Sunday, September 2, 2012

A Baby Blanket For Hope

Some of you know that we have been expecting the arrival of our sweet niece.  Well, she arrived on August 23rd and is an adorable bundle of cuteness.  Her name is Hope.   To keep up the baby blanket tradition that I began with our nephew Asher's baby quilt, I bought supplies for Hope's blanket earlier this summer.   It started out like this:


You know what that is?  A roll of pre-cut strips of fabric from Hobby Lobby that are already all the same size and already all color coordinated and matchy matched and purty.  And the roll was only $12. You may call it cheating.  I call it brilliance.


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Dear Hope,
Sometimes it's important to work through all the steps of something yourself, but sometimes it's ok to take the packaged deal.  Look for ways to save time and money, but make sure not to cut corners with quality.
Love,
Aunt Pie
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I played with a lot of layouts for these strips of fabric and finally decided to sew them together completely at random.   So I poked along with sewing the strips together a bit over the summer and worked a bit more intently in the past few weeks before her arrival.   Then the top was done minus the border I had planned.  Can you find my kitty cat in this picture?


Then it was time to bust out the pink flannel and also time to head to the dining table, since this blanket work was no longer fitting on my card table or crafting desk.   


Tip for any seamstresses out there: do you have a table with a removable leaf in it?  You know how they cut fabric at the store with that handy groove in their cutting surface?  Tug the pieces of your kitchen table apart a bit and use it as a groove to slide your scissors down into and it's perfect for effortless cutting!


A bit more sewing later and the top was finished!


Time for the backing.  More soft pink flannel!  Unfortunately, the dark browns and the seams on the back of the top (you following?) showed through the single layer of pink flannel.  This was "whop whop" #1 of this past week while working on this project.


I stood staring and thinking for a while trying to figure out what to do.  I obviously needed to add a layer of lining in the middle.  I didn't have enough flannel to double layer it.  Then I remembered that Angela had given me an old curtain she no longer needed in her craft room, with the hope that I could somehow use the fabric instead of her throwing it away.  Her mom had made it for her and she said she was pretty sure there was a layer of muslin inside it.


So I carefully took it apart unceremoniously chopped it up...and found a double layer of muslin inside.  Ding ding ding!  Perfect.


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Dear Hope,
Learn to reuse, recycle and repurpose things.  Your mama is really, really good at this.  I have seen her repaint old dressers and create perfectly functional, pretty end tables using cardboard boxes and throw blankets.  I'm pretty sure the furniture on your front porch is the result of a dumpster diving adventure.  Before you throw something away, think about whether you could switch it up, fix it up or chop it up to use it for something else.
Love,
Aunt Pie
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Well, unfortunately my joy over this discovery was squished by the discovery that the muslin wasn't actually big enough to fit as a lining layer.  Whop whop #2.


At this particular point, it was this past Wednesday evening, after youth group, two days before we were going to Winnsboro to meet Hope.  Time was of the essence.  I looked at my watch and realized it was not yet 9:00 pm, aka closing time for JoAnn Fabrics, so I scooted out the door and drove the whole two blocks to JoAnn's.  About ten feet from the door I found this:


Yaaay!

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Dear Hope,
Buy things on sale when you can.  Maybe it means you have to wait a bit, maybe it means your wardrobe isn't exactly the current style, but look for those sale signs.   Your mama, your Grander and I all do this like crazy.  In fact, Grander and I bonded shortly after I met her because we both decided we had "sale-itis".  But amidst all that sale hunting...make sure to splurge on yourself every once in a while too.
Love,
Aunt Pie
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I returned home with my on-sale flannel in hand, planning to quickly layer up the almost-the-same-color-pink as lining with the original pink as backing and get this blanket all sewed and turned right side out and ironed.  I'd just have to whipstitch the hole closed by hand and would have plenty of time to do that Thursday after work.  

Then, as I was trying to line up the back, lining and top...disaster ensued.   It was more than whop whop #3.  The world was crashing down around me.  There were tears, oh there were tears.  I was about ready to turn in my sewing badge forever.    

My blanket top was not square...  I don't mean it wasn't the shape of a square.  I mean two corners were not right angles.  My blanket top was crooked...   I don't know how it happened and frankly I don't want to talk about it!

Trent deserted the Rangers and came over to the dining room to help me repeatedly try to line it up with the other layers and it repeatedly was hanging over one side or another, no matter how we spun it.   I was angry at myself.  And I was tired.  And I took it out on my sweet husband who was just trying to help me.   He didn't give up on me though and we persevered through my tears.  He brought in a giant metal measuring stick from his shed, busted out his woodworking knowledge, taught me about a "3-4-5 triangle" as a way to determine if a corner is square.  We figured out the three correct/straight edges and measured and remeasured until we knew where to cut to get rid of the crooked part and square up the blanket top.   

I considered not sharing this picture because I am ashamed, but in the interest of keepin' it real, here you go...


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Dear Hope,
Someday when you are married to a wonderful man, try to remember not to blow up at him when you are upset about something that has nothing to do with him.  Especially if in the midst of it he is trying to make you feel better.  You may want to just cry and freak out and that's ok sometimes.  But don't direct it at him and don't pull in other things you are worried about at the time.  If you do blow up at him for no good reason sometime, make an effort to apologize and thank him for trying to help you and support you.
Love,
Aunt Pie
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Trent rescued this blanket.  It boils down to that.  We worked together, long past our bedtime, to chop off the crooked part and square it up.  I quickly cut another pink border piece and slapped it on.  When the night ended, I was no further ahead than when I had begun the night.  All I had was a blanket top.  But at least this time it was square.


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Dear Hope,
Your Uncle Trent is really smart and knows a lot about fixing things.  Your daddy and Poppa do too.  I bet someday they would all love to teach you how to hang a curtain rod or check your oil or make sure the corners of a blanket you are sewing are actually right angles...
Love,
Aunt Pie
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The rest was a piece of cake.  On Thursday night, 24 hours before meeting sweet little Hope, I slapped the three layers together, sewed around 3.75 sides, cut off the excess, turned it right side out and ironed the edges.


Then I hand stitched the remaining hole closed.


And it was done!


Just in time!


I would say Hope liked it but...she was kind of asleep...  But her mama and daddy liked it!


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Dear Hope JoyAnna, my sweet little niece,
Can I teach you to sew someday?  I bet that would be fun.  Your mama and Grander like to sew too, so we could just have a big sewing lesson party, maybe even with tea and cookies!  I'll draw some shapes on pieces of paper and you can learn to guide the needle along the lines without even any thread.   I know sewing paper with no thread sounds really silly but it is a good way to learn!  Maybe we can sew you a new, bigger blanket when you grow out of this one.  We might mess up and it might not be perfect...but that is ok because it will have a lot of love sewn into it.

With all my heart,
Aunt Pie

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