Watermelon And Cantaloupe Baby

Isn't this just the cutest?

A friend made this delightful fruit presentation for my daughter's baby shower. 

A cantaloupe baby in a watermelon stroller.

All you need is:

  watermelon (stroller)

 cantaloupe (baby)

 orange (wheels)

blueberries (eyes)

other berries/fruit (red grapes and strawberries shown here)

a few toothpicks

a pacifier 

and a little bit of time to carve, chop, peel, and get creative.  

:-)

Cotton, Flannel and Minky

Here are the last of the gifts that I made for the shower. 

A trio of baby blankets.

Cute cotton whale print backed with soft yellow minky.

Aqua cotton zig-zag backed with aqua animal flannel.

Soft green polkadot cotton backed with yellow and green alligator flannel.

With so many cute and unique fabrics available,

I don't know why anyone would buy a generic blanket from a store. 

These are soooo easy to make.
Wash and dry the fabrics to pre-shrink.

Just cut (2) a generous square or rectangle

(Size might depend on the width of the two fabrics you are using.) 

With right sides together, sew all the way around, 

leaving a small hole (about the size of your hand) to turn.  

Turn right side out and use a decorative top stitch close to the edge to 

give it a finished look and close up the hole.

Done.  

And one last look at everything together. 

I love you sweet baby and can't wait to meet you!


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Interlocking Ripple Baby Afghan

I can finally reveal the ripple baby afghan I made

to give to my daughter at the baby shower.

 This is the first time I've made a ripple 

and I'm delighted with how well it turned out!

I used Baby Bee Sweet Delight yarn in 7 colors:

Peapod, Mint Charm, Baby Blue, Infant Teal, Surf Baby, Sunkisses, and Angel. 

I used  a 6/G/4.25mm hook.

I made ripples (hills and valleys) with sets of 14 stitches.
My initial chain was 14 sets of 14,  plus 2.
It's 80 rows long.
And has a row of single crochet all around the edges to finish it off.

I found inspiration for the interlocking ripple design at Lucy's Attic24.
And I learned how to crochet the ripple with Mikey at The Crochet Crowd.
He's a wonderful teacher.  I highly recommend his youtube videos.



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Baby Shower

Minature Daffodils.

Little bluebirds.

Baby showers and spring colors just seem to go together.

Really looking forward to meeting this baby.

Star Garland

I'm making star garland to hang at one of the baby showers.

I cut stars in two sizes from white, blue, green, yellow and silver card stock 

then sewed them into a long chain on the machine with a large stitch length (4). 

I doubled the large stars and gently folded them on the stitch line 

to make the garland three dimensional.

I'll tie the thread tails to paperclips for ease in hanging.



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Baby Ribbon Blanket

My daughter asked if I would make her a baby ribbon blanket.

Sure!

That's a quick and easy project!

I used a 10 inch square of flannel, soft minky cloth for the reverse

and several coordinating ribbons.

Arrange all your loops on the right side of the flannel square.

(loop of ribbons facing in towards the center)

Pin then machine baste in place. 

Remove all pins. 

Nothing worse than giving something to a baby with a pin left in it! 

Sew Minky cloth to flannel square, right sides together ,

leaving a small opening for turning.

(Keep all those ribbons in towards the center as you sew.)

Trim away corners and any excess ribbon.

Turn, right side out. 

Sometimes I use a pin to help make nice neat corners .

Top stitch close to the edge to close up the turning hole.

All finished!

Ready to tuck into the bag along with the other shower gifts I've made.

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Little Basket For The Nursery

The baby shower is just a couple of weeks away

Actually, there are two of them.  Showers, not babies.

Very lucky Little One to have so many people celebrating along with us.

I'm using all the spare time I can find to finish up my projects and get ready for company. 

Can't show too much yet, in case she looks here.

But this one little thing won't matter.

A simple, yellow, crocheted basket to hold odds and ends in the nursery.

(baby nail clippers, thermometer, diaper pins etc...)

I used  Lily, Sugar and Cream cotton yarn in Vanilla Cream and White. 

It's about  5.5" across and 2.25" high, after it was folded down. 

