Baby Season: Self-Binding Receiving Blankets

In May 2013 I made a couple of self binding receiving blankets, based on the great Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial on these blankets. The first blanket I made was for one of my friends who was due in May. Then I made two additional blankets for my son who is due in December. Next I made a blanket for my other friend who was due in August. Finally I have updated this post, with one more blanket that I made in 2014 for my sister and her newest baby.

These blankets are super easy and all they require our two pieces of fabric one cut 40" x 40" and the other cut 30" x 30".  This means you need just under a yard for one cut and just over our yard for the second cut. I use flannel for these blankets, with the exception of one blanket which are used minky or cuddle fabric for. I found the Minky very hard to work with as it seem to stretch and not keep in place as well as the flannel while sewing. 

The first blanket was for baby Ryker, I did a car racing game for him.

 

The next two blankets were for baby Colton, my son. I did an animal theme for both. 

The fourth blanket I made was so much fun, and it was for baby Madison. Had already created some pink and white and purple and white pinwheels and just wasn't quite sure what to do with them. So I pieced them together as blocks and then did the self binding tutorial on the outside. 

 

This tutorial is truly great because it allows you to create mitered corners with barely any work. Plus you do not have to add binding to your blanket which for me is huge!! 

Update: it is the most recent so finding blanket I have created it was for my niece Ezry who was born on derby day in May 2014. 

I love all of these blankets, and they are so quick to make. Under an hour! Cannot beat that when working on baby gifts.

Candle Mats

As I shared yesterday, my goal today was to create Candle Mat's that could be used as gifts, my inspiration for this was a Pinterest pin of an Etsy product (which if you don't want to make yourself you can buy for about $15). 

After purchasing some white fabric and navy fabric I decided to make my candle mats with the navy snowman fabric I had been using in my holiday projects. I love this fabric because it's holiday but doesn't scream Christmas. 

To make my candle mats I wanted to do a 10.5 by 10.5 square, and I didn't want to have to make 8 half square triangles per candle mat, so I made large pin wheels with only four sides. So all together I created 3 candle mats, with the use of 6 HST's made from originally 6 inch by 6 inch square (I make them big and cut them down to ensure it looks like had good accuracy). The first square I did on it's own, but when I started the second I decided to do all the cuts for the third as well and produce them at the same time, turned out to be a great idea because I wasn't switching task all the time. 

I used pinwheel instructions from Quilts for Kids which is a non-profit organization that collects quilts for kids who have illnesses or hardships going on in their lives. (Seems like a good organization, and once I get to making quilts I would love to do something like this.) 

The three mats turned out really well I think, I loved how the backs turned out the most. 

The back almost looks like a snowflake pattern because I kept my bobbin thread white.

On the top I quilted each individual pinwheel, for white I used navy thread, for the snowman fabric I used white thread. And handy dandy,stitch 23. 

The interesting thing about stitching these versus my last projects is I was just using regular cotton thread so I was able to up the speed on my machine to full blast and it was fun! I zipped right through each pinwheel segment. I also kept my 1/4 foot quilting foot on the machine which I don't know should have been left on, but it allowed me to make sure I was leaving the right amount of space so all of the pinwheel segments were quilted in the same way. 

All Three Completed Candle Mats, one with a candle to show scale. 

This is a candle mat on top of our sub-woofer. I figured if it's going to be in the living room it might as well be festive. 

Just another picture but on our end table. 

I am certainly glad I made three, I might make a few more even. I am going to keep one for myself and I have two that will be gifts and I'm super excited to finally get to share my quilted pieces with other people. 

Now I just need to get some quilting tags so I can put created by on each one :)