Bears, Beards, and Snails

My husband’s and my friends are getting ready to welcome their first baby, a boy, this fall. I got a super early start on their baby gift because who knows what I will have time for once school and soccer season start back up again in a few weeks.

Here’s a look at the whole package.

This is a travel changing pad made with laminated fabric on the outside and fuzzy terry cloth on the inside. I didn’t get a picture of it opened up, but it has a pocket on the inside to hold a diaper or two and a small pack of wipes.

The onesie, bib, and burp cloth are all coordinating with cute snail fabric.

The crocheted bear hat is my favorite and was a breeze to whip up. It only took an hour from start to finish.

 

My husband specifically requested that I make a bearded beanie as a funny addition to the package. I found a great tutorial here:

http://www.imtopsyturvy.com/crochet-bobble-beard-pattern-multiple-sizes/

This is a picture from her blog post so you can get an idea of what it looks like with a baby in it. SO STINKIN’ FUNNY!

I used a receiving blanket to wrap it all up in and it’s ready to be put in the mail. 

Gender Reveal Party

My friend is preggers with #3 and instead of having a traditional baby shower, I thought it would be fun to have a gender reveal party for her and her family. We BBQ’d, the kids played, and we enjoyed each other’s company without any cheesy shower games. I found a lot of fun ideas online and went with the “What will it bee?” theme instead of a pink and blue theme. I also didn’t want to make a pink or blue cake to reveal the gender and wanted a way for her two kids to be involved in the big reveal so I made a poster that, when the kids pulled on the string, unrolled to reveal that she is having a boy.

The dessert/treat table with cake, cupcakes, vanilla and chocolate oreos, and yellow and black candies

Drink station

“What will it bee?” banner

Beehive cake with marzipan bees

Everyone had to make their prediction before the big reveal.

The kids ready to pull their strings

Everyone was thrilled with the news. Congratulations Mary and David!

Angela’s baby gift

After having three boys, a very dear friend of mine will be having her first baby girl soon. I am so excited for her! I jumped on the opportunity to make some fun girly baby stuff.

Skirt, embellished onesie, headband, and burp cloth

Dress, diaper cover and shoes



I LOVE the shoes!

Bib

Hairclips


Of course I had to make a quilt.

Close-ups






Back of the quilt

The fabric is “The Simple Life” by Tasha Noel from Riley Blake. I hand quilted it with Size 8 Pearl Cotton Thread

A Baby Girl Quilt

I made this one for my oldest daughter’s amazing chorus teacher. I wouldn’t ordinarily go through this much trouble for a teacher that she only spends about 45 minutes a day with, but she is truly an awesome teacher. The quilt was a super simple strip quilt made with Children at Play by Sarah Jane for Michael Miller Fabrics. I absolutely adore every single fabric in the line. The backing was all white with the exception of one strip of some pinwheel fabric in the line.

When I was learning to quilt, I always heard that if you hand quilted, you had to use these teeny tiny stitches that are perfectly uniform and, in my opinion, impossible to achieve. Recently, I have seen some quilts where the quilter used big, chunky, not so perfect stitches and I loved the effect had so I did that on this quilt and am so happy I did. 

The bib is made out of the same fabric

and the same chunky stitches.

Where was this fabric when I was having babies? I’m seriously in love with it!

Baby Boy Shower

A friend and I hosted a baby shower for another friend. Her gift also served as a shower decoration. I made the bib, blanket, onesie, and burp cloth. The pants and the shoes on the cake were on clearance at Target.

I didn’t have the time or energy to make edible shoes, so I compromised and used real ones. Even after many reassurances that they were clean and new, my kids were pretty concerned about the shoes getting the cake dirty. I was more concerned about the cake getting the new shoes dirty, but everything worked out just fine.

More baby stuff

Just a few onesies, burpcloths, a bib, and a headband that I made for baby shower decorations, they were also my gift to the mom to be.

Baby Boom

My friends have been busy making babies lately and I been busy trying to keep up on making their baby gifts. I also had a good friend who hired me to make her husband’s client’s wife some onesies for a baby gift. What a huge compliment! When it comes to crafting, baby gifts are my absolute favorite thing to do so I have had a lot of fun coming up with all of the following baby gifts:

For the following onesie, I dyed it using black tea. I just soaked it in the hot tea until it was the shade I wanted it. I don’t drink tea, but I had seen on Pinterest that it helps immediately sooth sunburn so I bought some to treat the sunburn I acquired over Spring Break. In case you were wondering, it didn’t do a thing for my sunburn, but it works great for antiquing onesies.

For this onesie, I decided to try embroidery again. It turned out better than the first time I tried it a few months ago. I think the embroidered owl is sweet.

Here’s the back of the onesie.

And although it’s not baby related, I’m throwing in a picture of the newest sling I made for my broken armed monkey. She loves Dr. Seuss and I have some scraps left over from the Dr. Seuss quilt I am making the twins’ kindergarten teacher so I made her day when she came home to this:

Pinwheels and Prairie Points

A really good friend of mine back in Las Vegas is getting ready to welcome a new baby girl into her family. I am so sad I can’t be there for her baby shower, but I enjoyed spending some time these last few weeks making her baby gift. Here is the coordinating onesie, skirt, shoes, and burp cloth I sent her.

Gotta love the shoes!

Here is the blanket/quilt I made. I don’t know if I can technically call it a quilt because it only has a top and a backing, but no middle batting layer. I used a nice warm fuzzy backing so I didn’t think batting was necessary. The top is pieced and I bound the edges like I would do a quilt.

I have never done prairie points on a quilt before and I absolutely love them on this quilt. They were definitely worth the extra effort.

 

Her baby shower is a book shower and everyone is supposed to bring books for the new baby. I love the idea, especially for a mom who is not a first timer. Although I never pass the opportunity to make fun baby items for my friends, I also wanted to stick with the theme of the shower. I found this vintage book from 1960 at a little bookstore near downtown Orlando. I loved this story as a kid and it didn’t hurt that the colors/fabrics in the quilt totally remind me of Raggedy Ann and Andy. Other than a little wear on the corners it was in amazing condition, there is no writing or torn pages in the book, and the colors in the photos are still vibrant. It was an awesome find!

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