Quilt #2 Finished

It's done.  Finally, finally done.  D's baby quilt is complete.  Never mind that she is two years and two months old.  I did have the first one done before they were born so had I only had one baby, I would have been in great shape.  I still consider one quilt in two years with twins pretty good. 

It is similar in layout to T's quilt and bright which I love.  The butterfly blocks turned out well. 

Now to start baby quilt #3.  I have some cute fabric for it.  Now I need to figure out a pattern for it.  Hmmm . . .

Foot and Hand Prints Quilt

I have been too lazy to take pictures of this project, but finally I got on it.  These are squares for a quilt I plan to make for myself in a few years.  On their first birthday and again this year I took the girls' hand prints and footprints with fabric paint on 9x9 inch squares. 

The difference between footprints is more noticeable than hand prints.  Look how much D's feet have grown in the past year.  As you can see with T's hand prints, it's harder to tell which one was more recent. 

The plan is to do the same at least for the next year and possibly the year after, along with any new additions to the family.  Then I will make it into a queen or king size quilt for our bed. 

I regret not doing it when they were newborns.  You can see on the baseballs how itty bitty their feet were.  Their tiny hands were just precious too.  They grow so fast!

Growth Chart

I thought I would get this post up before all the craziness ensues.  Tomorrow evening Kevin's family, my mother, my sister and her little boy are flying in to have a birthday bash for the girls a month late.  Don't ask why; that is just how this whole crazy birthday party day evolved over the months.  Wish I knew then what I know now.  I would have planned it much better, but I'm sure it will all turn out fine nevertheless.

Then a week from today, the girls and I are flying to California for three weeks.  We will miss Daddy but it will give the girls time with their grandparents.  I need to start packing but I've been so busy getting the house ready for company and planning the birthday party that packing hasn't happened yet.  I did manage to pull out the suitcase today though, so that is a good start.

I have almost finished both growth charts.  I still need to embroider numbers on the ruler portion of both and sew something to hang both by.  I also need to finish the binding of T's.  It is about a quarter of the way stitched down and shouldn't take long.

D's growth chart

This was my first time machine appliqueing and it sure does make that part of the project come together quickly.  Mistakes come faster too though so concentration is a must.  I got the idea for this project and the patterns for the flowers from the Fons and Porter website.  I also made one for my nephew for Christmas that had only one flower, a caterpillar and a grasshopper.  I was so rushed to finish it in time that I did not get any good photos of it unfortunately.  But the grasshopper looked really cute.

For each growth chart, I painstakingly marked the ruler lines and then machine sewed each of them line by line with two strands of thread (pink/purple for D's and pink/orange for T's and dark green/bright green for cousin H's).  The ruler starts at 2 feet which is the level I will hang it at and goes to over 5 feet.  I plan to use a fine tipped sharpie to mark the girls' progress.

"3" for 3 years old or for 3 feet tall

I used felt for their names.  Had I planned ahead it would have been out of another colorful material, but I added their names much later (I've been working on these since last fall) and had felt on hand at the time. 

Labelled so there is no confusion.

My goal is to finish them and hang them before we leave for California in a week.  Having family around to watch the girls will hopefully give me time to work on them.  But I have a lot to do and not a lot of time.  I hope I make it.

Baby Quilt #2

I have been making some progress on baby quilt #2.  The center section of the quilt top is pieced. I pieced the thirteen butterfly blocks in the evenings after the girls were in bed.  Sewing them together was quick and easy after I had gotten them all made. 

This is a photo of baby quilt #1 which I finished before the girls were born.  I decided to follow the same quilt layout for baby quilt #2 except instead of pinwheels, the pieced blocks are butterflies.  There are twenty five main squares that alternate between a solid block and a pieced block.  The center is surrounded by some sashing, contrast rickrack and then the border.

It was my first quilt and took me a long time to do and get it right.  I think it took me close to eight months, working on it little by little.  Here is the proof that they were still in my belly when I completed the first one.  That was my goal, having one finished by the time they were born.  I really liked how it turned out.

I machine quilted the straight lines of the pinwheels and bars along the border.  But I hand quilted designs in the solid blocks.  Hand quilting did not take me as long as I had anticipated because I had to rest a lot by that point in the pregnancy.  I laid on the couch for hours at a time and needed to keep my hands busy.  Hand quilting portions of baby quilt #2 may take a bit longer now that the girls are out of my belly and crawling all over the place!

There are eight small pieced pinwheel blocks around the border, which helps the quilt border really pop.  And right now that is where I am currently stuck on baby quilt #2. 









The pattern I took the butterfly squares from made a 6 1/2" block only. I need to resize it to a 4 1/2" block.  It shouldn't be too hard to do, but I keep putting it off. I would like to have the quilt top completely pieced by the time the girls turn one, but time is slipping away fast and I'm busy with other projects.  So we'll see if I make it.