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how to sew a baby quilt in five easy steps

snoopy baby quilt

So you’d like to make a quilt, but you’re intimidated by all of those little pieces, right? I am, too. But you can make a quilt without blocks. It’s easy and looks just as nice! Here’s how I did it:

Materials
1 – 36×36″ piece of top fabric
1 – 36×36″ piece of bottom fabric
1 – 36×36″ piece of batting
1 – 38×8″ piece for making the trim*
matching thread
bias tape tool
rotary cutter and ruler
walking foot (optional)

*even easier: use 4 yards (plus a few inches) of pre-made bias tape

Step 1
Lay your fabric on the floor wrong sides together with the batting in the middle. Pin baste from the center outward.

Step 2
Starting from the center and working your way outward, draw parallel lines every four inches with sewing chalk, water soluble pen or light pencil.

Step 3
Starting from the center, sew along these lines working your way outward, taking out the basting pins as you go. Here’s where a walking foot is helpful, but if your batting isn’t too thick, you should be fine without it. Square up your edges with a rotary cutter and ruler.

Step 4
Cut your trim fabric according to the measurements for your bias tape tool and make the trim. Even easier: open the package of pre-made bias tape.

Step 5
Fold the trim over the edge and attach with a zig zag stitch. Fold the ends over at the corners to enclose the raw edges.

snoopy baby quilt

I hope I didn’t oversimplify this, but it’s really easy. The zig zag trim takes a little practice. This was my first time, and I’m sure it will get a lot neater the more I do it.

resource: I was inspired by Soule Mama’s Beach Blanket To-go for this blanket. One day I hope to make something as beautiful as her daughter’s quilt, but for now, I’m going to stick with single pieces of fabric until I’ve got more free time.

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thrifty finds

I posted over on facebook that I found a brand new cashmere sweater for $3.50 and had a request for a picture. It’s brown, super soft and fits perfectly!

cashmere sweater

I found it at my neighbor’s garage sale. I always stop by her sales because she has such cute kids clothes. (This dress was from her, too.) I was excited to find something for myself! I also came home with a few things for my daughter. I tried really hard to focus on fall and winter, but couldn’t resist this sundress!

toddler dress with blue bow and flowers

That was Thursday. Friday I went to Neat Repeatz, which is a huge kids consignment sale. This year there were so many clothes to go through! I had good luck and came home with some nice shirts and corduroy pants.

My biggest challenge was keeping my daughter occupied while I shopped. As soon as we arrived, we headed straight for the book section. After she was done “reading” what we had picked out, I wound up getting her this little electronic Cars game. It’s pretty dumb and I really hate it, but it got us through! Hopefully it will settle at the bottom of the closet and we can donate it soon.

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granny square scarf almost finished

granny square scarf

You’d think that with all of this gift making I wouldn’t have any time to make something for myself. These granny squares are perfect for fleeting moments of “me time” and I can’t believe the progress I have made! I’m going until I’m out of yarn, which will probably be two more squares. I’m loving the atypical, monochromatic look.

Even though these are fun and working up quickly, I can’t imagine doing enough for a blanket. I’m not even looking forward to seaming these together for a scarf. Any future granny projects will probably be small ones for me!

project notes: Granny pattern from Attic24. Yarn from Freecycle.

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sleeping snoopy baby quilt

sleeping snoopy baby quilt

Every time I turn around it seems like someone else is having a baby. I love crafting for babies. This quilt is almost finished. All I need to do is attach the binding. I bought a lot of this fabric off of ebay awhile ago. You might be thinking, “That looks familiar!” The first quilt I made was backed with fleece. This one is backed with navy cotton. (It’s really not that dark, but I don’t have much sun for taking pictures today.) I only have a little bit of the binding fabric, but it should be just enough.

Update on birthday crafting: The knitted gift is finished. The embroidery tea towels are almost done. These are going much better than my experiment with cross stitch. I’m using a simple split stitch and loving it. I can’t wait until I can post pictures!

stash: So far I’ve used stash yarn, embroidery thread, fabric and batting for all of my projects. Having everything at my fingertips really makes all of the thrifting and garage sale-ing I did earlier in the year worth it!

