monday: Baby Quilt

I am sniffly and whiny tonight soooooooo I am doing a bit of a revisit as my Make It Monday because other than some delicious rockin’ homemade organic free-range chicken soup, I didn’t make much other than some snotty tissue paper messes in our waste bins.

I have some major making in my future however. My brother and his lovely wife are expecting their first baby. I am planning to make them a … wait… MIKE, COURT, stop reading this. I am super excited to make my first niece or nephew a quilt. So I am thinking about quilts. And thought a revisit of an old quilt might jump start me AND provide a Make It Monday post. Lazy but true.

So this quilt was my second quilt ever. My first (of which I have no pictures) was for my friend Smothermother. My second was for my one of my oldest dearest friends Melissa’s first bebe Esme.

   

So I will post this for tomorrow, finish my tea and cookies, and then tomorrow beginning making some decisions about my next quilt for a baby I can hardly wait to meet.

Oh Baby!

As mentioned yesterday, tis the season of baby showers (in my life anyway). Now, I have never been able to bring myself to buy off a registry. In fact, even if I am buying a “normal” gift for a wedding or a baby, I need to interject a little personal touch on it somehow.

My theme for the most recent shower gift was “a few of our favorite things” for a new parent friends of ours. The “favorite things” gift was made of the following:

• I used a dollarstore plastic bin as my container. Our home has about 12 of these containers around. When Emelia was little I used woven baskets to house her toys but she would catch herself on twiggy parts or sit on them and crush them. I quickly converted to these plastic bins and, as much as I hate lotsa plastic, I haven’t looked back.
• I lined the bin with an oversized receiving blanket. Someone gave me one and it was invaluable. It was handmade because oversized receiving blankets don’t exist on the market (as far as I know). But after the baby gains a bit of weight and height, regular receiving blankets just don’t cut it in the “wrapping” department. We used it for both our kids for snuggling sleeps and then it became a standard in our diaper bag for changing, playing or covering etc. I found some adorable vintage flannel (printed with boy and girl curlers) and sewed up the sides. I then found some complimentary flannel and made the last name initial and fused that to the bottom right corner. As pictured below, the wrapping was part of the gift. No need for more wrapping!!

• I then added a favorite book that I thought these parents might enjoy (Sandra Boyton books), a favorite toy (the wiggly giggler), our favorite teether (ball teether), a sleeper (you can never have too many of them; in infancy we’d go through 2-3 a night some nights), our favorite medicated diaper cream (for those crazy red butt moments), some adorable pirate socks, and a handprint casting kit. Plus a handmade bear (see yesterday’s post).