I am trying to make a baby quilt in a hurry for an old friend and her darling baby who we are seeing on vacation next week. It is fun revisiting some of these fabrics, I have had some of these scrap triangles for ten years, just waiting for the right project. It felt like I had pulled out millions of triangles, but when I laid out this pieced top  I was  disappointed in the smallness. In my mind’s eye this was going to be big enough for a toddler bed but it is currently too small to be a baby quilt. Even though the triangles were mostly half of a 5.5″ square the finished squares ended up being 4″ . I think I have to add at least 2 rows to the long side. And a ginormous border. Of red? of white? of a rainbow polka-dot?

I loved doing this pattern with Lauren’s quilt, but those triangles were bigger and maybe more forgiving? I am having a hard time making clean points with such small triangles. Such is the nature of slightly wonky scraps.

And a picture of the darling baby.  She learned how to roll from her back to her front this weekend. And then when she gets there- cries in frustration that she is stuck on her belly. It must be tough to be a baby

I was stumped on what the binding should be for a while but ran across this lovely polka dot satin at the Joann’s and made half a yard into just the right amount of binding.

I added a stripe on the back in the dead center. The minkee came up just a smidge short and this is how I made up the 3 inches I needed to match the front.

In full disclosure I should tell you I did not use any batting in this quilt. Strange, right? Well, it was very intentional. I noticed that we had not been using the baby quilts I had for miss d. but instead using the store bought minkee blankets, and I realized the reason was the quilts I had made, even with thin cotton batting, were just too bulky to use. So, this is just fabric and minkee and it feels like just the right weight, better for traveling from room to room and snuggling with at naptime.

Along with working full time, regular housework, a 2 month old baby and a general lack of sleep I have gone above and beyond and managed to make a whopping 5 stuffed blocks in the last 2 weeks. I never thought this modest sewing would be such an accomplishment but boy, I feel lucky to have found the time to do them. I dove into my scrap squares this time, having exhausted most of my scrap stripes recently. I loved finding the 6 squares that would make one block. Making each into a little color family. I stole some of the jingle bell cat toys from the cats and nestled them in the middle of the poly-fil batting in some of the blocks. I had intentions of filling a film canister with a few beans to make a shaker for one, but film canisters are practically extinct and I’ll be damned if I can find one in my house.  There is a baby shower later this month and while I would normally make a baby quilt I think I can admit that there isn’t a snowballs chance in Hades that I will find time for that and I will be making some more of these.

I am still working on the paintbox quilt, but I wanted to do some little projects that I could get done while the baby napped. I tried 3 different times to sew a baby sling that I liked but royally failed each time, so I am sticking to the baby bjorn and she is fine with that.

Anyway, I revisited an earlier idea, t shirt dresses.  I dived into the boxes of clothes that are piling up.  Seriously, if I didn’t buy another stitch for this little darling she would be well clothed until kindergarten! I have been pulling out the plain shirts to re-work. Both of these dresses will probably fit this winter even though they are 12 to 18 month size…  Did I mention that she is already wearing 6 month clothes?

I am cruising ebay hoping to find my own treasure chest of rick rack on the cheap. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. People are selling stacks of it and I am happy to make much of it my own.

And yesterday I fell in love with this book;

I tried to get it through my local quilt shop but she didn’t have it and now I am getting it through Amazon which told me it would be 1 to 3 MONTHS (?!?!). Seriously?? Well, I bit the bullet and ordered it,  I fell in love with the images on the flickr group and decided that owning it is crucial to my survival.  Sewing the raincoat to be worn 2 or 3 years from now isn’t crazy? Is it?

I was inspired by the paintbox quilt by Oh, Fransson. She is a little more measured and specific in her sewing but I love the result. I am a little more haphazard, maybe another green square, make the yellow ones bigger. I have plenty of plans for it, but sewing is one thing you can’t do while cradling a baby. Small sacrifice…

My sis-in-law captured this beauty a few weeks ago, I think it might be my most favorite picture of her so far. It shows her funny little faces and her perfect little lips, oh wait, I am gushing… sorry ! Okay, not that sorry- here is some more pics from the same photo session.

