Butterfly Baby Quilt Finished

Hello everyone!

I have finished my butterfly quilt and wanted to show it off to you all. All finished it is 38 x 40 inches and I love it!

I used all free motion quilting on this one. I did a squiggle in each butterfly in coordinating thread. In the sashing I did a heart motif and also used that in the borders. Here's a close up of the quilting:

For the back I used this super cute argyle print. I still have some more left so I can use it on some more projects.

So, I have decided to sell this little quilt and have opened an Etsy shop. I don't have much in there right now, just this quilt and some blank note cards that I put together. If you want to check it out, you can see my shop here. It's called CraftieBunny. Hopefully I can start making more things to put in there. :)

I've also finished my Double Irish Chain Quilt, but I'll save that for another post. It is enjoying itself on our bed for now. Anyway, what have you all been up to?

Butterfly Baby Quilt

Hi everyone! I bet I'm in the same boat as everyone else when I say I can't believe it's the last day of September already! Summer sure went by fast.

As a quick update here today I finished my butterfly baby quilt top. It measures 38" wide by 40" long. If you missed it, you can see my butterfly quilt block tutorial here.

Now I just need to find some fabric for the back, quilt it, and bind it. I'm thinking I might try to sell this one as I have no need for a baby quilt right now. Otherwise I might hang it as a wall-hanging quilt in my sewing room. Hmmm, decisions decisions! :)

Anyway, hope you're all having a great start to your week. Now, on to October! :)

Baby Shower Gift

Hello everyone. I hope you're all enjoying your month of May! I can't believe we are half way through it already!

I've been pretty busy with events over the past week. We had a visitation and a funeral for my grandfather-in-law, then I was the Matron of Honor in a wedding, and tonight we just had a baby shower. It will be the first great-grandbaby on my husband's side. I joked with my cousin-in-law that she's taking the pressure off of the rest of us to have a baby now that lots of us are married. :)

Anyway, I had been planning on getting this book:

and making the fish quilt from the front cover out of the pattern in the book. I thought I'd have until August to do this so I was going to put it together after our vacation next week.

Well, with the funeral it meant the mama to be was in town early and her aunt was throwing an impromptu baby shower. So, I put this together:

I didn't have a pattern, just the picture from the front of the book. I started it on Mother's Day night (Sunday), and finished hand stitching the binding on this morning(Tuesday). That is the fastest I've ever finished a quilt, so thankfully it was a baby quilt!!

I think it turned out OK, but not as nice as I would have liked. There were a couple small puckers on the back from the quilting, but not too bad. The other ladies and family all loved it. I think I should have used a lighter blue for the quilting, but I didn't have any.

So, just thought I'd share what I've been up to. Next on the list is quilting all of the charity quilts so that I can take them to my mom this weekend. I've got 5 to quilt in the next few days before I leave on vacation... And I still work and need to pack. Wish me luck!

Baby Apron (Bapron)

Hello everyone! I was able to do a little more sewing this morning and man have I missed using the sewing machine! Unfortunately, my favorite iron died. It still lights up like it's working, but it doesn't heat up at all. Luckily, I still had the iron from my college days so I had a back up to use this morning.

A pair of our friends are about to have their first baby. They had a baby shower the same weekend that I was hosting a bridal shower, so I was unable to attend. I still wanted to send them something though, so I made a baby apron (bapron). I used this tutorial from Jess at Craftiness is not optional. It went pretty quickly and I bet I'll make some more of these at some point in time. I'm going to keep the pattern I made.

Our friends are having a boy, and I must admit I didn't have a whole lot of boy materials. The pattern calls for regular fabric for the front and some flannel for the back. The only flannel big enough that I had lying around was some left over monkey print from a quilt I made a few years ago. At least it was blue! :)

For the front, I used a gray and black geometric print. I think it kind of looks like chain mail or armor, and my husband actually said the same thing when he saw it. I think that will make the dad very happy. He likes playing video games and I think he'd like the idea of a baby bib/apron that looks like armor. :)

The back is the really cute part of it. And, you can actually use the bib either way. So, if mom wants to have the cute monkeys out front she can do that too. I think the cotton will be easier to wipe off than the flannel, but either side is soft if their baby is shirtless while he's eating.

I really like this pattern for quite a few reasons:

1) It's a free download and free pattern - awesome!!!
2) It was quick - it took me about an hour and a half only because I made my own binding. Otherwise it probably would have taken an hour or less. And now that I know what I'm doing, I'm sure the next ones will go even more quickly.
3) It's reversible! I really love that, especially if one side ends up getting stained or something.
4) It's big. You'll be able to use it when your kid starts eating solid foods, probably even a little before that, and as they grow. Plus it will cover their entire stomach and maybe even part of their legs depending on how big the child is. That means the bib gets stained and not their clothes!
5) The kid can't just yank the bib off. Since it's tied at the back and the arm holes are solid, the child won't be able to just rip it off in a fit and then dump food over themselves. The bibs with Velcro at the top just don't seem as practical to me.

