Baby and Quilt Show Prep Modes

BABY MODE
Once again I am in baby mode, making burp cloths. They may be mundane but they do serve the purpose of getting me out of any quilting slump I may be in. These eight are for a couple who just had their second boy baby. I mailed them off a few days ago. Burp cloths are my go-to baby gift. Each burp cloth can be made from two fat quarters or from a fat quarter and 1/4 yard WOF. I general use a half yard each of two fabrics and make them in complementary pairs. Four pairs are shown in the following photos - whales, gears, owls, and argyle – each paired with either stripes or dots. Here is the June 18, 2014 tutorial I posted on how to make these burp cloths.

But now I have crib sheets to add to my repertoire. I have two cut out for use with a standard size crib mattress and have begun stitching them up. The four corners get joined with French seams and then elastic is run around in a casing along the outer edges. The original online tutorial for the sheets in the Stitched in Colors blog post for November 4, 2014. It is not under her tutorial tab for some reason.

This first crib sheet will coordinate with the quilt my daughter is finishing up. You can see its initial design in her July 29th post to her RobinLovesQuilting blog titled Quiltus Interruptus. Her son was born on July 16th. You can not keep a good quilter inactive for long! She has follow on posts to her blog on September 14th and 15th describing her design process in her posts Dinosaur Panel Play 1 and Dinosaur Panel Play 2. I was bemused to see that like mother, like daughter, she too convinces herself of her design choices by adding words to explain why she made those decisions.

The coordinating crib sheet fabric comes from the largest scale print from the Have You Seen My Dinosaur line.

Here is the completed crib sheet stretched over a furniture cushion since I did not have a standard crib mattress available.

This second crib sheet will coordinate with the Bugs R Us quilt I made and showed completed in my post for July 15, 2015.

I picked the largest scale bug fabric from the Backyard Safari line. I am not sure I would want to sleep on something like this but he is a boy after all.

And once again, here is the completed crib sheet stretched over a furniture cushion. The lush foliage looks inviting and I suppose those bright colors do make the beetles kinda friendly - sort of... I say better these bug images on his bed sheets than real ones in his pockets!

QUILT SHOW PREP MODE
I also spent time this week making and attaching hanging sleeves on two quilts I am entering in my local guild's show this coming weekend. This is a dull task that I managed to complicate by deciding to piece one of the sleeves out of five fabrics to coordinate with the quilt. I did not have enough remaining backing fabric, I did not like anything from my stash as a sleeve fabric, and none of the five leftovers from the quilt front were wide enough nor long enough to use alone. This photo only reveals three of the five fabrics. There are two more hidden pieced sections on the side of the sleeve next to the quilt top. Two, not just one, but two seams run the length of the sleeve. Anal, right? I know. This quilt is my Simple Gifts seen in my post for June 10, 2015.

For the other quilt I am displaying I added a sleeve out of all one fabric and it was much simpler and quicker. But then my husband said, "Aren't you going to put those labels on like you do?". Well, no. I wasn't going to invest the time. But he was right, and I should. So I did. Here is the quilt name label. On an opposite corner is a similar label with my name and year of completion. Sunny Spring Frost is pictured in my post for July 24, 2013. Stitching on the sleeves by hand, making and adding the grosgrain ribbon labels, and basting on the paper identification tabs to each quilt took me the better part of a day. Aargh! But I am ready now.

The Diablo Valley Quilters' guild show is this weekend in Walnut Creek, CA.  Check out the show if you are near the area. Here is the link.

I am linking up now with this week's Freshly Pieced Works in Progress. I am fairly confident that other folk are piecing quilts and not dribbling their time away piecing quilt sleeves! In my defense, I did make eight burp cloths and two crib sheets, too – just not a lot of quilts. Hmmm. What is the name of this blog again? DianeLoves2Quilt?