(But you could keep adding rings to make the basket any size that suited you.)

The bottom is a simple chain 4 slipstitched into a ring, with 8 singles in it.

Then put two singles in each stitch.

Next, single crochet in one stitch and two single crochets in the next. Repeat for that round.

Then two singles in every third stitch,

and then two singles in every fourth stitch,

etc...

Switch to all singles when you are ready to build up the sides.

Add any border you like to finish it off.

Little Hull Lamb Planter

Recently several blog friends posted photos of cute lamb planters in an "Easter Parade".

I have a little Hull lamb planter that I found several years ago.

I bring him out of storage at Easter and any other time I need that cuteness factor.

Here he is at a baby shower I hosted recently. 

I love his pink ears and sweet little blue bow.

(It's cold paint, applied after the firing process, and if not careful, it can scratch off.)

Hull Pottery (Ohio) produced wonderful and unique ceramic pieces from 1905-1986.

A lot of you are familiar with their most popular piece, 

the Little Red Riding Hood cookie jar. (1943)

In the 40's-60's Hull was well known for their florist-ware.  

The company survived leadership changes, flood and fire, but 

 was finally brought down by foreign competition and multiple union strikes.

And so they closed their doors forever.

I don't know which year my lamb planter was made,

but if any readers own a Hull Pottery reference book, please let me know.

Baby Shower Bunting

Some of you asked who the baby shower is for.

I have a niece who lives fairly close.  In a neighboring state.

Since we are smack dab in the middle of the country, 

and most of our family lives on one coast or the other,

only one state away seems "close".  Relatively speaking.

Because of distance, most of the family gifts are being sent by mail.

But technology will allow everyone to "be here" the day of the shower.

I made a little bunting (actually two) for shower decor.

They are super easy to make.

Here's what you need:

Coordinating fabrics of your choice  (I used six fabrics)

thread

 bias tape

quilters ruler

cutting mat

rotary cuter

pins

iron 

(If you don't have a quilting ruler or rotary cutters you can cut your

triangles the old fashioned way, with a paper pattern and scissors.

My gadgets just help speed up the process.)

This is a close up of the 60 degree line on the quilters ruler
that will assist you in making the angled cuts.

Cut a 7 inch strip of fabric from each fabric you want to use.

(Pretend this is one strip of fabric.  I used different fabrics to
make it easier to show you the cuts.)

Line up your quilters ruler with the 60 degree line along the bottom edge

and then use your rotary cutter to cut along the right side of the ruler.

(Toss that first odd shaped piece into your scrap bag.)

Next, lay the 60 degree line along the last cut you made.

Rotary cut your fabric on the right side of the ruler. 

Just keep repeating: line 60 up along the bottom edge,  then line 60 up along the last cut.

I tried to get some good pictures.

 Taking a closer look on how to make that 60 degree cut.

First one way.  And then the other.

Now for the sewing part.

Lay two fabrics together, right sides facing in.

Sew along two sides, using a 1/4 inch seam.

Leave the third side open.

Snip the bottom corner off to make turning easier.

Turn the triangle right sides out and iron flat.

Iron your bias tape in half, if it's not already done. (mine wasn't.) 

Insert the open end of each triangle into the fold of the bias tape, and pin in place.

Then zig-zag it all together.   

Note- Start pinning your triangles in the middle of the bias tape and work your way out. 

I was able to fit 12 completed triangles on one package (3 yards) of bias tape 

with about 7-8 inches left at each end for tying.

These were really easy to make.

I hope you'll give it a try for your next celebration.

Go to my previous post to see how I made the paper luminaries .

Baby Shower Paper Luminarias

The baby shower is coming up in just a couple of days.

Here are the super-easy paper luminarias I made for the table.

Scrapbook paper trimmed down to size, and rolled into a cylinder.

Beatrix Potter illustrations printed out and glued on.

Add a bit of ric-rac trim to pretty it up.   It really is that simple.

(Battery operated tealight candles will go inside and make them glow.)

Did you catch that sneak peak of the fabrics I used for the bunting? 

I'll show you how easy they are to make in my next post.