"Batik Diamonds" Baby Quilt

After I found the mistake in Laura's quilt for her little bun in the oven, I quickly fixed it and finished up the quilt.  Thankfully, it was a quick, easy fix.  I finished the quilt with thin, cream border and then a second border in the aqua color.  For the back I used a brown dot minky.  Sewing with minky can be a real pain in the butt!  It stretches and moves A LOT!  To combat the movement, I use TONS of pins.  Normally, I don't use many pins unless I am lining up seams.  When I am sewing with minky, I pin about every 3/4 - 1 inch.  It is a lot of pins and time consuming, but it is so worth the hassle!  The minky makes the quilt so soft and cuddly!  Just perfect for Laura's new little boy!! Enjoy your quilt little man!!

For the quilting, I quilted around the outside edge of each square.  It made for a really nice effect on the back!

Close up of the quilting! 

Can you find the mistake?

I've been working on Laura's quilt for her little bun in the oven!  I really, really like this quilt.  To be honest, this is the first time I have done triangles.  But I was using this tutorial as a guide, so it wasn't too bad.  BUT, this quilt has made me think more than I have ever had to think while making and figuring out a quilt.  Most quilts, you sew in rows, from left to right.  However, some quilts like this one and the "Ziggan and Zaggin" quilt, get sewn together on the angle.  So the top left corner piece is its own row.  Then, you sew the first square in the second row to the second square in the first row and this creates the second row.  Finally, you sew all the angled rows together...clear as mud, right???  For me, this means I need to lay out the pieces as I want them and not move them at all till it is all sewn together.  As a result, I either need to lay out the pieces in a place that won't get bothered or sew everything in one day.  I decided to lay out the pieces on our bed, that meant I had to sew it all at once so we could go to bed that night!  I ended up laying out the pieces then taking a picture of it on my phone.  Then I would grab the two pieces that I needed to sew together, carry my phone to my sewing machine, double check the picture to make sure I was about to sew them correctly, sew it, then bring the sewn piece and my phone back to my bed to check again, that I did it right and get the next piece!  Like I said, it was a lot of checking and thinking to make sure I got it all right!  And still.......I didn't get it all right.  I checked every piece about a hundred times, and it wasn't until I was trimming the edges that I found the mistake.

Can you see the mistake???

 

In the top left corner, the pink and purple square is turned the wrong way.  See it now?  I was so annoyed that I missed it, but sooooooo relieved that the mistake was so close to the edge rather than in the middle!  It was a quick date with the seam ripper and just a bit of sewing to correct it!   I also went with mitered corners for both of the borders.  This is the first time I have done mitered borders.  I love the way it turned out!  I used this tutorial, which is so easy to follow!  I can't wait to finish the quilt and send it off to Laura for her precious little baby!  

"Ooo, Ooo, Ah, Ah"

Part of my marathon shopping spree was to buy fabrics for an order for my friend Jenna.  Jenna loved the "Gone Banana's" quilt and wanted something similar and monkey themed.  I had some of the fabrics, but not all and not enough of some.  Thus, the shopping trip.  Jenna asked me to make a baby quilt, a pair of baby booties, two burp cloths, and a small blanket with tags. I am thrilled with how everything turned out.

For the baby quilt I used green and white minky as well as cotton.  I love the feel and look of minky, but it is not so much fun to sew with.  I find myself cursing out the minky as I try to cut it and sew with it, but once I see the finished product, I LOVE it.  So totally worth all the cussing!

Close up of the adorable monkey fabrics! 

The back.  You can see the simple quilting here.  I love this shade of green.  A little darker than mint green. 

I made the little tag blanket with the same fabrics that I used for the quilt.  It turned out so cute!

The front.

LOVE the banana fabric on the back!

A shot of everything!

 I am so in love with these little booties!  They are so adorable, they almost make me want to have another baby, just so I can make lots of these booties for them to wear!  Almost!!!

The bottom of the booties!

These are the burp cloths.  When I was pregnant with Henry, someone gave me burp cloths in this shape.  They were my favorite, because of the shape.  For these, I put flannel on one side and white terry cloth on the other side. Perfect for soaking up baby puke!!  The flannel for the one showing terry cloth is white with small green polka dots!

Everything together and ready to get shipped!

A Potential Disaster!

About a week or so ago, I was having a rough day!  The boys had been fighting, I had too much to do and things just were not going my way.  I had finally had enough of the boys fighting with each other and I sent them to play in their rooms by themselves.  I thought I would take this time to be productive an take a breather for myself.  So I poured myself a nice, BIG glass of red wine, set it on the ironing board (which is permanently parked next to our couch in front of my sewing area), geared up the latest season of "Real" Housewives of New Jersey and went to go get the load - or maybe a few loads - of towels and laundry to fold. I grabbed an armful of laundry, dumped it on the couch and went back for another load.  This time, I wasn't quite as graceful.  As I was walking back to dump on the couch, a dangling towel caught the ironing board and my ENTIRE goblet of RED wine spilled.  And it didn't just spill onto the ironing board or just on to the floor.  No, it fell to the left, all over the couch, all over the white wall behind the ironing board and all over the fabric in my sewing area that sits behind the couch.  "Noooooooooo" was my first thought, followed by "Crap, not on my fabric." then followed by "Shit, I don't have much wine left" and lastly, "Ah, eff the couch."  Meanwhile, Ryan is crying from the room asking to come out.  Ahhhhh!!  The couch recieved nothing more than a clean, brown, towel from the pile thrown over the spill.  Seriously, I didn't even bother to try to soak it up, wipe it, or clean it whatsoever.  I was more concerned about sitting in it and getting red wine stains on my shorts!  However, I immediately went in to clean up mode for the ironing board and the fabric behind the couch.  THANKFULLY, most of the wine spilled on the wall, and on some ivory fleece that was laying back there.  The fleece was a champ.  It repelled the wine like it was nobody's business.  The wine patiently sat there on top of the fleece, just waiting to be dabbed up by a towel. Whew!  My expensive and adorable boy fabrics, that I have been saving for probably a year for just the right project was saved by the priority mail cardboard envelope they were in.  Whew!  And the Quilts for Kids fabrics were saved by the Ziploc bag that they were sent in.  Double whew!  The only casualties were some yellow fabrics that I had used for the back of my Rainbow Quilt and some white fabric (of course, the white fabric, not the black fabric) that was part of some black and white blocks for a quilt that I have partially put together.  I was so relieved!  The yellow is no big deal, it was two pieces less than a fat quarter in size.  And honestly, I haven't even washed them yet.  The white fabric, meh, it will either wash out when I get around to it, or I will remake the few squares.  That quilt wasn't for anyone in particular, just a random quilt I was working on awhile ago.  So overall, a major crisis was averted!  And, thankfully, I had enough wine left to pour myself another glass, both boys fell asleep and took a 2 hour nap and the night ended with a few margaritas on the outdoor porch of a favorite local Mexican restaurant with some good friends!  And, the towels got folded!  Not a bad end to a really, bad afternoon!

Here is where my ironing board lives.  My glass of wine was sitting right about where the towel on the ironing board is ruffled.  It fell right on the couch next to it!  So glad I didn't bother with cleaning it! Can't tell it was spilled on at all! Lol!!

The view from my sewing area.  You can see my pile of fabric that was almost spilled on.  You can also see the stains on the wall right next to the green fabric.  Small purple streaks on the white wall.   And no, it doesn't come off without removing the paint!  Ask me how I know!  Lol!!