I was asked to put together a baby gift for a little girl and this is what I came up with.

It is a little blanket, an organic onesie, and a rattle.  I made the blanket yesterday and I absolutely love it!  It is this wonderful material with suede on one side and soft sheep like stuff on the other.  I also appliqued a sweet “A” in honor of her name.  The size is 18″x18″.

I put some silk binding around the edge, because what child does not like the feeling of silk between their fingers.  Working with silk is a beast, so I highly recommend using the pre-made silk binding.  You will pay a bit more but it is totally worth it!!  Of course I could not decide on what color of silk to get so I ended up buying 3 packs (ivory, pink, and brown) when I only needed one.

And of course I had to make a practice blanket for Elias before I did the gift blanket.

I love how the stitching came through on the sheep side.

Elias likes it too.

I love it when an idea pulls through with flying colors!

I love free patterns of crafty goodness, tried and true recipes, and loads of inspirational ideas.  Thus….drumroll please…I have created Freebies!  Check out the side bar for all things free that I have posted about in the past.  From easy rag quilts, pillowcases, starch art and even lefse!  (I am a very proud Norwegian.)  I hope you enjoy all the Freebie fun!

The weeks are just flying by around here! I can’t believe how fast it goes. It concerns me now that I have Elias. I don’t want to miss anything!!

Since my last post I have been up to a little of this and that. Here’s just a few…
-garden is mostly in. Potatoes, tomatoes, basil, oregano, sage, thyme, rosemary, cilantro, peppers. Yet to be planted…peas, beans, cucumbers, onions, and 1 melon. (they take up sooo much room!)
On a side note: I used organic chicken poop for fertilizer. Not a good idea with a lab. Even a very well constructed fence cannot keep a dog away from a date with chicken poop. When will I learn?!
–Baked some wheat bread, ciabatta bread, banana pie, and some other sweet things
–got new patio furniture
–finished My Whimsy!! The next INGRID BARLOW pattern.
–finished all the blocks for another quilt
–got new kitchen counters. Yay!
–bought a jogging stroller and have gotten out with it.
–put together this little project. Plain old 2 shelf bookcase. Took some scrapbooking paper and a little mod-podge. Whole new look!

–ordered all the pictures off my digital camera from the last 6 years!  A very good project done.  Now to just get them in scrapbooks.

–Elias met  a girl.  He’s slightly concerned.

–a shot of the back of Sweet Escape.  Doesn’t it just look like crinkly goodness!  I don’t prewash my fabric.  I quilt it all up, throw it in a warm wash and then the dryer.  The fabrics shrink and pull together just a bit to give you that timeless look and feel.

That’s it for now.  I will post more pictures later.

Today I had some fun working on a nursery project.  It has been a project that has come together one little piece at a time.  First I picked up the 3 wooden hoops with a general idea in mind.  Second I bought the fabric with no real idea how I was going to use it.  And finally I decided on the hand piecing of the “grandmother’s flower.”  Overall I wanted Elias’ name to be subtle and nothing with a lot of weight in case it would fall off the wall and into the crib.

Fabric for the hoops picked.

The pieces to my grandmother’s flower ready for me to baste.

I have yet to glue the fabric around to the inside of the hoop to finish them off.

Here’s a link to the template I used for the flower.

I also finally got this quilt hanging up in the nursery.  The branch adds a bit of natural whimsy to it.  (Plus it was cheap and easy to find!)

It’s kind of fun to look around the nursery and know that Elias is surrounded by homemade love.

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter!  My parents came down and spent some time with us.  It was wonderful!  My mom and I did some power shopping this afternoon and I’m pooped now.

Here’s our first family Easter picture.  It was right after church and Elias was very hungry so we weren’t able to be too picky.

In my quilting world, here are the latest things on my cutting table…

I think it is important as a pattern designer to check out other designer’s patterns and how they package their product, word their instructions, etc.  (Plus, I need an excuse to complete a pattern without having to think about everything that goes into the actual designing of it!)  I picked up two patterns from Thimble Blossoms.

The first is called Pint Sized.

These are two of my favorite prints in the Acadia fabric line.

The second pattern is called Bloom.  Reason I bought it=I was curious how the designer instructed you to do the curve in the pattern and the flowers/circles.   And it’s just not a typical quilt pattern.

This will be a very romantic quilt when it is finished.

And the progress on my own INGRID BARLOW pattern continues with an ever growing pile of pinwheels.