Baby Blankets & Burp Cloths

  

We are expecting our first grandchild!  A precious, little baby boy in May!  And we are SO excited!  I used to sew for my three kids all the time and now I'm getting to sew for a little one again and let me tell you, it is SO much fun!  Aside from buntings, I've been working on blanket and burp cloth sets.  I did some research and found that the kidney shaped cloths are preferred so that's the shape I went with.  There are lots of tutorials but I found that this one from Mabey She Made It to have the most helpful suggestions as well as a pattern to download.  I chose to use flannel for the cloths and blankets.  Be sure to wash and dry your fabric to pre-shrink.

I enlarged the pattern a bit to make a larger "kidney shape" but these are SO simple!  Just cut out two pieces, pin right sides together and stitch leaving an opening to turn.  Before turning though, I zig-zagged the edges and clipped the curves.  After it was pressed, I stitched 1/8" from the entire edge.  (I'll give you the amounts of fabric I used at the end of this post.)

For the blankets, I used two coordinating flannels.  I first cut the front of the blanket to the size I wanted.  Mine was 38" Wide by 43" Long.  Next, cut the back (which will also be the binding) 3" LARGER in BOTH length and width from the front piece.  So my back piece was 44" Wide by 49" Long.

Begin creating the back/binding (See photos above).  The first photo is just showing you how I trimmed the pieces to size.  Next, fold the edges in 1.5" all the way around and press.  Then, fold in again 1.5" all the way around and press.

To create mitered corners:  Unfold so you just have the first 1.5" fold open.  Using a ruler, mark down each side from the corner 3" and mark.  Draw a line from mark to mark as seen in second photo.  Now fold bringing lines together and stitch on the line.  Trim seam.  NOW, if this makes NO sense to you ignore all of my instructions and just watch this video . . . I'M a visual learner so this was super helpful!

Once your corners are all mitered and your binding is neatly pressed, you're ready to insert the front panel of your blanket.

Lay the front panel under the binding edges.

Start at the top edge and work side to side, smoothing and pinning the panel into the binding.  You want to take your time on this part, making sure the panel is even and flat. 

BASTE the panel first.  This way, if you get to the bottom edge and the panel is not fitted in properly or flat, you can just remove the basting and re-position the panel.  Another tip, don't baste all along . . . it will take you FOREVER to remove even the large basting stitches.  Instead, baste 5 or 6 stitches, lift your presser foot and pull forward 4-5 inches, baste a few more stitches, pull forward, etc. which is what you see above.

After basting, press carefully, making sure there are no bumps and the panel is flat.  Then you can stitch close to the inner edge of the binding and remove your basting.

These are so fun and easy to make and tied with some extra fabric, make such a cute baby gift!  The blankets and burp cloths are double thickness so super soft!

One final touch, each blanket is stitched with my "Love" Grandma Z design

Here are the amounts of fabric I used to make 3-4 burp cloths and one blanket:

Fabric A (Blanket Front and fronts of two burp cloths): 2 yards

Fabric B (Blanket Back/Binding and fronts of two burp cloths): 2.5 yards

Fabric C (Backs of one to two burp cloths):  2/3 yard

Valentine's Day Decor

I LOVE (pun intended) decorating for Valentine's Day.  Partly because it is so empty looking after the Christmas decorations come down and partly because it brings much needed cheer during the dreary months of January and February.  This little tree was in our bedroom at Christmas and is now in the bay window decked out in red and mostly handmade ornaments.  You can check out my chenille ornament post with instructions HERE and my vintage-style Valentine ornaments HERE.

My ledge in the living room always gets dressed for the holidays.  This year I added battery-operated red fairy lights. I got these on Amazon.  Love that they have a remote control with a bunch of different settings, a timer and a dimmer.  They are super long too - 33 feet!

This bird cage was my mom's.  I used it at Christmas but thought these little snow babies sharing a soda looked cute inside.

Can you believe that people used to give these giant cards for Valentine's Day? So beautiful!

Another set of the red fairy lights in my kitchen cabinet along with some DIY vintage valentine cards I made.

Did your Dollar Tree have these great, metal words? All three in a package for 1.00!? (The third one says 'XOXO')

More kitchen decor . . .

A few years ago when I re-did my kitchen, I removed the doors to the cabinets above the refrigerator. This is another fun spot to decorate for the holidays.

Winter has finally arrived here after a glorious delay while we enjoyed an extremely warm and dry December.  I'm not fond of this weather at all . . . best to try to stay inside as much as possible and keep warm.  That's my philosophy AND Hudson's . . .

 

Valentine Tree DIY Ornaments

Christmas decorations have come down so for me, that means the Valentine decorations must go up.  Everything looks too bare and sad once Christmas is over so I begin decorating right away for Valentine's Day.  The first thing I'm sharing with you is my little kitchen tree.  This was in my kitchen for Christmas so I just left the red bead garland on and made some Valentine decorations.

