handmades for baby

I knew I wanted to make my own baby quilt to coordinate with our light blue nursery but with just enough pink for our little girl. I fell in love with this fabric collection called "Littlest" by Art Gallery Fabrics. The prints are perfect for a nursery with their bunny motifs and pastel hues. This is the selection of fabrics I used, a mix of the two available color palettes.

I chose an hourglass pattern to show off the different fabric patterns while keeping the design light and bright. I hope that the somewhat busy pattern will help hide any inevitable spills/stains despite all the white! I think it will be a great playmat for her.

The whole quilt is machine stitched, except for the hand-embroidered patch I added in the corner with a little love message to our baby girl. I followed the hourglass quilt block tutorial from Generations Quilt Patterns, the continuous bias tape tutorial from So Sew Easy, and the machine binding tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew. The binding fabric is Dear Stella Confetti Dots in stone and the white fabric is Kona cotton.

My other recently completed project is the Shale Baby Blanket knit in Garnstudio Drops Cotton Merino. Good news: I have found my new favorite baby blanket yarn, so I will stop whining about Cascade Sierra being discontinued. This yarn meets all my requirements; it's a wool/cotton blend for warmth/softness, machine washable, and relatively inexpensive! Oh believe me, many hours of research went into the purchase of this yarn, and I'm quite pleased with it.

I love the texture of this pattern, and it was actually pretty simple to memorize after a few rows. Thank goodness for our 10 hour flights to/from Italy or I wouldn't have finished this blanket nearly as quickly as I did (just over two weeks!). Project details on my Ravelry page.