Morgan and her quilt

I'm sorry for the long absence from my blog. I had a baby girl! She was born on her due date, February 20th. We named her Morgan Frances, and we've been very busy falling in love with her these past few weeks.

Morgan is still pretty sleepy. And she is fairly tiny - she weighed in at 6lb 13oz at birth. This was taken the morning after we came home from the hospital.

We think she is pretty darn cute. She actually looks just like Charlie when he was a baby. The boys are both pretty smitten with her.

Just a couple of nights before she was born, I finished her quilt. I made it using the pattern from Little Stitches for Little Ones by Amy Butler.

I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. It looks really good with the crib bedding, and my craftsmanship is not half-bad. I need to work on "stitch-in-the-ditch" and my binding is totally wrong (I decided not to follow the directions), but for my first quilting attempt, I am very proud of myself.

I think Morgan will enjoy lounging on this when she starts playing on the floor and engaging in tummy time. Then she can use it to snuggle up with in her toddler bed when she gets to be a big girl!

Here's the back of the quilt. I decided to bind it in a solid color because the polka dots seemed like too much when I started to cut it out for binding. I like the contrast (and the ease of using pre-made quilt binding!).

Right now Morgan is sleeping in a bassinet, so her crib is actually a very fancy laundry basket.

But, she is getting bigger every day. So, I better break my laundry basket crib habit. Here she is at almost 3 weeks old (and about to clear 7 lbs!). She is definitely waking up a little bit now. She is sweet as pie!

I'm not going to kid myself... the sewing is pretty much at a standstill at this point. I'm talking serious dust on the machine. When I'm back on the horse again, I'll post a new project. I do have a nice little stash of little girl prints to tackle, after all.

:) Shelly

baby bedding

With about five days until my due date, the sewing has been slowing down a bit. I have been getting things ready in the house for baby to come, including finishing up her room. 

We bought a twin sofa sleeper for the baby's room so that I can sleep comfortably with her apart from my husband (who has trouble falling back asleep once he wakes in the night). Since he has a long commute and a challenging job to go to everyday, I don't mind the sacrifice. I bought cute sheets for the bed on sale, but the pillowcases were regular price (and way too expensive!), so I decided to make a couple of cases out of some fabric remnants that I picked up at JoAnn's.

I used this tutorial from MADE, but I totally forgot about the directional fabric warning. So, this pillowcase is sideways. I was already sewing it together when I realized it, so I just went with it.

This one turned out better. I love those little fairies! I figure these will be nice and comfy for me to use on the twin bed, then I can save them for my little girl to use when she moves to a toddler bed.

Here's her crib. I had originally wanted to make all of the crib bedding, but when I found this bumper and crib skirt on clearance at Land of Nod, and these Pottery Barn sheets for $8, I figured I couldn't make crib bedding for less money. And it all matched the room so well!

I did decide to make the quilt using Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones quilt pattern. So far I have just pieced the quilt together. I still need to baste the backing on, stitch-in-the-ditch, and attach the quilt binding. This is the first quilt I've ever made, and I am really enjoying it.

I used Michael Miller/Sarah Jane Children at Play (pinwheels, pinkish floral pattern, and pink and white polka dots for backing), Riley Blake Sugar and Spice (green floral), and one of the clearance sheets I bought from Pottery Barn. I am still debating whether to use the pink dot for binding or to bind it in solid pink so that it is not so busy. I doubt that I will finish this quilt before baby is born - I want to take my time and do it right. I'm feeling okay about that. In fact, she can come whenever she's ready! Maybe waiting at least until after tomorrow afternoon would be good - we've got the plumber coming over and I want a working bathtub again!

:) Shelly