I simply printed out tiny images of vintage valentine cards. To give them stability, I attached them to what I had on hand . . . a sheet of cork with peel off adhesive.  You could use more card stock as well and just glue them on.  

I had this cute felt, scalloped ribbon from the Target dollar spot so I attached that to the edges of the little cards.

I am always on the look out for old keys.  This summer I picked up a giant bag of them at an estate sale for just a few dollars.  The heart 'ribbon' was also from Target so I cut the hearts apart and attached them to the keys with string.  The jewels were from an old strand of 'something' that I had in my stash so I wired those to keys.

These ornaments cost me zero since I printed the cards and had everything else on hand.  You could embellish these with anything - it's a great project for using up those 'bits and pieces' of embellishments you have in your stash.

I'm not a big 'after Christmas shopper' but I do tend to pick up extra light sets and anything that is red, white or pink that could be used for Valentine decor.  I'll also grab a few sets of red and blue lights (patriotic decor) and green (St. Patrick's Day) and some other colors to use for Easter.

The cheery reds, whites and pinks help one of our most dreary months here a little bit easier to bear!

More Valentine decor to come . . .

Reclaimed Wood Christmas Art

I finished all of my shopping, shipping, wrapping and baking this week so I finally had some time for creating something and decided to dip into my stash of reclaimed fence boards to create a picture for Christmas.  I love this line from the carol O Holy Night so I decided it would be perfect for this large piece.

Once I decided on the size I wanted, I cut the boards and staggered them randomly.  I often do this because . . . no matter how much I measure and how careful I am, I can't seem to get my boards cut evenly/equally.  Staggering means . . . it doesn't matter haha!

Using a piece of 1/4" plywood, I used small nails to secure the plywood to the boards, holding them in place.

I chose a simple font and printed out the words to fit the boards.  You can play around with the arrangement and spacing before you being transferring and painting the letters onto the wood.  Typically, I will use graphite paper underneath and trace the letters, transferring the print onto the boards.  In this case, I wanted to paint the words on the plain wood in white so I used the old "rub chalk onto the back of the paper" method and then traced over the letters.

These boards were a bit tricky as they are rough and ridged, not smooth.  In the end, I didn't mind that the lines aren't perfectly smooth -- I wanted a more rustic look anyway.

The boards I chose had these lovely, smooth knot holes in them.  I wanted to do something a little special with them so I attached these piece of snowflake paper to the back so they show through the holes.

I lightly sanded the words once they were dry and then added a few snowflakes.

I needed something fairly large and substantial at the end of this hallway and I think this works nicely.  I may even leave this up for the winter months.

Two side notes:  This little table was my very first blog post project in 2011!  I've used it in many places in my house and I just love it.

Second note:  That's my mom in the photo on top - she passed away last year with dementia.  She LOVED birds and these ceramic ones were a few from her collection.  I found this oil painting of birds at an estate sale and think it makes the perfect 'back drop' here.

Then my brother found this cardinal Christmas lamp that was my mom's and gave it to me.  It completed the arrangement!

My mom always made every holiday special . . . even ones like St. Patrick's Day (and we're not Irish!) and Valentine's Day.  I inherited my love of holiday decorating from her for sure!  I miss her.  The other day it was so gray and dreary here (for like the 5th day in a row!) and when I walked in the house I said to my dog (yes, I talk to him haha!), "Hudson, this weather is the PITS".  Now I hadn't said or heard that in years but that was one of my mom's sayings!  I guess in many ways . . . we do become our mothers!

Goodwill Picture Makeover for Baby

The church I work at has a nursing moms room that needed a bit of help.  It actually was kind of like a dungeon lol.  On the wall facing the rockers is a large electrical box.  I decided that attaching a large picture to it would help tremendously.

This large picture was at Goodwill for 3.00.  I thought it was pretty as is but decided to add a Bible verse to it.

After choosing a simple script font, it was printed on copy paper and using tape, placed where I wanted the words to be.  

I started using my usual method of slipping a piece of graphite paper underneath the copy paper and tracing over the letters but soon realized the finish on the picture was grabbing the graphite and leaving smudges.  I switched to a lighter touch and it worked fine.  Any smudges left behind were easily removed with a slightly damp "magic eraser".

Typically I hand paint using black, acrylic paint and a fine brush.  The surface of the picture was pretty smooth so I was able to use a paint pen.  I bought a set of these on Amazon and I really like them for detail painting on smooth surfaces.

All of the little 'spots' you see are not paint, just the way this photographed.  It actually turned out really well!

My 3.00 picture was attached to the metal electrical box using Command velcro picture hangers.  A quick, inexpensive fix for an unsightly spot!