Some new projects

I have some baby gifts to make so last night I pulled out the fabrics I needed. These are all such happy prints and it will be fun to work on them.  The owls with the purple and yellow will become a quilt using the Quick Strippee pattern from http://www.maryquilts.com .  Mary has some wonderful free designs and the Quick Strippee is one of my "go to" quilts for kids.

The 2 dog prints with coordinating fabrics are flannels and these will become self-binding baby blankets for my new grandson due in about 7 weeks.  I especially love the grey and white ones, but the brown set will be cute too. And I know the "jungle animal" type print isn't a dog paw print, but the colors are perfect, so I'm putting them together.

 My goal for the week is to get the flannel ones completed, and the Quick Strippee all cut and ready to sew. Plus I've got a binding in progress for another UFO.  So hoping to knock a few yards of fabric off my stash this week.  Too bad I have to go to work too. It really cuts into my sewing time. :-)

Another self-binding baby blanket

My third small finish for the week - another self-binding baby blanket. This one is for a coworker with a baby boy due in a couple of weeks.

If you haven't tried making one of these yet, do consider it. These make such wonderful and quick baby gifts. Whoever came up with this technique is a genius!! There are a ton of tutorials online and you can just search for "self-binding baby blanket".  They take 2 pieces of flannel and about an hour including cutting time.

My back piece is 10" larger than my front piece because it folds around to the front and makes the binding.  I buy 1.25 yards of the back and then cut the square as large as I can. Then I measure that and cut the other piece 10" smaller.

The only thing a little tricky is making sure your corners are stitched at the correct angle. I actually printed off my favorite tutorial and it is in the drawer that holds my flannel stash so I can refer to it each time just to be sure.  I've made a LOT of these over the past few years and it is my "go to" baby gift, along with a hand made burp cloth.  I always have a little stash of coordinating flannels in my stash in girl colors, boy color, and gender neutral colors so that I can whip one of these up anytime I need a quick gift.

Saturday progress

My Saturday has been a completely "self-centered" day so far.  I went to Saturday Sampler this morning, came home and put together the units for the summer mystery quilt.  So, those are ready to go for next month already. Then I sewed this self-binding baby blanket for a co-worker's new baby and  it can go into the mail to her on Monday.

After lunch I went back to The Pin Cushion for the Wash Tub Club group that meets monthly.  It is all about vintage things, and 1930s repro fabrics.  It's a fun group of ladies and I always enjoy going.  This month's demo block was the Snail's Trail, and I have always wanted to make something with that block.  HMMM - do I dare start anything new?

Now that I'm home again I guess I need to do a little laundry and clean up my kitchen again - before I go back to my sewing room.  I've been very selfish today and it felt good, especially since I know that my work schedule is about to get crazy again starting on Monday.

Another self-binding baby blanket

This flannel baby blanket is going in the mail today to one of my daughter's friends that just had a new baby.  I love these self-binding blankets - so quick and easy to make up. And finding adorable flannel is half the fun.

Another self-binding baby blanket

Self-binding baby blankets are one of my new "go to" projects. These little receiving blankets make such a nice little baby gift. I attended a baby shower on Saturday afternoon for the daughter of a friend. This is her first baby and due in mid-May.

Since they are choosing to let the gender of the baby be a surprise, I tried to pick colors that were more gender neutral. This one is light blue and purple.

I just gave my daughter 6 of them for the new babies due to arrive soon.  And I have more flannel set aside to make some additional ones as I need baby gifts.

Rubber duckies

I made another self-binding baby blanket today. This one has a yellow and light blue rubber ducky flannel. So cute and quick and easy.

More flannel

I have to admit that I'm kind of hooked on making the self-binding flannel baby blankets.  And I have added a couple of new purchases to my flannel stockpile.

Both of these prints will look so cute with the lavendar dot.  I also have a light blue with yellow rubber duckies to go with a yellow star flannel.  And last but not least I have a darling giraffe print in turquoise and orange. 

I have 4 of these self-binding blankets already made and I gave one of them to my daughter to see if she liked it.  Since she is pregnant with twins due in the spring, and her cousin is pregnant as well - I know that I can give away a few of these as gifts. 

1 hour project

What can you accomplish in an hour?

A self-binding baby blanket. This is the second one I've made now and once I figured out the technique it was really fast.  Cut, sewing, top stitch, press . . . all done in just less than an hour, start to finish, last night.  I have the flannel for 2 more so now I need a couple of more free hours.

Self-binding baby blanket

This self-binding baby blanket is made from 2 flannel pieces and is one of the easiest projects I've done in ages.  It is so easy in fact, that I am going to make more of them so that I have some baby gifts ready to go when needed.

The Pin Cushion has done some classes on this and I've wanted to attend, but just couldn't make any of them work out. So I decided that somewhere on the Internet must be instructions for this. And I was so right - several different tutorials showed up in my search.  Just search for "self-binding baby blanket".