Tag Archives: babies

Welcome, Baby Nora!

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It feels like just yesterday I was writing the blog post titled “Welcome, Baby Finn!” And now I’m writing part two – Welcome, Baby Nora!

Baby Finn is not such a baby anymore, and now he’s a big brother to sweet Nora Elizabeth – my beautiful niece, who is just six weeks old. I had the honor of meeting Nora and spending lots of snuggle time with her last week. A few years ago, I didn’t have any nieces or nephews – and now I have two! I feel so lucky to be an Auntie times two.

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I had a tough time deciding what kind of quilt to make for Nora. I really liked the airplane quilt I made for Finn, and initially felt like I should make a similar one for Nora – just swapping out the color scheme and the airplane shape for something new.

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But I eventually decided to do something completely different and one-of-a-kind, made just with Nora in mind. I was sorting through the patterns I’ve had in my collection for a few years, and I found Simplicity 2935 – a butterfly rag quilt. I did some Googling to see what other people’s finished quilts looked like, and I was completely sold after seeing a photo of a baby laying on a finished quilt. It looked like the baby had butterfly wings!

Here’s a photo of Nora with her finished quilt. I love, love, love how it turned out. Look at this sweet baby butterfly!

Simplicity 2935 Rag Quilt - Pattern Review

I spent a lot of time shopping around online for fabric. The reason I started online versus in the store is because I wanted to find a collection that was designed to go together. When I saw this fabric from Riley Blake, I knew I had to have it!

Riley Blake Fabric - Just Sayin' by My Mind's Eye, Confetti Cottons Songbird

The floral and pink fabrics are from a collection called Just Sayin’ by My Mind’s Eye (White Floral and Pink Dot) and the mint fabric is the Confetti Cottons Songbird Solid, also from Riley Blake. This was the first time I’ve worked with a designer fabric like Riley Blake, and – wow! I could really feel the difference in quality from the type of fabric I’d typically get from a big box store.

Because I’m a perfectionist when it comes to my projects, especially a project as important as a quilt for my very first niece, I first used Photoshop to mock up what the butterfly pattern would look like with the fabrics I wanted to use. I had to decide which fabric I’d use for each section so I could figure out how much of each fabric to order.

Simplicity 2935 Rag Quilt - Pattern Review

Side note… I eventually decided to leave the eyes off completely. They’re kind of creepy.

There were an overwhelming number of fabric combinations and possibilities, especially since I first toyed with the idea of using a lot more fabrics – the pattern called for NINE different fabrics. Yikes! I tried some mock-ups with nine fabrics, but I didn’t like any of them, so I eventually narrowed it down to just three.

The fabric math was a little complex since I switched up the fabric numbers from what the pattern called for, and I’ll admit it stressed me out a bit as I tried to figure it out. Luckily, it all worked out and I didn’t have to order any extra once I got started.

Riley Blake Fabric - Just Sayin' by My Mind's Eye, Confetti Cottons Songbird

If you’d like to replicate the butterfly layout above, I got 5 yards of the white floral, and 2 yards each of the pink dot and mint. I JUST made it with the white floral – I had a bit leftover of the other two.

And of course, I had a helper in the sewing room – Winnie! Whenever I lay fabric pieces on the floor, she just can’t help but immediately lay down right in the middle of my workspace. I admittedly spend a lot of time pushing her out of the way (with love, of course), but it’s nice to have company all the same… especially during those late-night sewing sessions.

Simplicity 2935 Rag Quilt - Pattern Review

Here are a few progress pics with my little helper!

Overall, I definitely recommend this quilt pattern. Joining the curved pieces can get little tricky, but the pieces did fit together perfectly like a puzzle and I adore the finished product.

Simplicity 2935 Rag Quilt - Pattern Review

The butterfly quilt not only made for a picture-perfect backdrop for Nora, but also lent to some sweet moments between Nora and Finn as we spent some time outside together last week! Look at this cuteness.

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I can’t wait to see Nora grow with her special quilt!

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Welcome, Baby Finn!

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First comes the love, then comes the marriage, then comes… my very first nephew in a baby carriage! At around 4 a.m. on September 24, I was overjoyed to receive a message that Finn Joseph had finally arrived. Isn’t this the most precious baby you’ve ever seen? I know I’m biased, but… BEST. NEPHEW. EVER. Look at that baby burrito bundle. LOOK AT HIM. (It’s my job, as the auntie, to tell you to LOOK AT HIM in all caps. Because that’s what aunties do, and also, BECAUSE HE IS AMAZING.)

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Given my brother Jason’s love of planes, while most babies are delivered by a stork, I’m fairly certain Finn arrived via whimsical airplane, although my sister-in-law Sarah may have a different perspective. 😉 My brother is a recreational pilot, so him and Sarah like to go on lots of little adventures in their plane. Jason even asked Sarah to marry him while they were flying. And both of the baby’s grandfathers – mine and Jason’s dad, and Sarah’s dad – also have a special interest in airplanes. So needless to say, this baby has no choice but to love airplanes.

In fact, at just 6 weeks old, Finn experienced his first flight!

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When I heard a baby was on the way, I knew an airplane-inspired gift was in order.

I researched some airplane-inspired quilt patterns, and while there were many miscellaneous features that I liked with each pattern, there wasn’t one pattern that stood out as The One, so I decided to do my own thing.

I don’t know why I always choose to go down this road of doing “my own thing.” It’s mentally exhausting, I experience a ton of decision fatigue and I spend most days convinced that I’m just messing the whole thing up. But at the same time, I refuse to settle for what’s out there … and that’s why I love making things! Ahh, the beauty (and the pain) of DIY.

