Baby Blocks Tutorial

When Baby P was born, I really enjoyed recieving gifts that were functional and cute. Toys are fun to decorate a nursery with and it's a bonus if Baby can play with them once they get a little older. I've seen soft, baby blocks and baby blocks tutorials all over the place. They are simple to construct (beginning sewists could make them) and you can make them elaborate (with embroidery or monogramming or applique, stenciling, you name it...) or as plain as you want. These particular blocks were a gift for my friend C and we used them to decorate the table at her baby shower.

These blocks or cubes have six sides (dust off that high school geometry, yo).  I did 3 plain sides (orange, yellow and gray) and 3 decorated sides. Shapes, animals and hand embroidered patterns. These blocks would be fun for babies who are just learning to grab at things, when they're really interested in patterns and contrasting colors...

(ignore the fact that there are just two of each of the colored squares, you need three each, I had already pieced together part of one block)

Here's what you need for a set of 3 soft baby blocks: 

1) 18, 6 x 6 inch squares of fabric (solids or decorated to your taste) and any other materials to decorate them-scraps of fabric, embroidery floss, etc...be sure that they are perfectly square

2) fusible fleece, I backed every square with this, it gives the blocks a little more structure.

3) polyfill (about half of a medium sized bag, I lwanted them stuffed relatively tightly so that they keep their shape)

4) Thread, scissors, machine, all "les accoutrements" of sewing :)

This square is backed with a piece of fusible fleece and I sort of "quilted it," this gives it a little texture.The other appliques are just backed with fusible interfacing. See THIS POST for tips and tricks to applique and THIS PAGE for animal templates.

Lay out the squares of each block in a cross like below. (just a heads up for later, I left my opening for turning/stuffing between the yellow and gray squares--that was the bottom back corner since the "front" of my blocks are the animals)

Now just start seaming the blocks together, taking care to leave about 1/8 of an inch unsewn at each end (be sure to forward and backstitch securely). See picture below. If you don't do this your corners will look wonky and misaligned.

They turn out all nice like this when you are done.

For the last edge--I leave a space open on the back bottom edge--sew in about an inch from each corner and then turn right sides out. Stuff the block with polyfill through the small space you left open. Be sure to stuff polyfill into the corners. Now, turn raw edges of your opening to the inside, pin and stitch the opening closed. This seam will show, but it isn't distracting if you use matching thread.

That's it!!

Christmas Weekend in KY

I always enjoy the gifts from my girlfriends, but this year everyone was extremely creative! C made her own sugared almonds and gave us these adorable vintagey, Christmas hand towels. S found cute Christmas oven mitts and stuffed them with Christmas goodies (and an awesome, owl handtowel). B ordered cool, fabric covered earrings from her sister (who owns an Etsy shop HERE) and Ashley gave us fun metallic make-up pouches with earrings, perfume and nailpolish.

I made these pouches from Noodlehead's Scrappy Make-up Pouch tutorial but I added zipper tabs (from HERE). I definitely recommend adding these, the finished product looks more polished. The hand embroidery was inspired by Aimee Ray's Doodle Stitching.

This was a really great way to use up my little scraps, it's fun to find small pieces of patterns that I was crazy about but only have a teeny bit left. The back and sides are muslin-one of my favorite fabrics to work with--and everything is reinforced with fusible fleece. You can see I definitely gravitate toward the reds and teals. 

If you want to see more pictures, take a look at Ashley's post HERE!

Dutch Blitz!! We always go home from girls weekend with sore fingertips and hoarse voice from all the rounds of Dutch Blitz and charades. We have so much fun making up our own charades (lots of inside jokes and hilarious animal impressions--B pretending to be a grizzly bear might have been a highlight of the weekend). I highly recommend it. I will just give one disclaimer, red wine and blueberry beer do not help when it comes to games that require quick fingers.

Yes, we ate an entire 9 x 13 of B's famous bean dip for lunch. Along with some sharp cheddar, crackers and very small glasses of wine :).

It was a great weekend! Can't wait for our next one, I'm already thinking up some new charades.

Thanksgiving

So I mentioned that I was busy making homemade yeast rolls on Thanksgiving, but I didn't follow up with how everything went and the visitors we had!

My parents and youngest brother and sister came to New Orleans for Thanksgiving! (My other brother and his wife were with her family this year.) We were very spoiled to have everybody travel so far to see us. We ordered Honeybaked Ham and turkeyand made all the other dishes. Brussel sprouts with bacon and chevre, Paula Dean's "Ol' Country Stuffing" complete with mushroom gravy (I highly recommend this recipe, it was fabulous), spicy cheese grits, yeast rolls, and coffee with bailey's for dessert since we were very, very full.

The weather was beautiful so we got out and about and showed them some of New Orleans. Way too much good food and beignets...

It was a great Thanksgiving! I can't believe it's only 17 days until Christmas. That thought makes me a little sweaty and nervous...lots to do.

Baby, Baby!

My dear friend, C, is having a baby! Last weekend, a bunch of friends and church family got together to throw her a shower. There wasn't really a theme, but there were lots of bright colors, sort of a vintage feeling and we used "clotheslines" and clothespins to decorate (along with some handmade tissue decorations).

The big poms on the windows were just simple tissue paper rounds, with two small slits cut in the center and a piece of wire run through them and twisted together securely. Then I just pinched the front few layers of tissue together to hide the wire and give them a pretty, round shape. We hung clotheline down from each pom and clothespinned a few cute baby items to them--tiny socks, hats, burp cloths, embroidered onesies. All the shower helpers brought things to contribute.

One of the ladies helping with the shower brought the gorgeous flowers, she used mason jars with three bright gerber daisies and colorful marbles. They were so fun and playful!

We used little school slates, toys and tissue paper toppers to liven up the table. If you'd like to make the tissue poms here's what you need.

 

These are my family's secret recipe sugar cookies. We dusted them with edible,pearly luster dust for a little glam :), you can find it at Hobby Lobby and Michaels.

Here's me with my sweet friends H and H and C (of course). H and H have little ones pretty close to Baby P's age, we always have lots to talk about and tons of fun together.

All the ladies in the picture above (except B on the far left, she was my college roommate), are high school friends! Can you believe that?! We are going on 12 years of friendship! After the shower we had a fun, girls weekend and exchanged Christmas gifts. More on that tomorrow!!


Last thing...just a closer look at some of the things on our clothesline.

H made some really adorable burp cloths, I did the appliqued onesies (the templates for the animals are on my "downloadables and printables" page). I also found a great pattern for crochet booties from "Two Girls Patterns" on Etsy: the Sailor Boot pattern.