Jameson

These blankets are special because they are for an old college friend who is having her first child at age 38. We are all very excited for her to be a mother for the first time! She loves monkeys & has monkeys waiting in the baby crib. So I went with that theme.

The first is just a small, crib sized fleece. This one the kids wanted to help with so it was as simple as can be. Two pieces sewed in a rectangle with a 2 1/2 inch selvage. (I didn't want to tie it because it would be way to bulky for the size.) I set 2 kids with 2 pairs of scissors up on a cutting board with instruction on the spacing of the cuts & they were done in less than 5 minutes. A few days after it was finished, I was given his name so I just ripped out one seam to do the initials & then re-sewed it.

The second blanket was flannel on both sides--brown & then the same monkey print but the print size was scaled down a bit. I put brown ribbon on 2 of the corners of the monkey side & then put his name on the top of the brown side with it centered & at an arcing angle. The fun thing about this blanket is the thread. It was a 2 color thread that went back & forth from yellow to orange since the monkey print had both those colors. (Looking at his name embroidered makes me think of a giraffe, not a monkey though....oh well.) For the outside edge I chose a stitch that reminded me of the branches on the trees on the green print. It really adds a lot of character on the brown side of the blanket.

Scarlett

I was showing a friend of mine the blankets I mailed out last week & she asked, "Oh, will you please make one for me to give to my niece?" We talked about what she might like & decided on this red & pink flannel toille. I didn't notice the pink when I bought it, but it does add a little bit extra to the print.

I was also pretty proud of myself because I was having some problems with embroidery & I actually broke open the MANUAL & found out so many neat things to help me. Funny how those manuals can be so helpful if you open them! Anyway, I added red ribbon that had white stitching to the top horizontally below the name.

The outside border was a real struggle for me. I probably spent 30 minutes just trying to decide what to do. There are so many flower motifs in the print, but none that I tried on the scrap material seemed right, so I put it down for the night. Next day, I decided on the leaf/ivy motif as it was simple & added just enough to make it special.

In addition to the blanket I also made a burp rag to match. I just put her initial on one side & a strip of the flannel down the middle of the other side. I really like how the blanket turned out. I am not a big fan of the toille, but when I saw this material, I knew I would find a perfect match for someone some day & I think I did.

Jayden

One of the 5th grade teachers had a baby (her first boy) a few weeks ago so this is the outcome of her blanket. I LOVE the colors of this one. So bold & such a fun print. The seahorses have a half circle edging to them so I extended that theme to the border. I also had this ribbon that matched perfectly with the greens & blues on the print side of the flannel. The orange flannel has a bit of a tie dye feel to it as it is not a solid orange.

Gia

We have another good friend in North Carolina from residency who just added a little girl to their family. His parents own a beach house & they let us use it for free multiple times while we lived there & it was soooo wonderful since we had NO money to rent one back then. We have such great memories there at the beach. They have one son & now cute little Gia, which means God is Gracious from the Italian.

This first blanket is flannel on both sides white on one, at cute flower print on the other. I didn't do anything to print side (it is so busy by itself). The white side has a matching ribbon down one edge & her name in dark pink above it with 4 6 pointed light pink flowers under it. I used a flower motiff for the edging in purple on the white side & green on the floral side. I have to say this is one of my favorites so far. Since this is their first girl I wanted to make them 2 one for winter & one for summer. (Plus girl blankets are so much easier to find material for!) The second is made from 2 contrasting seersucker prints. We find butterflies, lady bugs & heart on the yellow side & polkadots on the other side. For the border I put matching hearts from the yellow motif. On the green side I put her name in 2 cirlces made from different patterns in one of the corners. The yellow ring is remeniscent of a sunburst while the pink ones reminds me of a broken rope pattern.

School Carnival

Someone once told me not to let anyone know that I had a machine that could embroidery because then everyone would ask me to do stuff for them. I had my first chance today to help out & I was glad to do it. Our school carnival is on friday & a neighbor asked if I could put this on the aprons. I felt a little pressure since the whole school was going to be seeing it, but it was fun until the last apron & it messed up. I did some quick thinking & redoing & it turned out fine.