The quilt that made me late to the hospital to give birth

I'm going to be transferring a few of the posts I had made on my Facebook page over here so that they can all be in one place again - to catch up...

Here's a post of the quilt I made up to the last minute as I left for the hospital to have baby Dax.

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Here is the last quilt I finished before going into the hospital to give birth... It started off a few years ago as 4 leftover blocks from the quilt I made for our foster baby as he left our home... Then I made it into a small (too small) top.  For years I would pull it out and try different borders onto it to try and make it bigger, but none of them worked.  I finally pulled it out recently and found some fabrics I liked for it. I decided to hand quilt it, since it had been a while since I had hand quilted a project, and then when it was getting close to done, I couldn't imagine parting with it... So it had to be finished before baby came home.
I "may have" actually (read: I DID) delayed our departure to the hospital by 15-20 minutes as I begged Jay to understand that I needed to finish this binding before we left.
In the end, I could have brought it with me and worked on it for the next 24 hours before I finally had my c-section to get this little guy out...

So I had this baby

The most wonderful thing I made in the past year was this beautiful little boy. Meet Dax. He's 4 months old and a giant "fun size" ball of joy. He doesn't give me much time to sew or do other creative stuff, so I have to sneak in moments between crashing facedown on the couch at 8:30pm and waking up to take care of the family in the morning. But he is SO worth it.

Stacked books baby quilt

Wow. Last week was insane. To try and cope with all the stress I had, I was a sewing fiend! After whipping up the boy and girl baby quilts for my friend's new babies - I still had the same fabrics out and the inspiration to try my hand at another pattern that I've wanted to use...

So - same fabrics - different pattern. Still easy, still fast - and another chance to practice my stippling - which isn't fabulous, but isn't the worst ever anymore.

The monkey fabric is sentimental, because it's G's crib sheet. The sheet had a rip in it and I decided to cut it up and use it for quilts as a way to represent my journey - the good and the bad. I did the same with one of AJ's receiving blankets and that little striped pattern has made it into about 3-4 other quilts. The same way I carry my grief as I move forward into joy, I want to remind myself that the grief is also able to be made into something of beauty. So no matter where our journey with G goes - these monkeys may keep showing up as a little reminder of our journey. 

This quilt is headed to another friend who is adopting after some huge heartbreaks. Oh, I love adoption.  It may continue to elude us, but it is so amazing when it does work out for other people.

 (Our kids have BEGGED us not to give up. Can you believe it? They are even more committed to fostering than I feel some days.)

Raw edged baby quilts

My friend just had a baby and had an adoption go through a few weeks after giving birth and now she and her husband have had 2 babies in a month! Their family of 6 is one that is super special to our family and I couldn't let the opportunity pass without making them something for their new bundles. I will send them when the family gets back from the Dominican Republic, and when I figure out what to make for their 2 precious big kids too. These quilts are so so easy, I used a glue stick to place the squares and simply quilted them to a soft blankie background instead of making a quilt sandwich. (FAAAAaaaaST!)

Quick Fix for the cords

Baby is a complete trouble magnet. He will bypass the coolest toys in order to attempt to stick his finger to a light socket or play with electrical cords. In a high-tech family and a small house like ours, he's always got something he is headed for. (as I write this, he just reached up onto the breakfast table and tried to throw a bowl of eggs). He can't be out of sight for more than 10 seconds or there is big trouble.
One of the biggest problem areas in our house is daddy's power strip by his desk.... I've spent money on different childproof boxes for the strip, but they are ugly, enormous and they are almost impossible to access the plugs with.
Finally I decided that we needed just a simple sack over the strip. As he gets bigger, we can get those locking beads for the ends, but for now, this works perfectly. Easy access, pretty, small, flexible, and it's also made of laminated cotton so that dog hair doesn't stick to it. ;)

Highchair recover

Our highchair is 6 years old and it was looking like it. Baby isn't a complainer, but I found in addition to the fabric being seriously stained, the inner batting of the cover was all balled up right in one spot that was somewhere under his right thigh.
I was making some big totes the other night with that awesome Ikea red polka-dotted laminate fabric and whipped this up too. It's got a double layer of fleece blankets also from ikea in it for a soft cushion. The whole thing cost less than $10 to recover.
Don't look closely. The stitching is NOT fabulous. But it's sturdy, comfy, and it reverses (doesn't everything?) to a brown nylon ripstop. And baby seems to like it.
(plus now it matches the kitchen... and everything else in my life!)

another cutie in a onesie

I made this onesie for my friend a long time ago... now her baby is big enough to fit it!
super cute!

Rockin' baby gift.

I am going to a baby shower for a baby whose parents were married last year by Elvis... Who was born on Elvis' birthday and is named Presley. They are KIND OF big fans of The King.
So they're getting this, along with a polka dotted baby sling today at the shower.
I literally sewed this with Ace on my lap at the machine, licking my arm the whole time. (he's kind of into licking... This guy. Now I have to go shower all of his slobber off before the shower!)

Thanks for sharing, Courtney!

