For James...

My dear friend, Jenny Kramer, is expecting her first baby on 10-31-11. She and her husband, Eric, are having a boy whom they are naming James. I decided to make her a baby quilt. I m not very crafty and usually end up complaining the whole time that I am sewing but for some reason I keep trying it. But this time ended up differently. I had a few moments of frustration but all in all it was the most fun I've had so far crafting. Maybe I'm turning over a new leaf. :)

Usually I would surprise the mommy-to-be but Jenny and I have VERY different style tastes. We know it, acknowledge it, accept it and work with it. We took a Saturday and headed to Wal-Mart to do some fabric damage. This is my favorite part of the project. I love going into a store with few ideas and watching it all come together as I pull, match, put back, and pull some more fabric from the shelves. We originally started with the idea of something sea-themed to match James' room. But an hour later, the fabric we settled on was not even close to sea-themed but we both loved it. Even more than we loved the fabric, we loved the fact that we BOTH loved it. A miracle in the middle of Wal-Mart. :)

And here is the finished product.......(sorry the lighting is poor)

I backed the quilt with dark brown flannel. It makes the quilt cozy but thin so it's easy to fold up and take almost anywhere. Here's a little closer view.....

I know you can't see it but I tried top stitching for the first time ever. I usually tie off every corner of every square with matching yarn which looks cute until it's been washed a few times. The yarn starts to fall apart so top stitching looks a lot better in the long run. I just sewed an X across 9 or so squares around the quilt to hold the top to the back.

After I finished the quilt I was so proud of myself and had so much fun that I was inspired to use the left over fabric on another project for little James......a name banner! My first one ever.

I'm pretty darn proud of this. :) I used the flannel as the squares and the top fabric for the letters. I used pinking shears, for the first time ever, to cut everything which gives all the edges a little spice. Side note: my mom and I loved the pinking shears we borrowed so much that we ran out and bought our own. Love <3 My mom also taught me how to do a zig zag stitch on her machine which is what I used on the letters. I love it because it gives the letters an added factor of cuteness. I then sewed all the squares to ribbon leaving a long tail on each end so it's ready to hang or tie somewhere in James' room. During this project I also fell in love with button projects. Hence the buttons glued on to the banner. I think they add just the right final touch. 

And once again, as soon as the banner was finished I wanted to make more. I still had time before the shower so I thought I would try my hand at a taggie and fancy burp cloths. I've seen my crafty mom friends make taggies before. They are basically small blankets with ribbon loops all around the edges that little fingers can hang on to. My first one was an epic fail. So bad, in fact, that my mom told me I could NOT give it to Jenny. But I was determined! Round two came out a lot better and I ended up making two of them. One of them has crinkle paper in it so it makes noise when moved around. I had a really hard time with the crinkle stuff and, frankly, it was pissing me off. My sister Jenny saved the day and sewed that part in for me. Thanks Jen! The burp cloths were pretty easy and just fancy up those plain white things. Moms and spit up can be stylish too! SO, finally, when it was all finished, I had a matching pack of baby awesomeness to give my sweet friend.....

Hope you love it James! <3