A little something

Will is already outgrowing his newborn diapers, so I have started on bigger ones.  The plan is for mostly one-size pockets to use at daycare and around the house, but to also have several sized fitteds to use with diaper covers.

Over the course of a couple days in early May, I managed to get this one done.

I learned a lot from his newborn diapers - what patterns I liked, which fabric combos worked best, where to and not to apply snaps, my preferred method of inserting elastic, etc.

This diaper is a size small fitted diaper made from the Very Baby pattern.  It's a knit print on the outside, a middle layer of microfiber (microfiber auto toweling from Costco), and an inner layer of microfleece.  Plus a sewn in booster of microfiber and knit print, and a snap-in soaker of microfiber and microfleece.  I had to try it out as soon as I finished it.  Of course after I snapped pictures I put a cover on over it.

So cute!

And when I changed him later the microfleece was just damp in the front, so it seemed to do a good job with my heavy wetter.

 

Now onto the other 29 or so . . . eventually I'll get them all done.

Joiner

I saw the Scrappy Trip Along way back at the beginning of the year and was very excited by it, so I became a joiner.  It took me longer to complete because I just worked on it here and there as I felt like it.

Last week it got sent to my sister-in-law for her birthday. 

The quilt is made entirely from my scraps/stash.  I didn't purchase anything new for it - not fabric, not batting, not thread.  I made sure to hammer that point home to my husband so he would know I am trying to use up some of my hoards of fabric (bought recently and long ago, inherited, etc.).  My goal for this year is to not buy fabric (unless it's charm packs of Fig Tree for my collection or diaper fabric or for a very specific reason), and I have done really well, only buying diaper fabric since before Will was born.  The  backing is from stash, and the binding is excess scraps from the backing after I finished the quilting.

I wasn't too sure of this concept as I made the blocks, because some of them were ugly, but I was determined to use fabric, cut strips off lots of fabrics in my stash, used from my scrap jar, and luckily at the end it looked pretty decent. 

I'll be making more versions of this quilt sometime - while I was cutting I went ahead and cut extras of each fabric, so I already have enough strips cut for a second quilt.

Will's Quilt

This quilt was actually finished months ago, but I never got around to photographing it.  It's a Carrie Nelson design featured in American Patchwork & Quilting (back in 2006 I believe).  It had been on my list for years.  It was actually very easy and quick to piece, and I LOVE it.

The quilt is 48"x48".

 Front

 Pieced back

Details of the quilting

It's getting lots of use for tummy time right now.

I think it's one of my favorites ever.  :-)

Reporting from Mommy Land

Hello.  Long time, no write.

I am getting close to halfway through maternity leave, and am finally feeling fairly normal (but still fat/dumpy, like a weakling from lack of activity, and sleep deprived).  Being a mom of two and a farm wife is hard.

Our second son William (Will) was born March 22 (41 weeks 3 days) via repeat c-section after 21 hours of labor with little progress (only 5 cm dilated).  So my VBAC dream did not come to fruition; however, I know I did all I could and was at peace with the decision.  And, the doctor said at 41 weeks I would not go into labor on my own, and I did, so there!

I have sewn some but not much lately.  I have pictures of a few things to show soon as I get a few minutes here and there.  Hopefully soon we'll get a schedule and I'll be able to work more sewing time in.  In the meantime, though, I'm going to focus my energy on this: