Aren't moms great? As I'm going to be one pretty soon, I've started feeling an even greater appreciation for my own mom. A couple of months ago I got this idea in my head that I wanted her to come out and we could have a craft week making all kinds of things for baby. I remembered when one of my sisters was about to have her first baby and she and her husband lived with my parents that they spent a while making blankets and burp cloths and such. I kept thinking about that and I really wanted to be able to do that with my own baby. I consider myself an intermediate crafter and seamstress but my mom has been doing this so much longer and I trust that practiced hand more than my own. The idea would not let go of me and so I practically begged her to come! She has a very busy life right now but we were able to find a time to make it work and we both had a ball!
She was supposed to get in Sunday night but, due to flight delays (with no apparent reason?), didn't arrive until Monday morning. We spent that day going over the projects we wanted to complete and the measurements we would need. We made our list, checked it twice and then headed out to doisome fabric shopping. For one of the quilts we got most of our fabric from a local quilting store called Quilt Expressions. They had the biggest collection of cute fabric that I have ever seen! We then hopped over to Hancock's and then finally Joann's. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and preshrinking the fabric.
On Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment so she was able to come with me to that. I took my glucose test for gestational diabetes and that came back normal. Woohoo! I had an orange drink that I had cold and with a straw and it really wasn't as bad as some people experience. We also got to hear the baby's heartbeat, of course! He's still healthy at 150 bpm! Then we came home and cut out all the fabric for every single one of our projects. My mom was able to complete some receiving blankets (seen below) that night while I was at my weekly scouts meeting. They are very cute and go so well with my color theme of blue and green!
On Wednesday we sewed and pieced both quilts together. That sounds pretty simple in one sentence but entailed so much. For quilt #1 we had strips of flannel to sew together, then we had to cut that out with batting and minky on the back (so soft but so stretchy-- a nightmare to sew with!). Then we sewed on the satin binding, which I have never been good at. Thank goodness mom was there for that! She showed me how to do it correctly so I feel more confident in it in the future. For quilt #2 we used appliques so we had to get special double sided fusible interfacing and that was scary but ended up not being too hard at all. I had to cut out my patterns (dinos) and then fuse them onto the background fabric and then we stitched around them, sewed the border in place and then sewed that on with the batting and backing. My mom also started the side seams for the curtains. At night we had to run out and pick up a few things we'd run out of or forgotten.
On Thursday we pretty much finished! I sewed on the ribbon ties to quilt #1 and my mom hand quilted around the borders and dinos for quilt #2. We also sewed all the casings for the curtains.
On Friday we went out and had some fun shopping at the Carter's outlet, so that was our mostly free day! After Bryan came home he hung our curtain rod and we (mom, mostly) sewed the hems on that while I finished up the flannel quilt's ties. As you can imagine, we did a lot of ironing during this whole process and I may or may not have a battle wound from that. I'm so glad we were able to finish up everything that was a priority.
On Saturday, my mom flew home. The week went by really, really fast! It was sad saying goodbye but she later texted me to say, "Next time I see you, you'll be a mommy!" What a surreal thought! I'm so grateful that she is coming out to help me when the baby is born. I've got a pretty awesome mom who is so loving and giving. I'm a pretty lucky girl!
So here are the rest of the the final products:
Here is quilt #1, our flannel baby blanket. I mentioned this on Facebook but my mom made me a flannel patchwork quilt before I was born. This was back in the days before you found out what you were having so it was blue and pink! I loved that blanket so much that I took it everywhere with me as a little kid. I even remember taking it out in the garage on a scooter. That is probably where all the rips and tears came from. It used to look a lot more like this quilt but these days it looks like a rag. Whenever I was kind of sad, it was a comfort to me... so much so that I slept with it in my bed until I got married. Yes, I slept with my baby blanket until I was 24 years old! Maybe I should be more ashamed to publicly announce that on the internet, but I'm not. It now resides in the bottom of my wedding dress bag. I never wanted it to get thrown away so I kept it somewhere safe. Anyway, the point of all of that is that my flannel blanket meant a lot to me. I doubt this baby will react exactly the same but I really do hope he loves it at least a fraction of the amount I loved mine.
