Because 2 days is never enough.

I modified a baby hat pattern to make a sort of starry night hat for my sister-in-law’s baby (due in 4 weeks!).  I am currently working on a second hat for Felix that is identical so the cousins (who will be only 3 months apart) can have matching hats.

Felix was kind enough to be the hat model for the first hat.

In scanning through the last couple entries here, it looks like maybe I have entered this dark, childless place, just making craft after craft for other people’s babies.

But rest assured, that’s not really the case. Instead, I’ve delighted in all these baby items for one big reason: They are SO much smaller than grown up stuff. Consequently, so much faster and cheaper to make than something for adults. And, as an added bonus, the sort of bloblike cuteness of a baby means you don’t have to go crazy worrying about making things fit. It’s just so much easier to lavish attention on little ones.

These little baby slippers are a case in point. Sort of. They were not exactly quicker, since it took me a long time to make up a pattern that actually worked. I spied an adorable pair of slippers in baby Sophie’s room. I went on a mission to figure out how to make them myself. The first pair would have been tight on a small doll, and then second one was a bit like Cinderella’s slipper when Felix agreed to be my foot model last weekend.  These haven’t been tested on an actual baby foot or anything, but man are they cute. I just want to eat them.  And, they were the perfect use for  scraps, including the remnants from a hemmed pair of Karl’s pants, part of a sweater Karl shrunk, and pieces left over from old sewing projects.

At the rate of babies turning up this year, it’s pretty lucky I’ve hatched upon a quick gift, since I can’t keep up with quilts!

The phrase “mission accomplished”, for grave recent historical reasons, may bring to mind someone who, say, celebrates completing something that is decidedly not finished. Maybe a war, or, less terribly a baby quilt. I’m in the latter category, of course.  I suppose I was sort of asking for trouble when I wrapped up the 3/4 complete baby blanket and gave it as a gift at Mindy’s baby shower with a note that read “Dear Baby, I’m not done yet. Please wait until August.” I should have known myself better.
August rolled around and even though Felix took his own sweet time coming in to the word, the extra couple weeks did me no good. I kept procrastinating the remaining hand quilting and finishing the quilt with bias binding. I think my uncertainty about how to actually do the bias binding was the root of my mental block. That or the markedly non-quilting weather we get in a sticky New York summer. Every time I saw Felix, though, I felt more guilty about my inaction. I had visions of finishing the quilt and sending him off to college with it.
Last weekend, though, I had a small quilting renaissance in my apartment. I got some good, simple bias binding tips from the quilting teacher at Fiber notion and swore to myself that I would finish the quilt by the end of the week.

Lo and behold, I actually did it. The fact that it was a gloomy rainy weekend helped, as did the fact that Felix is getting so very cute.  I ran into some trouble with the corners, so I had to jerry-rig a solution.  But overall, I think the whole thing came out really well.  I have to thank my mom, who helped me pick out the fabric when she was visiting back in June.

I have to say, I actually feel pretty proud of myself. And as great as the quilt looked when I finished it, it look a lot better once Felix got his hands on it. Hopefully it will be well loved.

ps. Mindy’s craft project is looking pretty awesome too!