Baby Stuff
 

I am in the middle of planning a baby shower for my husband's sister. She has two other children, a 15 yr. old step-son and a 10 yr. old daughter. Now she is expecting her second daughter in June. Unfortunately, she is unable to work due to high risk pregnancy, and her husband recently lost his job. There are a LOT of things that she needs for this new little bundle of joy, and there are 2 family members (my self and another SIL) who love to sew and quilt.

The expectant mother does not have a themed nursery, nor does she want a themed nursery. Instead she has chosen a color scheme of sorts. The general color scheme is pink. She has changed her mind a few times about co-ordinating colors...sometimes she says pink and lavendar, and I've heard pink and blue, and pink and teal. She said that she even likes pink and brown. Since she can't seem to keep her mind made up about the co-ordinating colors, making her a crib quilt is becoming challanging. Only one color is definate and that is pink. But I scrap quilt, and I have a fair amount of pinks but I don't have a lot of "girl" colors in my quilt stash. I have a tiny bit of lavendar (about 1/4 yard), I have some various shades of blue scraps, and I *might* have about 1/2 yard of teal but if so it's not cotton...it's a satin type of material. So since there are various colors, I'm thinking about doing a postage stamp 9 patch and alternating the postage stamp squares with white. And then forming larger blocks of 9 squares and bordering them with a light weight denim since I have a lot of denim fabric, but I don't want to make the quilt too heavy. Does this make sense? There would be a square of 9 print/color postage stamps, then a square of white. That's the larger 9 patch block. The postage stamp squres are 1.5 inches before seam allowance. What do you all think? Could it work to pull all of her colors together so that the quilt will be girl themed and work with any of her other nursery colors. She said that she wants a laid back nursery where just about anything "girly" will work together. And does anyone know the measurement of crib quilts? I made some years ago for my own boys, but I had my last child 11 years ago and haven't made crib/toddler bed sized quilts since 2004.

She also needs a large diaper bag. I have about 2-4 yards of a cream colored canvas material. I was thinking about sewing her a diaper bag with quilt pattern pockets on it. Does anyone know of a good block pattern that works well with scraps and doesn't involve applique. I like applique, but I'm not real good at doing it. I've thought about churn dash blocks and shoo-fly blocks. But what other blocks would be quick and easy that I might not have thought about?

And last, but not least, does anyone know where I could find patterns for hooded towels, baby wash cloths, and burp cloths?
Ali

How nice of you to do this for your sil. You don't really need a pattern for the hooded towels, baby wash cloths and burp cloths. Just pick a size that you think is appropriate. I usually use flannel when I make mine and I always wash the fabric before cutting. Otherwise the cloths will get all wonky!! I also round my corners (using a saucer or bowl turned upside down. Sew right sides together leaving a space for turning. Turn right side out and close that space. For the burp cloths I usually put a decorative stitch all the way around. For the washcloths I just use a straight stitch around the finished product. The decorative stitching can be a bit stiff for such a small washcloth. For the hooded towels. Cut out the size needed for the towel (I use flannel here too). then cut out a square to use for the hood and fold it diagonally and attach. I have used my serger to finish the edges and I've also used 2 1/2" binding sewn all the way around and machine stitched. It's just a matter of preference. there are also tutorials online if you do a search. Happy Sewing.

How thoughtful of you to help out- my first thought was even a light weight denim can get heavy especially for a baby , is she in Florida also ? The postage stamp seems the way to go with all her color changes :)

here is a hooded towel - http://www.makeandtakes.com/easy-hooded-bath-towel

Burp rags- http://www.babygoodbuys.com/2011/07/...rp-cloths.html

http://tipnut.com/baby-burp-cloths/

Diaper bags - http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/diape...-patterns.html

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/07/...iaper-bag.html

I just used Google and "Make ".. whatever you want to make and got lots of hits

They have a lot of quilt baby books out there I'm sure if you go on amazon you can find some that have paaterns for all of these things. I have one of the P.S. I love you baby books, I think it was the fourth one,

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...s+baby&x=0&y=0

Also check out joann's babyville book, there is a lot of baby pattern in there that are awesome

I just used the lage bow tuck bag pattern to make a diaper bag for my new grandchild.

Thank you all for your help and input. I've been playing with fabrics now for a couple of days. I absolutely love the Moda Bake Sale site (someone linked it concerning a diaper bag), they have some gorgeous patterns for diaper bags, quilts, play mats, and even a car seat quilt. Hopefully I will have time to make a car seat quilt. I've found fabrics for 4 burp cloths and hope to get those stitched today. I've found some cotton fabric that I want to turn into a recieving blanket sized "quilt". The fabric is one of my 1930's reproductions, but it is oh so cute.

When going through my stash I discovered that I have no teal at all for the crib sized quilt I'm making. And very little lavendar. I really thought I had more of that, and more pink patterned fabrics. And I discovered that I have blue fabrics, white fabrics, and denims coming out my ears. I also have a good bit of reds, blacks and silver grey's. I think it's about time for me to find more fabrics to add to my stash, lol.