Here's quilt #2. Long ago, even before I found out I was having a boy, even before I found out I was pregnant I got it in my head that I wanted my baby boy's nursery to be blue and green dinosaurs. I scoured the internet looking for bedding sets that fit the bill but nothing did. I was thinking I wouldn't spend all that money on a bedding set (babies are expensive) and just find a cute fitted sheet but then the idea came to me that it might be possible to make the crib quilt that I had roughly imagined. I got on GIMP (every day I pine for Photoshop but it is not to be right now) and made a mock up of the quilt with some silhouettes I found on the internet. Then I researched appliques and everything kind of came together. I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with it.
It's hard to see but the curtain fabric is the same as the dinos pictured in quilt #2. They are simple but were kind of a hassle to make because we put black out fabric on the back, which made them really thick and not hang exactly as I'd expected. That's okay, though. I'm going to be thanking myself (and my mom) when baby needs a nap in the middle of a sunny day!
Anyway, that post ended up being much longer than I'd expected and I hope I didn't ramble on as I'm wont to do. Thank you so much mom for coming out and helping me do this. I couldn't have done it (at least as sanely) without you! Also, just thank you in general for being a great mom and for loving me and this new baby so much!
She was supposed to get in Sunday night but, due to flight delays (with no apparent reason?), didn't arrive until Monday morning. We spent that day going over the projects we wanted to complete and the measurements we would need. We made our list, checked it twice and then headed out to doisome fabric shopping. For one of the quilts we got most of our fabric from a local quilting store called Quilt Expressions. They had the biggest collection of cute fabric that I have ever seen! We then hopped over to Hancock's and then finally Joann's. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and preshrinking the fabric.
On Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment so she was able to come with me to that. I took my glucose test for gestational diabetes and that came back normal. Woohoo! I had an orange drink that I had cold and with a straw and it really wasn't as bad as some people experience. We also got to hear the baby's heartbeat, of course! He's still healthy at 150 bpm! Then we came home and cut out all the fabric for every single one of our projects. My mom was able to complete some receiving blankets (seen below) that night while I was at my weekly scouts meeting. They are very cute and go so well with my color theme of blue and green!
On Wednesday we sewed and pieced both quilts together. That sounds pretty simple in one sentence but entailed so much. For quilt #1 we had strips of flannel to sew together, then we had to cut that out with batting and minky on the back (so soft but so stretchy-- a nightmare to sew with!). Then we sewed on the satin binding, which I have never been good at. Thank goodness mom was there for that! She showed me how to do it correctly so I feel more confident in it in the future. For quilt #2 we used appliques so we had to get special double sided fusible interfacing and that was scary but ended up not being too hard at all. I had to cut out my patterns (dinos) and then fuse them onto the background fabric and then we stitched around them, sewed the border in place and then sewed that on with the batting and backing. My mom also started the side seams for the curtains. At night we had to run out and pick up a few things we'd run out of or forgotten.
On Thursday we pretty much finished! I sewed on the ribbon ties to quilt #1 and my mom hand quilted around the borders and dinos for quilt #2. We also sewed all the casings for the curtains.
On Friday we went out and had some fun shopping at the Carter's outlet, so that was our mostly free day! After Bryan came home he hung our curtain rod and we (mom, mostly) sewed the hems on that while I finished up the flannel quilt's ties. As you can imagine, we did a lot of ironing during this whole process and I may or may not have a battle wound from that. I'm so glad we were able to finish up everything that was a priority.
On Saturday, my mom flew home. The week went by really, really fast! It was sad saying goodbye but she later texted me to say, "Next time I see you, you'll be a mommy!" What a surreal thought! I'm so grateful that she is coming out to help me when the baby is born. I've got a pretty awesome mom who is so loving and giving. I'm a pretty lucky girl!
So here are the rest of the the final products:
Anyway, that post ended up being much longer than I'd expected and I hope I didn't ramble on as I'm wont to do. Thank you so much mom for coming out and helping me do this. I couldn't have done it (at least as sanely) without you! Also, just thank you in general for being a great mom and for loving me and this new baby so much!
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