Sew Much Fun!

baby quilt

My daughter's best friend M had a baby this month. M is like another daughter to me as the girls came to our house from school nearly every day and ate their lunch. I decided to make a baby quilt as a gift. There is no rush as I don't see M and her husband unless Katie is in town. Which is too bad, as I would love to get my hands on that baby! It is partly for this reason I decided not to make the quilt look too baby, and rather do it in fabrics that Baby Z can grow with. As M loves cats, that became the theme for the quilt. I have a bunch of fun, bright, quirky cat fabrics from a quilt I made for myself, so I used those as a starting point for the quilt. I added the yellow and blue squares in between as the cat prints are pretty busy.

quilt top

I found this pretty yellow print fabric to use for the border, and the top of the quilt is now complete.

My next decision is what to do with the back of the quilt. I can make it one, solid color or mix it up with a couple different fabrics. I saw an idea online to add the baby's name on the back. I liked that, so I made her name out of a cute paw print and mouse fabric, and will appliqué the letters on the back of the quilt once I have the new fabric/fabrics selected. I have never made anything like that before. It was fun to learn something new, and not as difficult as I had imagined.

When the back is complete I will layer batting between the top and the bottom before quilting it all together. Another decision needs to be made at that point. Sew it on the machine? Tie the layers together with thread or yarn? Then I will need to make one more fabric purchase for the binding, which completes the quilt. I'll need to see all the fabric colors together in order to select one that will blend with the others. Fun times!

Another Walk Down Memory Lane

Yesterday I took a college freshman to Mizzou - and she wasn't even mine! Ji is a student from South Korea who spent last year at Webster Groves High School. She came back to the United States last week to go to college here, and has been staying with us. As I filled up my car with her stuff and three teenagers, I thought back to 34 years ago when I loaded up my Green Mean Machine (translation - green piece of junk) with my stuff, along with my friend Kim's stuff, to head up to Iowa State. No parents helped us pack the car, or set things up when we arrived at our respective dorms. What a different experience yesterday. Parents and siblings hustled up and down the steps and dorm corridors, rearranging room furniture and hanging memories of home on the walls. It seemed a lot less scary than 34 years ago. But as I looked at Ji, who was not 200 miles from home but instead thousands of miles from everything she knows, I was in awe of a 17 year old who would willingly make the choice to experience a way of life so different from the one she grew up in. I was happy that we were there with her to stand in as her family, and I wish I had the opportunity to talk to her mom to let her know how great Ji did. She has a lot to be proud of in her oldest daughter. I learned a lot from Ji yesterday, and I think my daughter and her friend did as well. If nothing else, it gave me a dose of reality for what I will be facing again this time next year...when my baby heads off to college.