Look What Laura Made: A Quilt for #KinderSchmidt

One of the first friends I made when I moved to good old Virginia was Sarah. We were in gymnastics, cheer leading, and student council together and were best friends throughout high school.  We are lucky enough to have the wonderful internet (thanks Al Gore) and so I was able to secure a sweet photo of us from high school graduation! 

Gosh we were young but really, we are like fine wine Sarah, we only get better with age!

So when Sarah announced that she and her hubby Brennan were expecting a baby I knew immediately that I wanted to make their baby a Stars and Stripes inspired quilt.  You see, Sarah was all about America before #murica was even a thing... she and Brennan's wedding colors were red, white, and blue! So the boys and I headed off to the craft store in search of the perfectly patriot fabric for #kinderschmidt (yes, the baby has a hashtag)! 

After I picked out the fabric I started brainstorming ideas for how I wanted to lay out the quilt.  I had come across "coin quilts" in my searches and thought that a modified version of that might be cute, especially because I had so many different fabric patterns.  Here's the layout that I came up with...

 

After I had it laid out the way I wanted it, I got to work.  This was a fun yet challenging quilt because of the layout I had selected but I am quite pleased with how it turned out!

Here's an in-progress picture of the quilt making process!

The finished product!

Ready to keep #kinderschmidt nice and warm!

Letters to Everett: 11/22/14

Everett,

You are growing and growing and growing! I am so proud of the little dude that you are and how awesome you are with your brother.  You are a loving and kind spirited big brother and love to play with Nolan more than almost anything.  The two of you are getting along more and more these days and it is so fun to see the two of you playing together and having fun! 

Now that you are getting older, you really are getting into doing things for yourself which is bittersweet because you really aren't a baby anymore! Every day you are learning how things work and learning more about the world around you and it is such a blessing to watch you grow. 

Your imagination is at work within you! The drawings that you come up with are so cute and the stories that you tell are so fun to listen to- you are quite creative.  This year for Halloween mommy made you a Peter Pan costume, just like mommy was when she was your age! You had a whole entourage: RaeRae went as Tinkerbell, PigPaw was a Pirate, Mommy was Tiger Lilly, and Nolan and Daddy were Lost Boys!  We had a lot of fun and you really (really) really liked the candy part the best! 

Time is going by so fast and I know that I say that almost every day, but its true.  Every single day with you is a blessing and I am so proud and happy to be your mother.  You give me a joy that is unexplained and I cannot imagine life without you, your brother, and daddy!  You are the best! :) 

Momma and daddy love you to the moon and all the way back! 

xoxoxox,

Momma

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For more Letters to Nolan, click here! 

For Letters to Everett, click here!

Look What Laura Made: A Quilt for Brooks

With one quilt already under my belt I couldn't wait to get started on the next one and I knew just who the recipient would be!   My cousin (in law)/best friend Krystal is currently expecting her second baby boy and I was eager to get a head start on the quilt for him.  I found the cutest fabric set and got to work! 

I learned the hard way that you shouldn't just start sewing because you are really excited and can't wait to see how it turns out and sure it'll all come together... you know that saying "measure twice, cut once?"  Ya, I think the same can be said for quilts.  I mapped out blocking for the portion of the quilt below and went ahead and sewed it all together before I figured out what I would do for the rest of the quilt.  Yes, it looks cool, and yes in the end it all did work out but if I had mapped it out ahead of time it would have been a little easier!  Oh well, you live, learn, and then blog about it so you won't make the same mistakes next time!! 

After I sewed the middle portion together and mapped out the remaining squares I sewed team all together. This part was a little tricky because of all of the various corners and intersections (punny.. get it, bc its a car quilt...) but I was able to make it work and logged this down as a lessons learned for the next go round! 

Instead of stitching the ditch this time, I used the "swirly" stitch (number 63 on my Singer Stylist) to quilt the three pieces together. I really liked this better because I didn't have to worry about coloring sewing outside the line and it looked super cute! Double points. 

Photo found here

I found a tutorial on Cluck Cluck Sew on how to machine bind your quilt and I LOVE it!  It is very easy to follow and I think that this binding actually looks much nicer than the first quilt I did.  (And so you know, I did ask Tiphany if she'd let me take back the quilt and "fix" the binding, but being the wonderful woman she is, she said she loved it the way it is!) 

Here's the final product! Can't wait until Brooks is here to snuggle up in it! 

Look What Laura Made: A Quilt for Penelope

When my best friend told me she was expecting her second baby I immediately knew I wanted to make her a quilt and I knew just the fabric that I would be using for it.  A few years ago I found a set of these fabric samples and fell in love with them but had never come across a reason to use them... nothing felt right, nothing that is until now! The fabric has somewhat of a "hippy farm" feel (that's how I describe it anyway) and it was perfect for this baby.  As the due date got closer I began realize that I hadn't ever actually made a quilt before so I enlisted the help of my Grandmother, Pat and my friend, Vivid to help guide me on my quilting journey and since neither of them are local to me I probably bothered them too frequently with questions!  So this is my shout out to those two lovely ladies, thank you a thousand times over for being patient with me and my late night questions... and thanks to y'all I now have a new hobby!  So without further ado, here are some photos of the quilt progression... enjoy!

Here is the quilt laid out and ready to be sewn. 

The quilt top has been all sewn together and "quilted" to the inside layer and flannel backing.

Here is a look at the back of the quilt.  Since this was a smaller sized quilt I was able to do the quilting myself by "stitching in the ditch" with my sewing machine. 

Here is the completed quilt! Ready to be wrapped up around a sweet little baby! :)  I am so happy with how cute it turned out and that my first quilt didn't end up a total mess!

I was so excited to give this quilt to Tiphany at her baby shower and even more excited for the baby to have it once he or she made his/her appearance!

And here SHE is! Little Miss Penelope laying on her quilt!