Today's just a how-to for one of the gifts Eugene and I gave to my sister's baby. So, it's not my most creative idea {since Casey got 4 others}, but I decided to sew the baby a quilt/blanket. I went to JoAnn's for the fabric and fleece was 40% off...no decision there! So I picked up 2 yards of a white fleece that was patterned with pink, yellow and green ducks, turtles, and frogs. I also bought 2 yards of solid pink fleece that matched. I decided that I wanted the blanket to be larger than the usual baby blanket, so I made it 40" x 56", around the size of a crib mattress. I wanted each block to be 8" x 8", and I figured I'd use 1/2" seam, so I cut a template out of cardboard that was 9" x 9". I used a washable Crayola marker to trace the squares on my fabric...and I tried to make sure my patterned animals were centered on plenty of squares.
Once I had a stack of my squares {40 of each fabric}, I then placed them in the order I desired on the floor and pinned each one to the other. {I picked an every-other pattern.} I then began to sew the inside seams for the blocks. I used a straight stitch on my machine and had a 1/2 inch seam throughout. I sewed one side of the blanket first {40 blocks together in a 5 square by 7 square order.} I sewed the first row of 5 together, then sewed the second row of 5 blocks, then joined the two together with the same 1/2 inch seam.
Once I had both sides of the blanket completed {unattached to each other}, I turned them seam-sides out, and began to sew 1/2 inch seams around the edges basically to create a pillow case, but be sure to leave about 8 inches open so that you can flip your blanket right side out.
Before I flipped the "pillow case" so that seams were inside, I trimmed all the excess fabric from the seams {to about 1/4"} just to make the blanket feel less bulky at the corners. Not gonna lie here - this took a long time! But, it really made a difference in the feel of the blanket, and in the ease of sewing my ziz-zag diagonals.
Once I trimmed each and every seam, I finally could flip the "pillowcase" so that the seams were on the inside. I then carefully sewed up the opening of the pocket. {You can do this by hand, or machine, depending on how much you care about the seam showing.}
At this point, I began my ziz-zag stitches through the pink blocks. This definitely didn't turn out perfectly - some of my stitches were closer than others, but oh well! I pinned the top of the blanket and the bottom layer of the blanket to each other where te corners of each block meets to be sure that my diagonals would match up through the pink blocks. I then carefully sewed a diagonal zig-zag though the pink blocks to secure both sides of the blanket. I created an "X" pattern through each pink block to add a little design to the blanket. {The first picture below shows this step halfway done.}
Finally finished it! Definitely homemade, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Eugene described it as being a great blanket to lay on the floor for baby niece to on. :) Can't wait to see her beautiful self all wrapped up in the pink fleece! {sorry the pictures are so bad...I would love to get a "real" camera, but, well, they're upwards $500 - um, not gonna happen!}
It makes me smile to think that my baby girl niece will be wrapped up in something I've put love in...even while I'm in Ohio and she's in Oklahoma. I'll pretend it's my way of hugging the sweet thing. :)
Excellent job on the blanket! She will love it.
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