goldenoro: Before the Return To Oz

Before I get to posting about my recent, long-awaited trip to Australia, I want to show off the little blankets I made before I left.

Knowing I would need at least 6 gifts for new baby mummies who were old friends of mine and my sister's, I spent a whole lot of time roaming shops before I suddenly hit on the now obvious idea of making something for them all with all the fabulous fabric I have amassed over the last year or two.

I thought of making quilts but knew that unless I could churn out a few every week, it wasn't going to get done. I came across a fabulous idea for a baby receiving blanket in a gorgeous book I had bought earlier last year: Joelle Hoverson's Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. It was a square piece of cotton flannel bordered with double-folded bias binding, which I thought was super cute and easy on the eye.

I had also been thinking about the coasters I had been making earlier this year. So I thought, why not make cute baby blankets with all my lovely material and instead of a single layer with gorgeous hemming, make them like I made my coasters?

Brilliant!

I used my Japanese Miyaki cotton prints, got myself about ten metres of cotton flannel in cream, grey, powder blue and pastel pink, sewed squares of them right-sides-in, leaving a small hole through which I inverted the blankets inside-out. Then I sewed the edges down and quilted the two sides together with a few interlocking squares, to keep the two pieces from shifting around like a billowing pillow case.

For one of them I had forgotten to sew the print right-side-in, and of course, hating unpicking as much as I do, I decided making my own double-folded bias binding would be far more desirable! Then Icould just cover the edges with a lovely contrasting print and ta-daaa! All those pieces of material leftover are suddenly put to full use :)

So I had gifts for two new babies and two brother-sister sets, six in all. The pleasure of giving them was unsurpassed. I think I should make baby blankets forever. I'll be the baby blanket making queen. It's great because I only need to sew in a straight line and cut the material straight. Plus if takes so little time! Right up my alley.

I so adore my pictures I have to put them all here. Sorry!

This one ended up going to Claire's little Tessa.

This blue stripe went to Dawne's little man Zac.

This one came back to KL ungiven and was claimed by Baby Two.

This one is one of my favourites and also came back.

This yellow and purple was the one that started as a mistake (I forgot to sew right sides together) and ended up being rather lovely. This went to Chris' little Lilly.

This olive-y green went to Claire's little fighter, Finlay.

This grey-green stripe went to Megan's gorgeous blue-eyed boy Leo.

This is a bunch of prints and flannels I paried together which have yet to be assembled.

The check you see on top went to Chris's Jack - who is a cutie.

You might remember the olive-green print here, which I used as edging for the dresses I made for the girls. Here it has been sliced into bias-cut strips to be folded over twice to make edging. This particular print combo is now lining Illy Bean's cot.