February's Raggy Quilt

I finished my latest raggy quilt earlier this week. It turned out well, I think, very colorful and bright! My photos don't really depict the colors as accurately as I'd like, but they do give an idea of the finished product. After I wash it for the first time, the edges will look more raggy.

The blocks are 5 inches square with about a half inch raggy edging.

Here is a view of the back:

At first I thought I would just make all the backs of the blocks the same, out of the turquoise flannel, but I ran short and had some extra animal squares, so I came up with this.

I matched each solid orange square with an animal square on the back. (On all the other squares, I put the solid turquoise on the back.)  

The finished quilt measures 30" by 30 " inches.  

I call this a "quilt" but the only real quilting done on it was the diagonal line quilted across the centre of each block to hold the batting in the centre of each block in place.

I have 3 raggy quilts now, ready to go to 3 babies about to make their entrances some time this month. I hope that at least one of these babies will be a girl as one of the quilts has pink on the blocks. :) 

(None of these 3 mothers chose to find out the gender of their babies... rather uncommon today, but perfectly fine!  It's amazing what technology can do in this day and age, but no ultra-sound is 100% accurate. Waiting until the birth is the only way to determine that 100%. And maybe some people love the anticipation of not knowing, or maybe just don't want the rest of us to know till then! :)

Unknown baby girl recipient...

I really like this little quilt! It is the 3rd one I made, the first 2 went to my twin grandbabies.)
This little quilt is small and light... only 25 inches square and has only 2 layers of flannel, no batting.

We are leaving for vacation tomorrow, a much anticipated trip to Arizona and California, but I will be checking my email and Facebook occasionally for news of the 3 babies' arrivals.  Good luck for all young mothers about to give birth!

New Flannel Raggy Quilt

I have started working on a new flannel raggy quilt. The blocks are made up of 6 inch squares of yellow, orange and turquoise flannel.  I love making these little baby quilts as they are so quick and easy to make.

First I cut out 72 six inch flannel squares. After that I used up a bunch of leftover batting to put in the middle of each block. I cut the batting pieces about 4 3/4 inches square and plunked one in between two 6 inch flannel squares.
 Most of my squares are yellow with colorful zoo animals in turquoise and red.  The back flannel squares are mostly a solid turquoise with a few yellow ones thrown in for added color and pizzaz. I sewed a 1/2 inch seam all around each edge to make 36 blocks.

Next I sewed a diagonal line across the centre of each block to hold the batting in place.
Now I am in the process of arranging all the blocks in a pleasing pattern. What I usually do is place the blocks on the floor and take a photo of each pattern Option that I come up with as I re arrange the blocks numerous times. It's important to make sure that there will be an interesting pattern on the back of the quilt as well.  The easiest thing to do is to make all the back squares out of the same flannel. Then there's no worry of the pattern being lopsided on the reverse side...

I'm looking forward to finishing this little quilt to see the finished product.  ♥
There are 4 babies arriving between March and May to various friends and relatives so it will be gifted to someone before long.  :)

I also sewed a couple more fitted mattress covers/ sheets for the Greco play yards that my daughter is using for her one month old twins to sleep in.  These 2 sheets are identical (unlike the twins, Lol!), both made from blue cotton with little colorful fishes on it.
This time I made an elastic case all around the outside and threaded the 3/8 inch elastic through it.  It was so much easier than trying to sew the elastic around the seamed edge like I did with the flannel fitted sheets.

I'm taking them to the twin's house tomorrow and hopefully they will fit well. After visiting and helping out for a few days I will probably make a couple more once I get home again. :)

The Twins

Our twin grandbabies made their debut on January 11th at approximately 4:30 am. What a thrill that was to hold my grandbabies for the very first time!  Our daughter did such a fabulous job birthing these two little ones!
Claire Lilli weighted 5 lb 15 oz and Hayden George weighed 6 lb 8 oz. I think they are the most beautiful babies on the planet! :)

I held Claire first. She was screaming her head off when she and her brother were wheeled back into the birthing room where I had been patiently waiting for several hours to see them. I picked her up and held her close, but she was hungry and wasn't about to be distracted. Hayden was sleeping but soon became a little fussy. He was easier to distract and I soon rocked him to sleep in my arms while Claire went to her mama.

After they all came home 2 days later I began my new roll of "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer" helping out with laundry, cooking, cleaning burping, changing, whatever I could do to help.

I love these little sweethearts so much!

Play Yard Fitted Sheet
Now that I'm back home for a few days, I'm back to making fitted sheets again, this time for the Play Yard (a kind of a cross between a bassinette and a play pen, using the old terms...) which is what the twins are sleeping in right now.



I measure the little mattress in the Play Yard, the top of which is 19 1/2 inches X 28 1/2 inches. (What an odd size!) The depth of the mattress is approximately 1 inch and I added another 2 inches on all sides for the 'underlap' part and also an extra inch for seam allowance around the edge:

Cut fabric:  26" X 35":
19 1/2" + 1" (mattress depth) + 2" (underlap) +1" (depth on opposite side) + 2" (underlap  on opposite side) + 1" seam allowance = 26" wide

28 1/2" + 1" +2" +1" +2" +1" = 35" long.

Once you've done that, cut out 4 corner squares (2  3/4"  in size) and discard them.
Now sew the 2 sides of the cut square part together to make  the fitted corners.

To make a neat seam at the corners with no open edges, first sew the seams together with wrong sides facing (about a 1/8" seam), then turn it inside out and with wrong sides facing, sew another seam on top of it, this time a 1/4" seam. This will enclose all the raw edges neatly.

After that you need to use a zig zag stitch to sew on the 3/8" elastic on the seam all around the edges. It is a bit tricky to stretch the elastic at the same time as you sew it onto the fabric, as I may have mentioned before, but it does get easier with practice.

Receiving Blankets
We also realized that the babies didn't have nearly enough receiving blankets. I had made some and we had bought some as well before the babies arrived.  I had tried to find out what the ideal size was for receiving blankets. Seems there really is no such thing. Some are square and some are rectangular, some huge and some smaller.  I think it depends on what you intend to use them for, swaddling the babies or just covering them, or using as spit up collector  when you burp the babies.  I came to realize that some of the ones I had sewn were a bit too small and some too big.

For swaddling, the best size seems to be 28" X 37" inches, so I hemmed a few more from flannel fabric.
I cut the flannel 29 1/4 in. X 38 1/2 in ( 74 cm X 98 cm), then pressed a 1/4 inch seam all the way around the edge. After that I turned the edge over again about 1/2 inch to stitch an outer seam. I used a straight stitch on most of them, but tried a zig zag stitch on the last one. I don't think it makes much difference as far as wear goes, but it does take a lot longer to zig zag it, plus uses more thread.

I'm looking forward to doing some quilting again soon, maybe another raggy flannel quilt or a whole new baby quilt... we'll see. :)