Chevron Denim Rag Blankets

I made these a while ago, and I must say I love how they turned out. I had a couple bins of denim that I finally decided to something with. By the time I cut all the squares I had blisters on my fingers and had to take a break for a few days because I couldn't even hold a pair of scissors!

Instead of sewing an x across the squares to hold the batting I stuffed them to create puffed rag blanket. I made the squares 6 1/2 inches square. I don't know how much bigger you would want to go if you were stuffing them.

For the boy blankets I put the rag to the front,

For the pink and purple I did the rag to the back. I think I like this way better.

I would love to make one of these to fit a twin size bed, only with flannel on both sides. A lot of little squares - but it would look good!

Care Bear Baby Blanket

I love Care Bears, always have, always will! They were super popular when I was little and for my 4th or 5th birthday my Grandma gave me a Care Bear book. It had stories, colouring pages, a photo gallery of all the Care Bears and their cousins. I spent hours looking at it; wore the pages right out! So, when I saw this Care Bear panel there was no hesitation! I knew I was going to buy it. Actually, I bought two. With the coordinating fabric and fleece, of course! It is all or nothing with me! I also have Care Bear pillow squares that I think were bought on a separate Fabricland shopping spree. It was many years ago, I can't remember! But don't worry, I have plans for it all!

My sister was looking though my stash a quite a while ago and came across the Care Bear panels. She really like them too. They are Care Bear after all, who wouldn't like them? I told her that if she ever had a baby girl I would make one for her. And so, if you read the post a couple down you will know she recently had a baby girl! I kind of had it in my head that the baby was going to be a boy so I wasn't in a rush to make the blanket. Until, that is, a couple days before my niece was born and I had a dream that it was a girl! One of my first thoughts was - I am never going to get that blanket done on time! And I didn't. At least not for her baby shower, but I did get it done for her Baptism!

I hand quilted it, and got it done the night before! I may be a bit of a procrastinator, but I always meet my deadlines! At least almost always! Lucky for me baby panels are pretty quick to do. If you don't do the hand quilting, and just do ties, panels are probably fastest way to make a baby blanket. And there are so many cute baby panels hanging on the walls at Fabricland. The hard part is picking one out!

I love how hand quilting puffs everything up!

And matching fleece for the back!

As soon as my sister pulled the tissue paper out of the bag she knew what it was! There may have been a few late nights, but it was well worth it!

3 Baby Blankets

I've had these baby blankets done for a little while now and am just getting around to posting them. I was looking for patterns that would use up some of my scrap flannel and decided on these 3. The quality of the pictures isn't that great, but here they are:

Yellow Brick Road. I have always loved this pattern and finally bought it last fall. I'd really like to make the boys matching quilts for their bunk beds using this pattern.

Upsized Charm Square. I had to switch this pattern up a little to accommodate the scrapes I had.

Rail Fence. Another pattern I've always liked and it is so quick and simple, with so many varieties.

It is amazing what you can do with a few scraps! It doesn't take much to turn them into something useful!

Charm Square Baby Blanket

I've wanted to make this blanket for quite a while now, so when I found out our friends were having a baby I knew this was my chance! I got the pattern from Thimbelina's blog. Since they knew they were having a boy I figured there was no reason I couldn't get most of it done ahead of time; I would just have to wait on the name. The little guy decided to come early though, as a matter of fact, I had just pulled out the flannel to start cutting when I got the text. Turns out I didn't have to wait for the name after all!

For his name I wanted a font that would be easy to applique, but still look cute. After going through several fonts I decided to use Gypsy.

My Baby's Blankets

I went through a baby panel buying craze a few years ago. Every time I saw a cute panel I just had to buy it - which was just about every time I was in Fabricland! I couldn't help it! Have you seen those panels hanging in Fabricland? So adorable!! I had quite the stash. Most of them were gifts, a couple I sold. I'm happy to say I'm down to 4 or 5 left to make before I can buy any more. And a couple of those I have plans for!

I've made one for each of my kids, and it wasn't exactly planned but the theme for all of them - baby animals.

