Back to Drawing and a Baby Quilt

Yes, I'm finally going to announce a new winner for the Mighty Bright Sewing Light drawing.  It's number 5.  Wait, that means nothing.  It's TwynMawrMom and I suppose that means nothing to all but a few of you but I know it is Ashley in Philly. She has adorable twins who I haven't seen in years.  She wrote this in the comments section. 

"I remember when you started the blog! I thought the whole idea sounded so 'high tech' to me and now I'm enjoying blogging as well. Thanks for the inspiration as always. I have two machines, both Singers, one is a serger. I haven't named them (well I have many names for the Serger but none of them fit to print). My "main man" Singer is how I sloperate, so we call it a Singer-Sloperator. It would love a light!! :)"  

So Ashley, I actually have your mail address and I will get this out to you this week.  Thanks to everyone who entered the drawing. And, I apologize for being so late getting this finished.  

Now to share the quilt Jenny and I made for Aimee and Elise Mae.  Jen and I thought it made more sense to make one quilt from the two of us rather than each making a quilt.  So when I was at the June retreat in Maryland I found some elephant fabric at the local shop. Aimee loves elephants.  Being a modern woman (what? who, me?)  I quickly snapped photos of the various pieces and texted them to Jenny so she could help decide on which one we wanted.  She liked the orange and I gathered a few extra pieces to go with it.

We each made some big blocks and then Jenny cut them apart and sewed them back into a quilt.  She dropped the top off to me at some point and I quilted it and did the border using the striped fabric. I found a great elephant panto at Urban Elementz.  I enlarged the elephant a bit and copied and taped it together to use it on the quilt.  

I changed the tail and decided afterward that perhaps the original tail would have been easier to quilt and make it look good.  Too late! 

It seems pretty bright here but in reality I don't think it is quite that bright.  Here's the photo I took at the retreat before I wrapped it.  It was early morning and the sun was shining on it. It doesn't look so bright.  

Aimee was tickled with it.  In addition I made her a custom hospital gown which allows her to nurse without baring all.  I forgot to get a picture of that but here's what the beginning looked like. (More elephants.)

This is a free pattern from Creations Sew Crazy and Lazy Girl Designs.  You can get your own PDF version here. I spoke to my friend Janet who works in a hospital nursery and quizzed her about  some of the instructions on the gown.  First, no I didn't need to make an open shoulder.  And, wouldn't it be fabulous if a mommy could nurse through it without taking half her gown off.  Hum, I've sewn enough clothing to know how to make that happen, kind of.  I basically added two seams to the front -- think of princess style dress.  I added fabric where the breast would come through so I could have it finished rather than raggedy.  I sewed the princess seam leaving the "slit" open to allow easy access to the breast.  I did make the back a bit bigger so there would be enough coverage back there!  Aimee loved it.  She particularly liked the nursing slits.  I hope I can get a photo of her in it when Elise is due -- Monday!  Well, you know babies, they come when they want.  She's a big girl according to all the testing. She might already be a 9 pound girl.  Hum, sounds an awful lot like her daddy! 

Here's Aimee in her cute T-Shirt at her shower. 
It's too bad I didn't get a better picture of her and the darling little sweater someone had knit for her.  Aimee's a scientist and loves all thing scientific.  Check out those bones! We found some fabric with skeletons on it where the bones were accurately labeled. It is in her collection now.  

And here as a funny conclusion to this post is a cake that was made in her honor for her shower. If you are easily offended you might not want to look at the cake picture.  Once I figured it all out I wanted to howl with laughter. In fact I did when I shared it with some of the gals at the retreat when I got back there.  Hi Mom! 

Time to get back to my studio.  Happy Quilting All!