Scrappy Sewing {Flannel Burp Cloths}

As I mentioned in some of my recent posts, one of my sewing goals for The Great Stay Home Marathon is reorganizing my sewing room. I use flannel for backing baby quilts, but I often end up with flannel scraps that I don't know what to do with a lot of the time. However, there is another impending baby boom in my circle of friends (four babies between June and November!) I decided to pull out the flannel scraps and make some really simple burp cloths.

There are a lot of different burp cloth tutorials out there and I reviewed quite a few before starting. I ended up making mine slightly smaller to be able to cut more rectangles out of the fabric -- 9.5" x 14" is the final measurement I used.

I did not get overly fancy with contrasting fabric and made each one with the same fabric on both sides. I sewed the rectangles right sides together on three sides, turned it inside out and then top stitched the entire thing to close the final seam.

Out of the first batch of fabric, I made four girly ones and four gender neutral ones. I have a bit more of another grey flannel print to make a few more before all of these babies start showing up.

Happy Tuesday! What are you sewing this week? Are you working on sewing room organization like me?

Our Etsy shop still has plenty of solid fabric in stock if your local quilt store is closed! We are shipping out packages on a regular basis!

Twirls and Stripes {Finished Quilt}

It's time to show off my finished vintage inspired quilt and compare it to its inspiration!

My finished quilt:

The original quilt:

After finishing the quilt, I decided to see if I had any Hobbs batting in my Island Batik Ambassador box that would be the right size for my 40 x 48 baby quilt -- and I was in luck! As an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided with samples of various lines of Island Batik fabrics and Hobbs batting to use and share with you!

In my box, I had a crib size (45" x 60") cotton batting that fit the bill perfectly. I also got flannel for the backing, which I did have to piece but better pieced than too small, right?

For the quilting, I just did a simple bubbly meander in white thread, starting in the middle of the quilt and working out. I trimmed the batting and backing 1/2" beyond the edge of the quilt to prep it for binding.

I don't always manage to get a good photo that shows off the quilting as well as this one does! All of the straight lines in the quilt begged for some curvilicious quilting.

I cut yellow strips from a dotty batik print for my binding and decided that I wanted to sew the binding by hand to the back. And what luck! I had some perfectly colored yellow thread too!

This baby quilt hasn't been earmarked for anyone yet, but I doubt it will be waiting long for a little miss or little mister! This one seems to be a perfect gender-neutral quilt.

I'm also sure that I will make more baby quilts using this two-block quilt design! It's always good to have something quick and easy like this in the arsenal for baby quilts.

Quilt Stats:
Name: Twirls and Stripes
Pattern: self-designed, based on a vintage quilt
Size: 40" x 48"
Fabrics: Island Batik basics and blenders, flannel backing
Quilting: bubble meander in white thread
Started: February 2019
Finished: March 2019

Sharing at Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Brag about your Beauties, and What I Made Monday! Oh and this is also my Favorite March Finish!

Baseball Baby Quilts {Finished Quilts}

These two quilts are ready to be sent off for snuggling! The best news is that the boys have "graduated" from the NICU and are at home!

I quilted both of these quilts with a loop-and-stars meander in white thread. I picked out this great flannel print for the backings of both quilts. I made a tiny mistake and underestimated how much the flannel would shrink in washer and dryer (I always pre-wash flannel!) so I ended up trimming my quilts to be square rather than rectangular. Next time I'll just get the extra half yard!

I bound one quilt with the yellow and one with the blue fabric. I did bind these by machine to speed up the process.

I think these quilts bring me up to a whopping 40 finishes in 2018!

Quilt Stats:
Name: Baseball Baby Quilts
Pattern: Boot Scootin' Baby, modified
Fabrics: solids + Peanuts baseball-themed fabric, flannel for backing
Quilting: stars-and-loops in white thread
Size: 38" square
Started: October 2018
Finished: December 2018

Sharing at Let's Bee Social and Needle and Thread Thursday!

