Baby Palooza

I'm so super excited to show the baby stuff I've been working on the past several months.  Rich's daughter is due in early January and the baby shower is this weekend.  Everything has been gifted and opened, so I can finally share all the things I've been working on.

The first thing I did was make this Harry Potter Cube.  It's a free pattern on Pinterest if you'd like to make one for yourself.  Alyssa is a huge HP fan and I tried to do something she would find fun.  As most of you know, I'm a huge fan, too!  Something that I love about modern baby stuff is that it's not super baby themed.  I would have liked to do similar when my kids were babies. 

I found these super fun ribbons on Etsy that all have a HP theme.  The golden snitch has crinkly stuff inside.

The Quidditch field is made with wooden teething rings.

The Hedwig panel was the hardest one to do.  There was a national shortage of elastic at the time and I couldn't make the pouch the way it was supposed to be made but I think I got it done.  Clearly the baby owl is removable and Hedwig's wings have velcro to hold him in.

Then there's the Hogwarts emblem.  I'm really happy with the whole thing.💓

I had to miss the baby shower because of the pandemic.  Her mom is hosting a "Drive Thru" shower this weekend.  We couldn't justify driving to Iowa just to drive by her mom's house & wave hi.  So, instead I baked cookies and shipped them.  The invitations were really cute and said something about welcoming a little pumpkin so I went with pretty pumpkins.  The little rose is from a fondant mold, the rest was piping.

This was the first time I've used real egg whites instead of merengue powder for my royal icing.  It didn't harden as well but I liked the flavor a lot better.  I used a gift tag cutter for the base of the bottle cookie.  They've been "quality controlled" after shipping and passed inspection.

The onesie wasn't as successful as I had hoped.  I used a lace technique for the first time on the sleeves.  I think this would have been more successful using merengue powder.  Also, the green and cream frostings were different thicknesses so the dots didn't smooth into the green like I wanted them to.

The peach dots were more successful.  I didn't want them to be as 90s country as they turned out but, there you go.  It is what it is.  They're delicious and that's what really matters.  I've literally been using this cookie recipe since Alyssa was 6 years old.  Not sure if she remembers them from that far back.

I really wanted to do some burp rags.  They're super useful and a fun way to be creative.

I bought some fabric diapers and basically raided my ribbons and rick rack.

They were fun.  I liked the idea a using fabrics that weren't necessarily baby themed.

Last but certainly not least, the quilt.  I didn't want to go super fancy because I hope that it gets used.  A lot.  I want this thing to be barely hanging together by a thread when the baby is a middle schooler.

I really had trouble deciding what to do.  I was hoping for HP but I didn't like any of the fabric that was available in the US.  I just couldn't bring myself to spend $20/yard for fabric that was going to be pooped on in the near future...

Melissa gave me the best advice while I was stressing out about it.  She said that I should make it about me so that the baby knows what Grandma Heather is about.  When I was done crying ugly tears, I found the baking mice.  My spirit animals, each and every one.

I can't get enough of them.

I hope that baby Lucy always feels the love that this was all made with.

And with that, my friends, it's time to find my butter bed and & take my nap...

It's Not Awesome But It's Progress

It's not that I completely haven't been creating.  I just haven't been doing much of it that's been any good.  This block from the Red & Green quilt makes me absolutely cringe every time I see it.  All the pieces are wonky.  All of them.  And there are quite a few in this block.  None of the hexagons are the same size, almost none of the points match.  Bleh!

I just finished this one last night.  Much better.  Fewer pieces to match up.  I had a second piece of yellow stuffed in the large flower's center but it must have fallen out because there's quite a bit of shadowing happening.

This one was finished last month.  I had completely skipped a leaf at one point and didn't notice until I was sharing it during a TAS meeting.  Ooops.  I think this project may be too taxing for my current state of mind.

 I can still manage some straight-up embroidery, though.  I can still follow a line when I need to.  Jeesh!

When I moved into the smaller studio, I lost my design board.  And, along with it, my photo set up and good lighting.  So now everything is weird angles and shadows.  I've really got to do something new for that.  I just haven't figured out what.   

I've also been working on baby things.  Rich's oldest daughter is expecting in January!  We're very excited but I don't want to share those projects until they've been gifted.

Look What I Forgot To Do

Hello!  Hope everyone is well.  Apparently I started this post back in July and totally forgot about it!

I finished the Sue Spargo Stitch Along that she did on FB in the early months of the Covid19 lock down.  I think they may have started another round since then.  Or, maybe it was a different stitch along all together.  As you can tell, I've been completely out of it these past 4-5 months.

I really enjoyed the process quite a bit.  Early on, it gave me something daily to look forward to.  In the end, I was a little over it.  You know how I get bored easily...

All the different animals were fun to make.  Not something I would ever think of on my own.

As time went on, I got sloppier with my stitches.  Not all of my animals look like what my intentions were.  Fore example, that tan one below in the upper left corner is a lion...

Some designs made more sense to me than others.  The more abstract, the more confusing for me.

Flowers are always my favorite.  

Anything with weaving took forEVER to do.

I used my Wildflowers thread exclusively and I wouldn't let myself buy more either.

Since these photos, I've quilted the whole thing and turned it into a little table topper.  I couldn't think of anything else to do with it.  Too big for a pillow, too small for a wall hanging.  Rich likes to look at it and tell me how crazy I am.  We guesstimated that I put about 250-300 hours into it for absolutely no actual purpose other than creating.

We had a crazy fall wedding season at work, regardless of restrictions.  A few of my friends didn't get to come back to work, which was heart wrenching.  And for the next 4 months, I'm back on layoff.  Who knows what the spring will bring.  In the mean time, my brain is slowly recouping or at least learning to cope with the new normal that is our life.  Perhaps I'll start keeping up with the blog again now that I will have time to create again.

Type at you soon!  Heather