I finished Victoria's a couple weeks ago. This panel I bought before Seth was born and intended to make it for him, but then I came a across a couple others I really liked and decided to make them instead. I love this one and can't believe I left it for so long! It has purple minky on the back which makes it really girly.





These are the two I did before Seth was born, one for him and one for our next baby which turned out to be Anthony! Those were the good old days when I had all the time in world! :)


Seth's baby blanket.




Anthony's baby blanket. Pandas are my favourite!




Now with Victoria's blanket done I'm trying to decide what to do next. I have 3 quilts in mind...

Recieving Blankets

My aunt kindly forwarded me this tutorial on how to make double sided self binding receiving blankets with mitered corners. So of course I rushed to Fabricland to buy some pink flannel for my baby girl! We are lacking in the pink department and I feel a little bad when she has to use her brother's baby stuff!




These blanket are so cute and so easy to make; if you don't have little boys "helping" they really would only take 10 or 15 minutes! I've only made two so far, but intend on making many more! Check out the tutorial here.

The first one I made I sewed the corners on the wrong angle, had to patch them up and do it again. Make sure your ruler is on the folded edge! And check before you cut the corner off to make sure it is right, because a little bit of seam ripping sure beats patching! At least all four corners of my first one match and I can say I did it on purpose! ;)

Turtles and stars!




Strawberry Shortcake!






My aunt made some combining flannel with fleece and minky fabric. I'll try that next!

And it bugs me that these pictures aren't centered, but I don't know how to fix it!!

UPDATE:

I made a receiving blanket with minky fabric and flannel. It was a little more tricky to sew since it stretches a bit, but I think it turned out alright.

It's A Baby Shower!

Lately I've been liking the idea of gift baskets. They are fun to put together, and when you are shopping for a baby there is no end to what you could put in it! Instead of using the typical basket, however, I bought this little box...

and painted it like so...

because what baby doesn't need a place to keep his or her's (in this case - his!) first toys? I then sewed up a double sided receiving blanket, and an extra one for a girl while I had the serger out. I've since come across a better way to make double sided receiving blankets, so I'll be making some more!

Did some shopping for a baby boy, that hasn't arrived yet - but will soon! And finished off my baby boy gift basket. It contains - a toy box, a receiving blanket, tiny rubber boots, a sleeper, 2 outfits, a rubber duck, teething rings, baby spoons, snack containers, linking rings for attaching toys to strollers etc, Q-Tips, and a bib.

I also helped my sister make a baby blanket. Normally I hand quilt these, but since I was also expecting my own baby and didn't think I'd have time to get it done, I tied it. It turned out just as cute! Who doesn't love Tigger?!

Little Misses!

One of my good friends had a baby girl a couple of months back, and so I decided I was going to make her a blanket. After some consideration I decided to make a large rag blanket. It didn't very long, just a few evening. Even snipping the seams went quick since I bought spring loaded scissors! What a great invention.

The top...

and the back...

and up close!

I also bought Mr. Men flannel a while ago that I'll have to make that into something. It was just too cute to pass up!

Fuzzy Wuzzy Hearts

A couple months ago I wanted to get some different ideas for baby blankets so I bought "The Little Box of Baby Quilts". It is a great collection of 20 different patterns all printed on their own card.





Fuzzy Wuzzy Hearts is probably my favorite pattern but that might change as I make more! I love the flannel - turtles and frogs! I think I have just enough to left to make one more.

What's new?

Well, let me tell you! Yesterday I machine quilted the rag baby blanket I started in February. I just have to bind the edges and it will be done. I absolutly love this pattern, and the fabric I picked! And I think I have enough fabric left over to make another one! Here last rag blanket I made, before it was washed. It is still in a drawer waiting for the next baby boy!

I also finished the top of Anthony's quilt, and have been cross stitching on his Christmas stocking. I really need to get it done because I just ordered a couple more cross stitches from Mystic Stitch! I shouldn't have I know, but the cross stitches that have are so amazing. If you cross stitch you should definitely check out their site.