A gift for Baby Leyba, with love from Uncle James and Jen!

A while ago, Dave's brother gave us a gift card to put towards something for Baby Leyba. We thought, and thought, and thought about what we should use it for. Should we use it for something practical? Something fun?! Something special? And then a couple weeks ago, I got sick with bronchitis, and spent a lot of time in bed. I started browsing the world wide web, for cute baby things, and I came across this pattern for quilt and diaper bag. It was love at first site. (pun intended!) So "Uncle James" - thanks! We used your gift card to buy the fabric and materials needed for this quilt and bag. And now Baby Leyba will have something special from her Uncle that she can keep forever.

QUILT

First I cut all my strips into 5 inch pieces, and then laid them out on the table to make sure I didn't end up with two of the same pattern next to each other.



Then I'd pin two strips right-sides to each other and make sure they were ironed well. Some may say this is tedious, I found it relaxing!
(Side note - you probably don't NEED to pin them together since they're such small pieces, but I'm straight-pin happy!)



Next it was time to sew them all up! I'm so glad I finally learned the chain-method of quilting, otherwise this would've taken me FOREVER.




After sewing them all together, it was time to separate and iron again. Did I mention I find ironing relaxing?

That's all for tonight. Can't wait to work on it some more! (At least all tonight on the quilt...see below for the diaper bag!)

DIAPER BAG

Pretty, pretty fabric. I used a jelly roll called "hush-a-bye" (the same fabric the original "recipe" called for - although I changed up the colors a little bit on mine) by Moda fabrics, some solid brown fabric, some soft pink minky fabric, and some yardage by Moda fabrics as well.

Here I am sewing the pockets together.

And here I am quilting the pocket pieces. First this way...then the other way. And with my new sewing machine (thanks again, Dave!!!) I was able to do a fun, curvy, kind of stitch. I really like how it turned out.

Here's one of the pockets all put together....

Making the handles for the diaper bag:

Here is the front of the bag with the trim attached to the pockets, and the handle sewn own.

And HERE!!!! Here is the (almost) finished project!!!

If you're interested in making either of these projects on your own, you'll find the tutorial here:

www.modabakeshop.com/2009/09/hushabye-tote-bag-and-coin-quilt.html

Burp Cloths

Now that Autumm is here, I can't get enough of quilting! My awesome husband bought me a NEW sewing machine for my birthday, and WOW!!!!

I purchased my old sewing machine when I was 16 years old. It was called the PHAFF HOBBY 303. It did two stitches - straight and zigzag and went forward and backward. It worked for what I needed it for. Recently, as I've been doing more quilting, I started having a LOT of TROUBLE with my old sewing machine. It seemed to have tension issues, jamming issues, and one of the biggest issues - every time I needed to wind the bobbin thread, I couldn't get the wheel to loosen up. The last time I wound bobbin thread on that thing it required dear husband to get all sorts of tools out to loosen it up.

So anyway - new machine!! It's a Brother, and it doesn't have 2 stitches - it has 225 stitches!!!! It does embroidery, too! Also - did you know with new machines you don't have to use a pedal if you don't want too?! What the heck. Anyway, I hope it won't be too complicated! hehe. Alright, so all that is to say, I'm using my sewing machine a lot.

Also, side note - is it just me, or does it seem like just about everyone is pregnant these days? And when you have a lot of friends that are pregnant, that means a lot of baby presents...now I have no problem spending money on baby presents, I LOVE buying baby presents! But I also love doing craftsy stuff! When a couple of our friends announced their pregnancies, I thought I would start making baby quilts. And then another friend got pregnant, and then another, and then another, and then another, and - I'm sure you get the picture. As much as I would LOVE to make baby quilts for everyone - I don't have enough time or money or energy to do it for everyone.

When Dave and I started making our registry for our baby, I went onto Etsy.com and fell in love with some burb cloths I found on there. The fabric was so beautiful! And then, I had this thought - I wonder if I could MAKE burp cloths for some of my friends who are pregnant. So I googled "how to make burp cloths" and sure enough I found a tutorial on how to make burp cloths. And I realized that they would be EASY to make, and that it would just take a couple hours to make a set of burp cloths!

The hardest part of making these burp cloths was coming up with the pattern. The tutorial I used (which will be listed below) gave dimensions for the pattern, and even showed a picture of it. Only problem - they didn't have a "print this template" option. So I had to DRAW the pattern myself - not something that I can do very well.

After I got the pattern figured it out, it was smooth sailing.

Here are a couple pictures of the ones I've made so far. I've ordered some more fabric, and I can't wait to make more of these for gifts. This is a GREAT project to do if you're interested in quilting but aren't good at finishing projects! haha. If I can do it in a couple hours, so can you!

The website with the tutorial is here if you want to do this project at home:

http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2008/01/burp-cloth-tutorial.html

Here is a picture of the fabric with the pattern pinned to it. I cut bigger than the pattern on the fabrics, so I'd be able to make frayed edges. I cut the batting a little smaller than the pattern so I wouldn't have waste.

A friend of mine just had the cutest little girl! Her name is Rouen, so I made these burp cloths, and with my fun new sewing machine I was even able to embroider her name on the burp cloths! So cute!

A friend church had a little girl and I made these ones for her! I like to do 4 to a sets.

Happy Quilting!