Baby projects complete!

It's a rare occurrence for me, but I managed to finish off all four baby projects in accordance with Prince Albert's maxim: 'It's always best to complete a task well ahead of schedule.'  They were all done a couple of weeks ago (I needed to clear the decks of other projects before I could focus on the wedding pillow) and are ready to hand over to the prospective parents tomorrow. =)

Above, of course, is the finished up red baby cardy.  I used little star shaped buttons for novelty value as embroidery would have been overkill on this one.

Next I'm proud to present two baby cot/crib quilts, one in reds, neutrals and orientals for a mixed race (white/oriental) baby boy:

And one in pastels and florals for a white girl.  I asked the father-in-waiting which colours they'd like and he suggested blues and greens.  I didn't have very many of those (most of my fabrics seem to be reds, pinks and purples), so I added in a couple of florals and some lilacs as well.  I like both combos, but this one is my favourite.

My next sewing task is to make a new Bible cover for my husband whose old one was a disgrace - worn out and shabby well beyond being fit to be seen.  He liked the colours in the red quilt, so I fished out the little scraps left over from making that to put together for his cover, which will be the remaining part of his anniversary present this year (he had the rest a couple of  months ago).  I also need to make a card and found some cute cross stitch designs that shouldn't eat up too much time to make.  There's already another baby knit in progress and I'll show you how that's coming on next weekend.

Plenty coming up this summer as I haven't even started talking about the Show pieces yet!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2016

Having pregnant friends means.....

lots of baby makes!

While I haven't been blogging much over recent months, I have been doing some needlecrafts of various sorts.  Here are the results of having pregnant friends in my circle and my wanting to use up my knitting yarns and some of the padding stuff I had stashed away.

First of all, another cardigan in my old favourite pattern for a little girl due in June/July:

As you can see, it's finished, but I was over-zealous with the ironing and flattened it out too much. Yesterday, a new crafting friend told me it would plump up somewhat when washed, which I had wondered about too.  Can anyone with good knitting experience advise here, please?

The second baby cardy, for the son of the Franco-Malaysian couple you may remember me making a wedding ring pillow for and who is due late July is almost finished.  I've done a fair bit more on the rib button band than shows here and hope to finish this one off soon.  Not sure I'll stitch anything on to it as it would probably be OTT given the nice diamond pattern.

This one has been an interesting project as I've been using up a yarn that claims to be 4-ply, but certainly isn't.  It's not quite DK either and when I did some tiny knitted up samples to test it against scraps of 4-ply and DK, it measured as mid-way between them.  Seems to be about 6-ply.  So, I'm using a 4-ply pattern at the 0-3 months size, but the 3-6 months lengths along with size 9 and 11 needles and it's working out OK.  I may try to do a pair of matching mittens - even attempt to put the diamond on them, in order to use up more of the 100g ball as I really won't be able to use it alongside other yarns.

Onto the quilting now and I'm also working baby quilts for both of these summer arrivals.

The girl's one is almost done.  I just need to mitre the corners and then slip stitch the backing in place.  I'll probably be saving that final sewing to do when with mum as it's a fairly easy task and I'll be able to carry it around with me.  She enjoys seeing what I'm doing too and has been following along with my knitting. =)

The boy's one is a bit further back and needs the 'X's putting in at the square joins, then the backing trimming and pinning before it gets to the above stage.

I've various fair sized scraps of DK yarn left, so I thought I'd get a 50g ball of white and then make a sort of patchwork cardigan at 6-12 month size for the little girl.  The colours won't suit a boy - pink, lilac, peach etc, but should be good worked in squares with white to break it up a bit and for the edges.  Hopefully that will sort out my odds and ends.  The wadding needed for these two quilts has used up 80% of my supply too, and the also a number of bits of fabric, so that's all great in helping me use up stash.  The only things I've bought for these projects were the flower buttons for the lilac cardy as I don't stock buttons.

Other than that, there are two engaged couples and one or two more who probably will be later on this year, so there are weddings galore to stitch for.  I'm working on a design for the first one and will share that soon.

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2016

My First Quilt!

Here it is, the baby cot/crib quilt. The prospective parents, (baby due in about 3 weeks), seemed very pleased with it, so I was glad that I managed to get it done in time to give them in person today.=) Besides, I have enough things that I either behind with, or just feel behind with, so I was glad not to have to add another 'catch-up' project to the list!

Next card complete and first quilt started

<- Here's the latest addition to the card collection.

And here ->

are the squares all cut out for the baby cot/crib quilt. The smaller, turquoise ones at the front will be made into 2 regular sized squares. The scrap of fabric I had in that colour (which I really wanted to use) wasn't wide enough, so I'm having 2 squares that are different from the rest. If it looks naff, I'll sub in two other coloured ones. This will be my first stab at quilting, but it doesn't look like a difficult pattern. I'll need to get some nice fabirc for the backing of it soon as it's to be done by next Saturday ready for handover on the Sunday. After that, I can relax and finish the dog. The next 'due bys' aren't needed until July, then September.