Pretember: Blankets for the Blanketing

While in Missouri, I happened to peek in my Mama's sewing closet, and found some classic Winnie the Pooh fabric looking for love.  She had no use for it, so we decided to make Boo Boo a blanket, just because.  Didn't it turn out cute?

Really, she did most of the work on this one--all I did was do some of the tying.  Boo Boo sleeps on it every night.

That blanket came after Christmas, but there was one final present I wanted to make for Babycakes: a quilt!  I put it off until last because it was pretty far out of my realm of experience and I was so scared to mess it up.  If you look up "easy quilt patterns" online you will get many results and most of them will not look easy at all, at least to my inexperienced eyes.  

I did a lot of planning beforehand, mostly to put off actually cutting the fabric.  But eventually I found a simple pattern online and there was no reason to put it off anymore.  So I bit the bullet and cut the fabric!  And it was not so scary after all. I laid it out and made some adjustments to the rows.

Then I sewed them into strips and into a top!  I won't say my corners are all perfectly lined up, but I won't say I'm not proud of it either.  For the finishing touch, I stitched Boo Boo's name and the year in one corner.  It may be kind of off center, but I am still proud of that too.  

Drewbles helped me pick out a backing fabric and then I took the two to Missouri, where Mama helped me finish it up.  I spent Christmas Eve sewing it, which took forEVer because I am slow.  

(I had a very uncooperative model for these pictures.)

As for the fabric, which you may notice is extremely fun and so suitably nautical, my art history friend, Shelley, so generously gave me the whole lot during a fabric purge.  Does she not have excellent taste?  Thanks again, Shelley!  I hope I did it justice.

All in all, it was a really fun project, and the hardest part was just getting started.  But isn't that always the case?

Also: While you are admiring the fabric, please, if you would, take a moment to say some prayers for Shelley's baby Eloise, who has been in the NICU since birth with 
some serious health obstacles.  I have never met little Eloise, but I can tell she is a darling baby.

(Pretember Explanation, Part 1, Part 2)