Chenille Blanket #3

Spent a few hours making another Heirloom Cut blanket today! Every time I'm in the middle of sewing one, I say "never again," but they turn out so gorgeous that I do more! I've decided that the correct procedure is to use 505 spray to get the four layers of flannel together, then pin that to the cotton layer. This way your chenille cutter or scissors don't get gummed up, but shifting is minimized!

Crib Bumper, Part 1

For the crib bumper I have decided to do solid pieces on the inside and print on the outside and piping.  The solid seemed a little too plain so I decided to embroider a little bit on each of the six panels.  Hopefully I can get the piping cranked out this week so I can start sewing it all together!

I started with her name, I did two panels of this and they will go at the head and foot of the crib.

I really love how this cute little bear turned out!
 

Sweet little raccoon

Fox

And a cute little owl

Rory's Quilt

I'm making all the bedding from scratch for baby Rory's crib.  I already did the chevron blanket, but am more planning on using that for tummy time since the chenille will be so stimulating for her little fingers.  Using fabrics from Riley Blake for the front and minky for the back, I went ahead and did a quilt I had seen on Pinterest and coveted for months.

The top pieced together with big brother testing it for durability and softness

I used Warm & Natural cotton batting and 505 to keep my sandwich together because I hate pinning!

All quilted and squared off

With the aqua dot binding, which I LOVE!

The yellow looks prettier in the daylight

Rory's Chenille

Here's my second go at faux-chenille!  This one is for MY baby.  For the back I used Riley Blake Medium Chevron in Aqua.  I contemplated doing the chevron cut chenille, but these stripes are 3/4 inch apart and I honestly do not like the look of chenille that is more than 1/2 inch apart.  It gets stringy and there are bigger gaps between the rows.  So much snugglier when they're smooshed together!  Regardless, the print is still on a convenient diagonal, so I used the right side of every other chevron to line myself up straight again every third row.

For the flannel, I used 2 pieces of turquoise flannel and 2 pieces of white flannel from Jo-Ann.  This time I didn't use basting spray because last time my cutter got so gummed up, so I just pinned instead.  I had a LOT of shifting.  I think the way I will go next time is to spray all of the flannel together and pin that to the fabric, that way the foot of the cutter never actually touches the glue, but all of those layers are easier to control since they've effectively been turned into 2 layers.

Wide view - this was 42' X 42'

Front and back both visible

So cuddly!!!

Faux chenille blanket

So, I decided to try the faux chenille tutorial from Aesthetic Nest.  I had some Michael Miller on hand and a bunch of white flannel so I gave it a whirl.  I will be trying out the chevron blanket very soon!

Sewing the diagonals 1/2 inch apart was tricky because I had a little helper.  Things got wavy.

I used the Clover Slash cutter to make the cuts.  I thought about the Olfa, but I have Amazon Prime and there was no free shipping love on the Olfa.  It was extremely easy to use, but since I used 505 to hold my layers together instead of pins, it got a bit gummy.  I also departed from the original tutorial in that I squared off my fabric before cutting.  I did one row before squaring off and realized it would be easier if I were catching all 3 flannels at once.

I did the binding with some plain black bias tape I had on hand before throwing it in the wash.

Fresh out of the wash, it fuzzed up perfectly!

My little guy was set on stealing the blanket, but it was destined for baby Marek.

Simple placemats

I cut some "I do too" and "Dandy damask" by Michael Miller into 12x17 rectangles, 3 of each fabric.  Then I cut some leftover batting to be just smaller than the fabric.  I layered one of each fabric right sides together with the batting on top and sewed 1/4 inch all the way around leaving 3 inches for turning.  Once turned, I pressed my seams and topstitched close to the edge.  Then going the opposite direction to avoid curl, I used the edge of my presser foot against the topstitch as a guide and made another lap.

Back side

Front side

Close up of border

Shower baskets

Following the tutorial from 2 little hooligans, I sewed a few baskets up last night.  Instead of for a baby shower, they will be used to display dish towels and other things for my little sister's bridal shower.  The shower is this weekend so I will post an updated pic with them all filled up and stacked.



Michael Miller fabric

Baskets all sewn up, waiting to be filled with goodies