Moms are Awesome (Part I)

My mom is pretty stinkin' awesome, folks! She came into town a week earlier than planned and stayed for five weeks. My house has never been so clean! My children so well-behaved! My garden so weed free!

The first thing we did upon her arrival was look at the stuff she had made for the new baby. I had originally seen these car seat wraps on Pinterest (naturally!) and sent her the link, asking if she could make one of these for me. She happily obliged-because she got to try out her new surger-and here are her results.

As you can see, the clasps for the car seat come through the blanket so you can wrap up baby but still keep them safe. It's still too warm here (and the baby is still a little small-I want her to have a stronger neck before I use this) but by the time winter rolls around, this will be great. Mom said this was pretty easy to make and plans on making another one for my cousin who is having a baby in a few months. The only change she made was she didn't use any batting-just two pieces of flannel. 

Here's my oldest daughter testing the whole thing out for me. She spent many a happy hour wrapping up her dolly and putting her in the car seat. 

I am very excited to use this in a few months!

She had this pretty much completed before she got here; all she had to do was see where the restraints were and then make the slits to accommodate them.

The other project she brought with her was a quilt that she was making for my son. There's some pretty cool things about this quilt but the best part: she started it 18 years ago! Procrastination runs in the family!!

This is what it looked like when she got here:

Twin size!

While here she added borders: 

I wish I had taken pictures of when she was cutting the striped border-she had this really cool way of sewing the fabric together and then cutting it so the pattern was now diagonal. You will just have to trust me on how awesome it was!

Look at how smart she was to make the patterns match! I never would have thought of that. 

Then she added the backing and batting and pinned all three layers together.

In the blank dark spaces she started to hand quilt stars:

She took it home with her and will finish it there. When I get it back, I will post the final product.

Anyway, it was great to have my mom here. She helped out SO much. She came away with 8 more projects to do (after making me promise not to let her buy anything more....that didn't work out really well) and I added five more projects to my list. 

At least this gives us stuff to do to keep us out of trouble! 

New Baby!

Hi Everybody!

So, I'm sure you have surmised that since it has been silent here on Sewing By Lottery that I must have had my baby.

You would be right!

My Sweet Baboo was born right on her due date with not a lot of fuss or muss.

Just born!

About two weeks

About three weeks

She's now a little over a month old and with three kids running around, it's a little busy around here. I am trying my hardest to fit in some sewing (for my own sanity!) but I know that this time as a family is really precious and to not ask too much out of myself beyond keeping everyone fed, clothed and loved. :) 

I took a whole bunch of pictures of stuff my mom worked on while she was here-that woman likes to stay BUSY-so expect to see some of her great work in the next week or so. 

 

Take care and thanks for hanging in there with me!

Kate

Penant Wall Hanging

I'm not sure what exactly has gotten into me with this pregnancy--I have just been feeling really creative and have had lots of energy during the end of the second trimester and beginning of the third. Maybe she will be super creative, I don't know.

I first saw this quilt in Poulsbo, WA at Heirloom Quilts and loved it. I originally was going to do it for my son and make all the pennants in a nautical theme since that was his nursery theme. But......that never happened. Plus I found an awesome wall hanging for his room at a quilt store that went out of business, so that really worked out for me!

Instead, I made it for this baby. The theme for my oldest daughter's nursery was Peter Rabbit and my mom made some beautiful-absolutely gorgeous-curtains for her room. She also made a bumper and skirt for the crib which the new baby will use as well. Once I get those up, I will definitely post them because everybody should see just how talented my mom is and how gorgeous they are. For the new baby, I'm kind of going with a rainbow/Noah's ark/weather theme. I don't know. It all seems to go together and it makes me happy and that's all that matters, right?


The pattern for this quilt can be found in the book "Everyday Handmade." You can find it here on Amazon. The two women who wrote it have some really cute ideas.

That's a Jackalope stuffed animal, in case you were wondering

The pennants and clouds all cut out

I just love these fabrics!

Attaching the fusible interfacing I really like my shadow!

All the clouds and pennants cut out

Laying it out to make sure it hangs right

I can't get over just how cute the fabric is!

This is another quilt that has been sent to my husband's cousin to quilt for me as well. I thought about doing it myself but she will do such a great job and save me a lot of aggravation! I should get this and the baby quilt back from her by  the beginning of next month and I'll post updates.

That's it for the things I wanted to make for the baby. I'll go back to the lottery and see if I can squeeze in at least one more project before she makes her grand arrival!