Sewing projects

I figured out how to sew nursing covers and I love to make them. I have done a few for some friends for their baby showers and I finally made one for me! I am really excited because Isabel would never let anything be covering her when she nursed. So hopefully with this baby, I can start out with using it and then I can nurse other places (i.e. at church in the mother's lounge, in the car) without worrying about being overexposed. Let's just hope that this baby will let me use it!
One of my good friend out here, Carissa, is an AMAZING quilter, and I have been bitten by the quilting bug. I must say that I am no where near her level, but it is still so much fun. It is so fun to pick out fabric, get it laid out and see the finished project. I wish it didn't take so long to quilt, but that makes you appreciate it more, right? I made a very beginners quilt for David last year (the bronco quilt for him to snuggle with on the couch), but it is pretty silly to see how I quilted it. Well this year for Christmas, I wanted to make Isabel a nice quilt that she could use for lots and lots of years (visions of her taking it off to college and telling her roommates how her wonderful mom made it for her long ago were floating in my head). So I got this cute fabric in Utah when I was there this summer. I figured if I started on it in July, hopefully I could be finished before Christmas.
Well I finished well before Christmas (the end of September I think) and this is what it looks like. I think it turned out great for being my first quilt with squares and borders. Isabel was around for the whole process, which I would never be able to do again because she will remember things like this if I did it next year. But she helped me cut the fabric out, sew and iron all the pieces and pin the backing, doing the actual quilting and helping me sew the binding around the edge. I guess she earned this blanket with all her hard work:)
So when I started doing the quilting, I started on one section to see how it was looking. I showed David to see what he thought (fishing for compliments, I know!) He said, Wow! You are doing it really close together. I saw what he meant. I sewed it so close and packed it in there. I thought I would be good with 2 spools of thread, but I ended up using 4 1/2 and it took me FOREVER! But I like how it looks and I know next time to space it out a little more.

Here is a shot of the back and you can see how much stitching I did, man it was exhausting!


Well after I got done with that, I thought, oh no, I want the baby to have a cute homemade quilt too. So I started on this boy one (can you guess what I think it is). I love the colors. The picture doesn't show the real colors very well, but it was bright, primary boy colors. I had lots of fun with this one. The quilting went much quicker because and I didn't sew so close together.

The red bandana fabric and green with dark green splashes are my favorite fabrics

I backed this one with a really soft, fuzzy orange fabric that I love. Isabel kept wanting to feel the back of it and wanting to snuggle in it when it was all done

So I have a blanket for Isabel and a blanket for our baby if it is a boy. Then I started thinking, well what if its a girl, she needs a blanket of her own. So I started a girl blanket! (I know, if we knew the gender I wouldn't have to put in all this work) But it is so fun and the blanket we don't use can be saved for the next baby! I am about halfway done sewing the top of the girl one, so I don't know if I will finish before i have the baby (2 1/2 weeks and counting), but it is great to wish. I'll post a pic when it gets finished. I have a habit of starting projects and then not finishing them, so I am proud of myself for finishing these so fast. Thanks Carissa for getting me hooked!