Little Twinkle {Finished Quilt}

The best thing about making baby quilts is that I'm not (usually) tempted to keep them! The worst part is that for every one that I make, I get ideas for at least two more swirling around in my head.

This quilt is a smaller version of my Twinkle quilt which is a throw size quilt that I made earlier this year. Here's the baby quilt top before I quilted it:

For the quilting, I did a swirly flower filler in white Aurifil thread. The flannel backing is a similar teal to the teals used in the top of the quilt.

For the binding, I used this very fun checkerboard batik that came in my second Island Batik Ambassador goody box. I got this print in three colors (pink, purple, and teal) and I am excited to use it again soon because of how neat this binding turned out. I think it could be even cooler as bias binding.

Hopefully this quilt will be loved and snuggled for a long time!

This pattern is now available on Etsy and PayHip!!

Quilt Stats:
Name: Little Twinkle
Pattern: Twinkle, to be released soon, based on this quilt
Size: 36" x 42"
Fabrics: Paisley Dot fabric from Island Batik; white solid background; teal flannel backing
Quilting: swirly flowers in white Aurifil
Future: Baby quilt for coworker's baby
Started: July 2018
Finished September 2018

Sharing at Let's Bee Social and Needle and Thread Thursday! Also at Finish it up Friday!

Finished Taffy Quilt

Another cuddly baby quilt finished!

I quilted this whole quilt in one sitting last weekend and just finished up the binding last night while we watched football.

Here it is pre- quilting, post-pinning:

And here it is all finished!

For the quilting, I did free motion swirls all over the quilt. The scale ended up being slightly smaller than I originally intended, but I am very happy with the quilting, nonetheless. Here's the front and back post-quilting, in the middle of finishing the binding yesterday:

Since I didn't have enough strips left over from the jelly roll to bind the quilt, I bound it with some green vine yardage in my stash -- I am pretty sure it is from the Honey Honey line.

And as usual, I backed with flannel -- this time I used grey since I was having a hard time finding a green or blue that went well with these fabrics.

This one is in the mail to it's rightful owner!

Quick Stats:
Pattern: adapted from Salt Water Taffy baby quilts on Moda Bake Shop
Size: 39 x 52 inches
Fabric: jelly roll of Road 15 by Sweetwater
Backing: grey snuggle flannel
Quilting: Swirls in off white thread
Binding: green vine from Honey Honey

Linking up at Fabric Tuesday and Finish it up Friday!

Saturday Snippets

Yesterday I went shopping and got the flannel that I needed for both of the twin baby girl quilts.

I started quilting the peach/mint/lavender one with loop-de-loops. For this one I found a lavender backing. I will also say that I love quilting quilts with a flannel backing because they slide around so easily, even without a slide pad on my machine!

At this point I think that I have about a third of this quilt quilted. Hopefully I can get a little bit more done this morning.

For the pink/yellow/teal quilt, I got a pink backing. I am about 99% sure that this is the exact same pink flannel that I used to back my t-shirt quilt comforter that I made when I went to college (in 2006 and that I still use to this day as my couch cuddle quilt.)

I am not going to bind these with flannel so that I can just machine bind them completely.

I also bought my yellow and orange thread for my October wall hanging! Go big (spools) or go home, right? There was a lighter shade of yellow, but I think the brighter shade will look better around all of the small squares in the border.

Happy Saturday to you!

In Process

After a busy last week and a half between work and wedding planning (we have a date!!) I finally got the motivation to finish up my Cartwheels baby quilt.

It also helps that Park Ranger Fiance is going to see the parents of the "new person" next weekend.

I bought some butter yellow snuggly flannel for the backing and binding. I love flannel backed quilts!

For some reason, I had a lot of trouble with the top scootching all over while I was machine stitching the binding on. Seam ripping binding off is NOT a fun process!

Here is the little ray of sunshine:

Happy weekend to you!