Bevy of Baby Quilt Tops

A few weeks ago, a friend posted a link to make a Super-Sized Nine Patch baby quilts on our charity crafting group. http://quiltmaker.com/patterns/patt230.pdf I was sold from the minute I opened the link and knew it was something that I'd try someday.

Walking through Wal-Mart on Tuesday, I saw some coordinating fabrics on clearance and knew it was time. I bought enough for 3 sets of quilts and even found some 1 yd and larger pieces in the remanent bin for the backs of a few. Here's the beginning of my addiction:

These fabric sets were bought for this purpose. The first is two Boyd's bear prints and a blue w/white polka dot. The next is two car/truck prints with a small black on yellow print. Then, I bought an animal print and put it with a mottled yellow and blue calico-like print. I had also bought a remanent piece of white with the word "moo" written allover. I had thought to use it to back one of the quilts.

While I was ironing the fabric, I remembered I had several yards of "cow spot" print that never made it into Christmas pageant costumes. If I could find it and a John Deere print I'd be able to make another set.

I didn't find John Deere, but I found wonderful pasture scene that I'd bought several years ago from Fabric.com. Turns out it is a Michael Miller print. Although the pictures don't justice to any of the sets, this one is especially cute! I have enough spots to back all three quilts.

This set is some retro prints that have been aging in my stash for a year or more. I had bought them to make a boutique-y dress from daughter, but hasn't happened so I decided I should use them. The colors are actually turquoise, pink, orange, and lime green. I have one more piece that coordinates to back one of the quilts.

Now I need to scour my stash for some more backing fabrics. I think that means this has turned into a stashing busting experience! Hip-hip hooray!

I hope to post some finished products before too long. I have enough batting here for 3 quilts, I think. More is on the way from Joann.com. Hope it travels quickly!

Thanks for looking!

Room Transformation

We moved back to NJ at the end of September. Since then, the boys have been in a very pink bedroom with pink walls and dark rose carpet. They did not complain about it too much, but we felt it was the time to make a change.

The inspiration was dinosaur quilt/shams that I ordered from the outlet section JCPenney's online catalog. Then I ordered a dinosaur wallpaper border from discountborders.com (hoping that I'd like it in person once it came) and decided upon a color scheme of off-white and sage green.

The kids and I picked up all the paint and supplies Wednesday. I spent all day Thursday painting. I was not pleased after the first coat of white was done, but was encouraged by how well the green looked. A second coat of white made all the difference! We used paint from Wal-Mart, berkshire white and green marble.

I didn't take any before pictures, but here are the new colors with a stripe of the old pink in between. That is where the bottom of the border will go.

The kids had been promised that they could help paint, but most of it was done by the time they got home from school. They settled with helping to paint dinosaur tracks on the wall. I enlarged a stencil from one of their books, traced it twice onto a cereal box, cut it out, and ran it through the Xyron laminator. Each child got to make at least one set of footprints. I had planned to make many more, as if a dinosaur walked on all the walls around the room but decided that having them on the white would make a painting nightmare in the future.

I had forgotten to buy the wallpapering supplies, so we had to run out first thing Friday to pick them up. Putting up that first strip of border was not easy as we needed nearly the entire 15-ft. spool and my only helper was my 3-yr. old. But, we got it done. The rest went up much easier (well, until nearly the end when I lost track of my smoothing tool. I think said 3-yr. old had "borrowed" it).

The room was all put back together in time for bed. The boys were glad about that! They were tired of sharing the double bed in the guest room. Thomas the Tank Engine can still be seen in some of their accessories.

I still have the curtains to make as needing to go back to the store took away from my sewing time. They should go together quickly, though. I'd like to get a few scatter rugs, too.The border has a dark rose/burgundy stripe at the top and bottom, so the rose carpet goes very nicely. Since this is the nicest carpet in any of our rooms, we are pleased about that!

I watch very little TV, but do like to see HGTV's Decorating Cents, so in Joan Steffend's style, I did all this in under $200, which includes the three quilt sham/sets.

2007 Crafting Year in Review

Sewing:

• several diaper bags for charity
• daughter's lunch bag
• daughter's dress
• 3 teacher's bags for end-of-school-year gifts
• purse/bag
• mermaid Halloween costume

Crochet:

• Husky afghan in tapestry crochet


• 3 apple necklaces for teacher goodbye presents


• snowman


• grocery bags


• doll's sweater/cape


• afghan for DH's grandmother


• school bus ornament and scarf


• spider ornament

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a happy new year! This past year has been very busy one as we moved from rural Pennsylvania to rural(?) New Jersey. We have an almost 30-year old home in a beautiful area. We are still getting settled, but someday I hope all the boxes are gone!
I did do some sewing during the first part of 2007, but then everything had to go away. :( I did manage to make a Halloween costume for our daughter. In the meantime, I re-discovered crocheting and made many gifts.
My stash supplementation this past year was minimal, in both fabric and yarn. Yeah! I do have most of my fabrics out on shelves, so I hope to work my way through them before buying more. I am excited to have my own space in the basement for my hobbies!!! Now, just to get it cleaned up and organized so I can actually use it!
Happy New Year to all!!!