Back to School 3: Baby Edition?!?

It is almost here!  First day of school is tomorrow morning - I really don't know where the summer went!  My sewing room is going to be so quiet!!!

So, why the baby edition?  Well, we walk to and from school everyday (we live in a city and the school is about 3 blocks away) so I made this activity mini quilt for the little one and me to play with while we are at the school waiting for the older girls to come out the door.

Can you guess what this side is?  A straw house, a stick house, a brick house, and a wolf?  

I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo but the houses are a pocket and the little Nursery Versery piggies are attached inside the pocket so she can take them in and out.  I didn't realize until the end that they are upside down when pulled out of the pocket - I'll fix that eventually but I doubt the little one will mind right now.

Here is the other side:

Because my little one loves the flaps on this quilt, I added a lift the flap to this one as well.

This time revealing the word:

I used the Nursery Versery again for the back (I don't usually splurge on fabric but this is just so cute so I made an exception!)  I also used a cute little Sarah Jane print for the other side of the flap which I thought added an I spy element to the mini.

I mean, really, look at these mice!!!  And that little piggie with the glasses - seriously!

I'm linking up to Rachel's Nursery Versery contest at Stitched in Color.  I almost didn't make it but my fabric arrived just in time - literally!  And I was fortunate that my oldest daughter was happy to spend extra time playing with the baby today so that I could finish (um, yes, I told her I'd write that!)

A Scrappy Modern Baby Quilt

Ever since my littlest was born 9 months ago, I have been wanting to make her both an I spy baby quilt and a quilt with her name on it.

I also have been trying to pull from my scrap box for most of my recent projects.

So, using mostly scraps of prints and solids, I made her this scrappy modern baby quilt with some I spy on the top and bottom and some flaps in the middle that reveal her name when lifted.

Unfortunately, the quilting is, um, atrocious!  But the intended 9 month old recipient certainly doesn't mind and I have to say, I don't mind it either.  If you read my blog, you may know that I am searching for a new sewing machine and have been using my kid's inexpensive, manual machine which has a tiny harp space and no walking foot or FMQ capacity.  I actually don't really mind using it but when I went to quilt this - yikes - yes, I really need to go shopping!  My oldest daughter told me that she actually likes this quilting and since it isn't FMQ, she decided to call it "freestyle quilting"  But, I still think it is time for me to pick out a new sewing machine and buy it!  I am sure my daughters are nodding their heads in agreement reading this as they really want their sewing machine back.

I haven't hand-stitched a binding in a long time but there was no way this machine and I would have made it through machine-stitching this one!  I forgot how much I love the look and process of the hand-stitched bindings.

I went with some colorful fabrics for the back to offset the browns and greys used for the top.  I also used some flannel on both sides thinking the baby might like the different textures.

I'm still working my way through this quilt and I am now SO glad that I decided to hand-quilt it!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, and Sew & Tell at amylouwho.