Emma's Quilt

Hello! I have been working on a baby quilt for a dear friend of mine that is going to have a baby girl in early May. I made a quilt for her daughter Jesse when she was born also - that's been 6-7 years now. Jesse's quilt had Holly Hobby type girls embroidered on it with the days of the week. I thought I would do something similar for her little sister Emma's quilt. I embroidered 12 different designs from a Martha Pullen Embroidery CD titled "Antique Bonnet Babies". I have an embroidery machine that I used for these blocks. They are all little girls in pairs, if not threes, doing all kinds of little girl things.  I used a line of Moda fabric called "Kissing Booth" for all the prints in the quilt. I didn't use any particular pattern for this quilt - it just kind of evolved as I went along. The quilt is backed with soft baby flannel. Here are some pictures of the quilt. The embroideries are a little hard to see in the main picture - you can see them better in the closeups.The finished quilt is about 45" square. All it is waiting for now is for little Emma to be born so I can make the label for the back. :)

Thanks for looking at this quilt! I hope her mama Tara likes it!

Baby Shower present

Hello! I am sitting here on March 25 in Virginia with 6"+ of snow on the ground! It has been a crazy March, for sure. I wanted to share a gift that I have put together for a dear friend of mine that is having a baby soon. They know it's going to be a little girl - Emma Nicole. My daughter picked up this lovely pink container for me to put all the little gifts in. That's such a practical thing to give a gift in - it can be used in the baby's room to hold all kinds of things - like diapers, toys, etc. So the "packaging" ends up being a gift too! I like that!

First thing I bought and personalized with her name were three hooded bath towels at Walmart. I have an embroidery machine and embroidered her name on the hood of each.

My friend has an older daughter named Jesse, so I had to embroider a little onsie for the baby with "Jesse's little sister"

 Next up is a little ribbon blanket I made for the baby. It's white minkee (VERY soft) on one side, and white satin on the other. I have TONS of ribbons in my stash (I live close to an Offray ribbon outlet!), and I sewed lots of them around the edge. It's about 12" square. The embroidery is hard to see in this picture - it says "nighty night".

 Then I made little hair bands for the baby. I purchased elastic lace and little crochet flowers on etsy. I've made a bunch of these for my own granddaughters. They are very soft and easy to put on newborns when they don't have much hair to put a clip in. I actually thought about trying to learn to crochet these flowers, but soon decided that I wasn't very good at it. Thank goodness for etsy!
I just sewed the elastic (13" for a newborn) together on the ends. Then sewed the flower on by hand, and backed it with a little felt cutout so it is soft against the baby's head. No glue involved - which I like. I packaged them up in Papertrey's new Boutique Accessory dies and stamps, and put them in a little $5 stamp set clear envelope.

 Then I filled in the container with a few other items and made a little tag and card. The card is cut from Papertrey's Onesie die, the tag is from a Graphix 45 paper pad that I have been hoarding. The sentiment on it is from Papertrey Script Sentiments stamp set.

 And here it all is packaged up in the pink container (from Home Goods store), and tied with a pretty Princess bow (from Costco). She really enjoyed looking at all the different things in the gift.

One last thing I'd like to share. There was a picture on the Papertrey forum of someone's carrot barrettes using the new Papertrey Clever barrette dies. These were just the cutest thing ever, and I started thinking of other ways to use the actual shape of the barrette. I came up with these ice cream cones. I just stitched a few x's on the "cone", and used one of the Daydreamer dies to cut out some vintage cream felt for the ice cream. I added some little pink and gold beads for sprinkles. Wouldn't these be cute for a birthday gift for a little girl? They are going to my 1 1/2 year old granddaughter, of course. :)

 

Thanks for looking!Have a wonderful day!

Papertrey Make-it-Monday #80 - Making Garland

Hello! I'm here to participate in Papertrey's Make-it-Monday #80 this week. This week the tutorial by Ashley Cannon Newell is all about making garland using die cuts. You can view the tutorial here on Nicole's blog. I made a little garland to hang from the window in my granddaughter's room. Now I'm going to have to make a blue one for my newest grandbaby - a little boy!

I used PTI sets Bundle of Love and Tiny Tags, and Tiny Tags and Limitless Layers dies. These garlands are really fun!