So, awesome reader Courtney, sent me some pics of her scrap box onesies... as inspired by the ones she'd seen here. Hooray! I love sharing the wealth (here's the link to that tutorial again)... and I love knowing that those scraps are being put to great use. remember Christy's? and Jill's?

I like how the paisley tie one looks a lot like the one I made for AJ... happy memories in this picture... (sigh)...

Thanks Courtney, for sharing the pictures and remembering how much I love seeing what everyone else is working on. (and thanks for the little postcard shout out in that first pic!)

Artwork for AJ

There will be more of this - more development of these thoughts for sure... and please pardon me as I grieve a little publicly. This blog is how I express myself and seems the most appropriate place to put my heart right now.

Today, cleaning up, packing up AJ's things into boxes to be put into the attic, I found this picture that Mimi made for him last week. She loved making him drawings and then taping them to the rotating mobile on his swing so they would move around as he swung.

The two (not great, but expressive nonetheless) drawings were quick sketches that I made in church two different Sundays. The one in pen of myself holding a broken earth was drawn with AJ sleeping peacefully on my lap.

The second one was drawn right after I took that pic of Jay holding AJ in church. These were my promises to him - I made many more... and will have to let them unfold naturally, but it seemed appropriate to share them. Maybe it's not, I'm not sure. But I know that I love that baby and the dark heart in the image of me walking him to the mountain (a symbol to me for the hardships of life that need to be climbed as we reach for God) is very much a reality this week. Though I didn't know that AJ would be taken from me less than 48 hours after I drew this, I had a sense in my soul that I couldn't ever hold him close enough, long enough or make him safe enough on my own.

NEW baby

You knew I couldn't resist embellishing all of AJ's onesies. Too bad
it's got to be covered up by other layers! (though
you won't catch me complaining about cool weather). ... More to come...

Otto the Dog

This is a project I did forever ago, and tonight I am busy working on some more Christmas gifts and a few new projects which I can blog about later, but I wanted to share this easy, sweet little project that I made back in the days WAY before I was sewing...
We love the Todd Parr books about Otto the Dog, and a certain little friend of ours, named TT, was a huge fan of the book we gave her for her first birthday. Apparently, she carried the hard-backed book around with her everywhere the family went. My girlfriend, TT's mom, was mystified that the book was TT's first lovey. So... when we next visited our friends, I brought this little guy to make it easier on momma... All I used was different colored felt, stuffing and embroidery thread. But it made such a happy little impression. I still smile when I see this pic and when I was going through old pics the other night, I reminded myself to post this.

Baby onesie love

I got this "thank you note" today for one of the onesies I made and sent out the other day to a friend for her new baby, Mia. Yay! Welcome baby Mia... I'm glad you love the fairy onesie!!!

Baby Onesies

Inspired by the super cute designs that my friend, Christy, made a few weeks ago, I embarked recently on another item on my to-do list... baby onesies...

I have mentioned before that I attend MOPS - well it starts up again soon, and my role in our group is to plan the creative activities - as well as do the table centerpieces and gifts for new babies that are born during the year. We have a little basket of gifts that the moms get to choose from, and one of my jobs is to stock it. After last years' onesies - I was asked to make more for this year... here are the designs I made the other night. They make me itch to have a baby around here to dress!

anywhoooo... tomorrow night is another sewing eve with the gals... we're going to be working on more baby items. Can't wait to see what we end up with. I'm off to get some more blank onesies tonight.

this one was a new technique... i did a little machine embroidery on it. see the spiral on the inside of the heart? i like how it turned out.

New Baby Sling Patterns listed on Etsy

I was able to find time to list the new slings today on etsy.
Oh, and some more of those great swaddle blankies, too.

V & Vi baby sling models

Remember when I posted that photo of my sister and her baby, Violet, in the baby sling about a year ago? Here's an update of the amazing amount of use that sling still gets. My sis sent me this image of them using it in Boston this week... Vi is a year old now and still delighted to be snuggled close to Mama. V, besides being a rockin hot mama of three girls, is super capable as a mom and is using the sling in a way I never did- with the baby facing out.
I think this is why I like the "ring" style sling that I sell best of all... It's just so flexible- with so many uses and so much room for creativity. When Mimi was 2 1/2 and we went to Mexico for a family vacation, her little feet were so small that she couldn't walk on the cobblestone streets very easily. I pulled out my trusty camo sling and strapped her onto my back for the day.

Today's task... New baby ideas

Whenever I take dinner to families with new babies, I like to do put it into a reusable grocery bag for them to keep - no new momma should have to figure out whose bowl/bag etc is whose... Just getting dressed is hard enough!
I also like to include a handmade gift. Today's package includes chicken tacos, fruit salad, Spanish rice and a baby swaddle blanket. My babies were huge and when they came home from the hospital already didn't fit all the cute swaddle blankets we'd been given... A friend gave me one of these and I called her up begging for more. She obliged and then began making them for me to give as gifts... And now I do the same... Just get cute flannel and serge (if you have a serger; the edges are the key to being good swaddlers). I make them 36"x36" and sometimes larger - much bigger than your standard swaddle blanket on the market. :)
If you aren't so inclined to make them, I make them and sell them on etsy too... For cheap enough that you can stash a few and stick them into your next homemade meal delivery.