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hand-painted thank you cards

hand painted thank you card

A few weeks ago, my daughter spent the morning painting while I worked. She wanted to practice her letters, so I started calling out T – H – A – N – K… See a pattern starting here? With a little help, she almost wrote all of the letters for a thank you card. After her birthday, I took some pics of the paintings and rearranged them in Photoshop to make this:

hand painted thank you card

And for the inside of the card:

hand painted thank you card

I printed them on our color inkjet and used them for her birthday thank yous. I even made a template for you to use, without the “Love Bella” of course, because I know you think that “K” is super cool! You can download it here.

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our late bloomers

cucumber

For awhile I thought we were only going to get one tomato and one cucumber from our plants. Remember when I told you I was trying to manually pollinate them? Well, we’ve got almost 20 tomatoes and 6-7 cucumbers now. Just in time for the cold weather!

tomato

I was hoping we could harvest some more before the first frost, but the weatherman said next week we’ll have winter-like temperatures. Whaa? Cross your fingers for us! In the meantime, we’ve got some yummies to eat.

tomato

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my creative space

linen tea towels and wool knit gloves

Today my creative space is filled with gift making. I’m embroidering, sewing, and knitting and having so much fun! Unfortunately, I can’t show you more until after the gifts have been delivered.

I can tell you that I am making more tea towels and really need to get practicing with that rolled hem foot again. I’d really like to make some more towels and napkins for my family. They don’t need to be fancy, but we should be using them more than we use paper towels and napkins.

Visit more creative spaces over at Kirsty’s blog.

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project to do: beach blanket to go

amanda soule mama handmade home beach blanket to go

Have you read Amanda Soule’s new book Handmade Home? I love all of her projects, but the Beach Blanket to Go really got my attention. I’m going to a beach wedding in October and have been wondering what to make for a gift. I think this will be perfect! I’m going to add a label that marks the date and place, too.

Finding the bedspread and sheet for this project was like a little bit of crafty kismet. Friday morning I was searching vintage fabric on ebay and put a red bedspread exactly like the one above in my watched items list. That evening, I headed out to a few thrift stores to see what I could find. I wasn’t planning to go to the store where I found these, but I felt a pull toward that direction.

I decided to follow my instincts and was shocked to see the same exact bedspread that I had bookmarked earlier that day. What’s more, this sheet was right next to it on the rack. I opened them both up and they were in excellent condition. It was almost as if they were destined to become this blanket. Now all I have to do is figure out my binding and put it all together.

Do you ever get that thrifty feeling? Like something is pulling you to a particular store because the exact thing you are looking for is there?

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a little bicycle mending

This summer we bought our daughter a cute bike from our neighbor’s garage sale. My husband is planning to take the pedals off and make it a balance bike. My job was to mend the handle bar cover, which was torn.

Using my trusty seam ripper, I picked out the hem and removed the velcro. With a cloth on top and low heat, I pressed it flat and used this as my pattern.

handle bar cover

The cotton I chose was too lightweight on its own, so I backed it with some denim. Here’s how I did it:

  1. Traced around the pattern on both fabrics adding 1/4 inch seam allowance.
  2. With right sides together, I stitched around leaving a gap for turning.
  3. Clipped my corners, turned right side out, and top stitched around, closing up the gap along the way.
  4. Reattached the velcro.

I think it looks better than the original, especially since my daughter doesn’t even know about Strawberry Shortcake.

handle bar cover

mend: Simple sewing projects can make me so happy. I love being able to say, “I can fix that!” Cotton fat quarter from my stash, denim from thrifted jeans.

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first day of preschool

bella preschool

Well, sort of. This was right before we went to the preschool open house. Basically, it was an hour for parents and kids to become acquainted with the teachers and each other.

On her actual first day I made the mistake of trying to take her picture outside. As soon as I opened the door, all she wanted to do was run around the yard. So much excitement and energy!

Also, she refuses to wear the backpack I made for her. Oh, well. She had tons of fun on her first day and came home exhausted. I hope she has just as much fun today!