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I decided to take a risk and do something I’ve never done before, combining two skills from my sewing/quilting experience toolbox: foundation paper piecing and rag quilts. While I’ve done quite a bit of each of those things separately, I’ve never rolled the two skills together. But I’m most comfortable making rag quilts for baby gifts, and I was equally passionate about wanting to include paper-pieced airplanes.

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Other than substituting the airplane blocks for some solid blocks, the process was really no different than the typical raq quilts I’ve made. A few adjustments:

  • I added some additional fabric around the border of each of the airplane blocks to for extra seam allowance. Since the seam allowance gets cut up on a rag quilt, I didn’t want the planes to be cut up.
  • While I typically just quilt an “X” on each block for rag quilts, on the airplane blocks, I quilted around the border of the airplanes.
  • I made 12 airplane blocks total, and in order to best showcase them, I came up with a new, square layout versus the rectangular layouts I’ve used in the past.

I love the way this quilt turned out, and I was especially pleased with the fabric combination, the square layout and the inclusion of the paper-pieced blocks. I wouldn’t hesitate to make a quilt like this again, replacing the airplanes with any other fun paper-pieced shape.

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But the true test was introducing Finn to his quilt a few weeks ago when I met him for the very first time. Actually, it wasn’t really Finn’s first time seeing his quilt. He was already a month old by the time I got to fly across the country to meet him, and he had spent a lot of quality time in his nursery by the time I met him. But he was polite enough to act surprised for the photo anyway. What a nice boy!

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I think it’s safe to say – this quilt is Finn-tested, Finn-approved!

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A rag quilt for Baby B

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I love experimenting with different patterns and projects, which means I rarely make the same thing twice. But recently, I’ve repeated some projects-from-the-past and learned the benefits of creating something familiar and dependable.

Remember the Mustaches & Elephants quilt I made for my friend Amanda? It doesn’t seem that long ago, but Amanda’s little guy, Liam, is now over a year old – it’s crazy how time flies! And Liam will soon have a buddy to hang out with on weekends, because mine and Amanda’s mutual friend Beth is now pregnant with a little boy too.

So naturally, I decided Beth’s baby boy needed to have the same quilt as Liam. Only, instead of mustaches and elephants, I went with “sports” to match the theme of the shower and the baby’s nursery. Puppies playing sports, to be more specific. Who doesn’t love puppies??? Playing sports??? Continue reading →

It’s your birthday, baby!

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Meet my friend Laura — we have known each other since we were in kindergarten and she is still one of my dearest friends.

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Eighth grade volleyball, dorky haircuts… and proof that we turned out alright in adulthood despite the dweeby photos.

Laura is pregnant with her first child and due this month! When your childhood BFF is pregnant, and you’re a fan of handmade gifts — the pressure is high! When I first heard Laura was pregnant, I knew I wanted to make her something really special, but I wasn’t sure what it should be. Although I adore the rag quilts I made for baby Liam and baby Sophia last year, I wanted the project for Laura to be one-of-a-kind — not a repeat of one of my previous projects. Laura also sews (Reason #923498723 why I love her) and has made a number of items for her baby’s nursery, so making another quilt didn’t feel very earth-shattering since she had already conquered rag quilts herself.  I was also looking for a project that would stand the test of time. Continue reading →

Sophia’s Quilt

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NOTE: I’ve gotten a lot of inquiries about where to find/purchase this pattern. The pattern is out of print (I had to purchase my copy from etsy). If you’re in search of this pattern:

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This is a long overdue post to talk about a project that wrapped up a loooooong time ago! Based on my blog posts alone, you may think the mustaches and elephants quilt was my very first rag quilt. But … it wasn’t. My very first rag quilt was completed months and months prior to that when I tackled the now out-of-print Simplicity 4993. I’d had this pattern on my radar for a long time so when I discovered it was recently retired, I jumped on etsy and grabbed a brand new copy.

On the Sew Lindsay Sew blog: Simplicity 4993 Teddy Bear Quilt Continue reading →

Behind the Scenes: Mustaches + Elephants

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I recently wrote about a “Mustaches and Elephants” themed rag quilt I made for a friend’s baby shower – check out the original post here! Now I want to write about the quilt a bit more and share some of the technical information. It’s not as exciting as the story behind the quilt, but it will likely be of use to you if you’re looking to make a baby-sized rag quilt yourself!

Mustache and Elephant Rag Quilt

The hardest part about this project was figuring out what size I wanted the quilt to be. Every tutorial out there recommends different measurements and I had a hard time visualizing each size. I saw a rag quilt sample hanging up at the fabric store that looked like a good size, so I counted the number of squares and measured one of them with my hand to make my final decision… when I got home from the store, I had to measure my hand. My methods are very scientific. 😉

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Mustaches + Elephants

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I’ve really been looking forward to writing about this project! Mostly because I get to title it “Mustaches + Elephants.” What do mustaches and elephants have in common? Read on, my friend!

My friend Amanda – 8 months pregnant – told me that she and her hubby were having a hard time settling on a theme for their baby boy’s room and the crafty portion of my brain started racing! Amanda had visions of  whimsical baby elephants and her husband Josh had visions of mustaches.

Mustaches vs elephants

Mustaches? Yep. It’s not as crazy as it sounds. Mustaches are “in” right now! A quick search for “mustache baby” on etsy will bring up mustache themed nursery decor, bibs, shower invitations and onesies.

I tried to convince Amanda that she could combine the mustache and elephants theme, but I’m pretty sure she thought I was crazy.

Continue reading →