So - if you're looking for a clothing protector, I highly suggest this one. The tutorial is awesome and you can use whatever fabrics you want to make it super cute!

I did make some changes to the pattern. I lightly quilted the bib rather than just sewing around the outside edges. I didn't want the back to separate from the front in the wash, so this way it will stay looking like a bib and not get separated. It took a little longer to do that, but I just did straight, vertical lines with black thread on the front and white on the back. I also changed the end of the neck straps. Instead of tying them in a knot I folded over the ends and sewed the rough edges under. If the stitches come out the mom can always tie them in a knot later, but I thought it might make them a little sturdier to be sewn down.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy sewing! :)

Bunny Baby Blanket

I just finished what I think is the cutest baby quilt I've ever made. The top is made out of large squares of blue fabric with little animals printed on it (it has more than just bunnies, but the bunnies are my favorite...it also includes owls, ducks and mice) and 4-patch squares out of green and yellow flannel for the other blocks.


I was a little hesitant when I started cutting these blocks. I'm so happy I measured twice and cut once! I almost cut the 4-patch squares a 1/4 inch too small (I wasn't counting the extra seam!). So, I'm happy that my brain was telling me that something wasn't quite right with my math and made me calculate again. Too bad that skill didn't kick in in calculus class years ago! :)

The other thing I didn't really plan out was how many squares I would be able to cut out of each fabric. I bought all of the fabric for the top as a fat quarter pack from JoAnn Fabrics. Now, I love JoAnn's, but I've never really gotten great cuts from these pre-made packages. Somehow, I've been blessed enough to make it work each time I've used one. After cutting all of the 5 inch blue squares and 2 3/4 inch yellow and green squares, I realized that I had the exact amount of blue squares that I needed and would have one extra 4-patch. Talk about lucky! The fabric pack came with 5 fabrics, so i decided to use the blue gingham ducky print as a border. That also just barely made it around. I think I have 1 piece of that fabric (about 1 inch x 2 1/2 inches) left. I cut the border strip to 2 1/2 inches wide so it would be 2 inches finished.

For the backing, I made my first ever pieced back! I had some blue and yellow zoo animal prints left over from a baby quilt I made for my godson about 4 years ago. (I can't believe he's 3 already!) I cut big 8 inch squares out of a blue giraffe print and a yellow elephant print. I sewed those together and strung them down the center of the back. Then, I had just enough plain blue and yellow busy print to make the sides of the back. It took a little patience to get it all together, but I love the feel of it. The whole quilt is super soft with all of the flannel and will be really warm and cuddly. I love that there are different categories of animals depending on which side of the quilt you're looking at. I also like that the back is pieced, so if the baby pukes (or does anything else) on the front, you can flip it over and the back will still look cute. :)

My mother-in-law told me that babies really like the feel of satin as well. She said one of her kids loved the satin edge on his baby blanket. After I thought about it, I remembered having a clown blanket that had a red satin edging that I always wanted on my bed. I loved how it felt tucked up under my chin when I was little. So, I figured I'd give it a try on the baby quilt. I really wanted to use 2 inch ribbon, but I could only find 1 1/2 inch or 3 inch ribbon at JoAnn's. So, I decided I would make the 1 1/2 inch ribbon work. I didn't want a huge edge, just enough to be a silky finish. I think it turned out nicely, and the 3 yards of ribbon that came on the spool were just enough! (Again, I should have measured that before I left to go pick up just one spool of ribbon! I'll have to get my act together for the next quilt... maybe...)

For the quilting, I just did a simple diamond pattern through the 4-patch squares. I think it will give the quilt a puffy, soft feel. I was debating between doing a circular doodle all over the quilt, but I compromised and did the diamond pattern and added a loop-de-loop in the border to finish it off. I love my free motion quilting foot!

I'm glad I don't have kids yet, because if I did this quilt would be staying home with me and I'd have to find a replacement gift! Someday my kids will have something this cute. Until then, I'll just give them away to other people. This quilt is for my coworker. He is having his first baby (a boy!) this summer and their baby shower is tomorrow. He is what I would consider a man's man - very in to strong, burly, tough things. So, I wanted something soft for the baby since I think he'll be playing with power tools by the time he's able to hold his head up. :)

Happy crafting!