Grandson quilt

Hello! We are expecting a grandson in mid-September! I have been working on a quilt for his room. My daughter has read many studies about how to stimulate little babies minds and senses and has decided to decorate his room in bright colors. Together, we made a pinwheel mobile to hang over his crib. We went to PaperSource up and picked out some bright colored papers, then went back to her house and started cutting them out. I had a die for the smaller pinwheels, but we had to cut the larger ones out by hand. She found the idea and pattern here on the web. This is the view of his mobile from inside his crib. So colorful!

 She is using these madras curtains from Pottery Barn in his room. I think his mobile and quilt will match perfectly!

Then, to keep the bright colors and pinwheels going, I made this pinwheel quilt for his room. I am very pleased with the results - I hope she will be too.

 Here is a picture of the label on the back of the quilt. It was made with a Papertrey stamp set "Teach and Inspire" and some Photoshop magic.

This is the baby crib in my house where our grandkids sleep when they come over. I made the quilt on the wall when I was pregnant with my daughter - 31 years ago! The little mobile was given to me at a baby shower for her.

Then, because every little baby has to have a little blanky to love, I made him a little ribbon blanky using Cat in the Hat Minkee fabric. I purchased the kit for this little blanky from Quilting Adventures in Richmond.

Monday with Melis Challenge #1

Hello! I had fun participating in the Monday with Melis (Melissa Phillips on the Papertrey Team) today. Her challenge was to create a card with a birthday theme, using a heart, a background stamp, scallops, and buttons. I seem to be in the baby card mode lately, with a little 7 month granddaughter and another grandchild on the way, so I created this card for a child's birth-day - as a congratulations card for the new parents. I used the Background Basics Twinkle set on the top half of the card, the heart border die and Aqua Mist felt, antique buttons from my stash, and the scalloped border dies (small and medium) with felt for the rosettes. I also used the Filigree border die, the Sending you die, Inside Out Baby sentiments stamp set, PTI Aqua Mist cardstock, Versacolor "Celadon" ink, and some lace on this card. I had to split the sentiment line "The Greatest of Gifts" into two lines by selective inking in order to get it to fit on the Sending You die. Hope you enjoy!

Papertrey Anniversary Challenge #1 - Card 2

Hello! I'm back again with another case of one of the Papertrey Ink's design teams cards. This card will be entered in the challenge for My favorite things on Nicole Heady's blog here.


This time I chose the ulta-talented Melissa Phillips. I just love her style and am constantly amazed by her creations! Melissa'a favorite card was one cut out with the Onsie die and stamped with the Bundle of Love stamp set. I pretty much went with the same things, but geared the card to twins.

Here is Melissa's card:

And here is my take on it:

Papertrey Make It Monday #35 - Making Washi Tape

Hello! It's been a long while since I've written on my blog. But I have a good reason. I'm a new grandma! My daughter Katie had a little girl on August 23rd, and I've been spending lots of time with her, and making things for her. I'll have to do some blog posts on the cute things I've been making, but for now, I'd like to share a card I made for this week's Papertrey Make It Monday. This challenge to make your own washi tape sounded like fun. I had never heard of washi tape until recently, and really hadn't much an idea what it was. But when I saw how easy Nicole made it seem to make your own, I thought I'd give it a try. All I had in my stash was 1/2" Scor tape, so I found stamps to work with it. I've been hugely in BABY mode lately, and PINK baby mode at that, so it's only natural to have pink washi tape, right? So here's my attempt at it - I just LOVE this technique!!!

I used PTI white cardstock, Scor tape 1/2", Bitty Baby Blessings, Ribbon Tails, and little labels die cut. For the tissue paper, I used regular white on the polka dot ones, and pink tissue paper on the little baby ones.  Hope you enjoy it! I certainly enjoyed making it!  Hint: if you are impatient and want to use the tape as soon as you make it, instead of waiting for it to dry - zap it with your heat gun!  :)

Onesie card

 Hello! I am definitely in the baby card making mode lately. Looking forward to our first grandchild being born in August! It's a girl!  So here's a card I made out of the new PTI Onesie die. It's so easy to make the cards with this die! I just cut the whole die out of the patterned paper (lime twist collection from My Mind's Eye), the took an A2 card base in pink (PTI) and lined the top fold up with the little punched holes on the die (that way the fold doesn't get cut). Then you just line the two together, putting the patterned paper on the front of course. Since they are both cut from the same die, they line up perfectly. :) I embellished the front with little scallops cut using scalloped decorative scissors. Just lay white paper behind card and trace outline of legs, arms, neck, cutting on this line. Then use decorative scissors to cut scallops. I used glue and a pair of tweezers to attach them (little tiny pieces). I just love the results and hope you do too!