My sewing machine has been collecting dust since her arrival.  But maybe during nap time one of these days I will work on the paintbox squares I started before she arrived.

We have been lucky enough to have one of the grandma’s here for the last 2 weeks and it has made a huge difference. Hubby has been going to work, I have been mothering the little one and the household has been running seamlessly. There will be a changing of the guard later this week when another set of grandparents arrive to take over. The day I have to make my own meals again is on the horizon. I am not looking forward to it.

Here she is, in one of my all time favorite creations. Oh, how I wish I had ordered more of this fabric before it disappeared. At least I hung on to this one! (Don’t worry Liz, I have one for your soon-to-be baby girl too!)

A million years ago when we talked about starting a family, I thought it would be nice to have a spring baby. My birthday is late summer which flows nicely into the holiday season which includes my hubby’s birthday and our wedding anniversary and then, by February we are totally done with holidays and events and it is a long haul until August again when we can find an excuse to go out to a nice dinner.  I wanted baby to have a birthday that didn’t get buried with all the other holidays. Not to say everything went exactly to plan, our sweet baby came a few years later than we thought. But, the added bonus has been getting to be home to see spring arrive.  What a joy it is to open the doors and windows and watch the tulips and apple trees bloom with baby in my arms.

We named her after my grandmother.

D’Arcy seems to be an angel baby so far.

Nursing like a champ.

Patient.

Calm.

And chirping like a little bird while she narrates her dreams for us.

She was in no rush to get out and join us. She was 8 days late and not moving from transverse (laying horizontally in the womb instead of head up or down). I never had a chance to go into labor, which I am not really sad about. Doc said I may as well get the c-section because they don’t give awards to martyrs. But she is here now and perfect in every way.

And her father. My husband and saving grace. Exhausted and unshaven he is still able to sooth her and burp her in record time and has taken on the tasks of caring for her and aiding my recovery with a speed that has taken me by surprise. I am so extremely thankful for both of them.

so thankful for my family.

While waiting around with cabin fever I dug out a simplicity pattern that I picked up ages ago, and wow- what a disappointment. Simplicity 2830- you have brought me to new levels of pattern disappointment  with your poor directions, lack of inner lining, too skinny handles and complete miscalculation for zipper size. I added a lining for the pockets and inner compartment, resigned myself to skinny string like handles and completely abandoned the top of the pattern when I realized the 14″ zipper that it called for was miles too long.

I also added a rectangle of interfacing for the bottom, so it would sit nicely. The whole bag might have benefited from interfacing, but I rather like the floppiness of it. This is a pattern that seems to have missed out on the testing phase. I am sure that it would be better used with a home dec weight fabric, but that would not have prevented the totally screwed up top and the fact that I was left with a zipper that was the wrong size and handles that were a mile too long. So there is my warning, but that being said, I love what I ended up with, after all my edits! Now to load it up with diapers and wipes!

The generosity of friends and family has brought us to a ridiculous amount of clothing for one little baby. This is all the 0 to 6 month clothes. Clothes for the winter and next summer are in the boxes above.  Early in pregnancy I dragged Paul to a fundraiser clothing sale at a friends school where I filled a bag for $30 and felt victorious. Now that we have soooo much it feels silly to have done it. But such is the excitement of little ones! I would mention that the 2 wicker baskets are full to the brim with onesies I couldn’t hang, but that would just be showing off, right?

Books and toys, what else to say about this little corner? Oh, wait! I did make that lampshade for the Ebay lamp. Yup.

And the crib, another hand me down, except with a new mattress (thanks Grammy!) with it’s awesome projection mobile (thanks Gayle).

Thanks for coming by folks,  here commences the tour, please hand in your 3d glasses at the door, and wait patiently a few more days (or 2 weeks) for baby Moffitt to arrive.