Baby Shower - Everything Else

Last week I shared the shower gifts for my future first grandchild.  This week is about all the other sewing projects that I finished for that day.

The future parents are going to be surprised at birth to learn the baby's gender.  They are working on a gender neutral gray nursery with pops of color.  A few weeks before the shower, I just happened to drag them down to my sewing room and got into a casual discussion about my Kona solid color chart.    "So what colors are you thinking about for accent colors for the nursery?" Using the colors they selected, I made some decorations for the shower.

First, a couple of buntings.  I cut 6.5" WOF and then to add a little sturdiness to the bunting, I ironed on a light interface to the back of one side of the 6.5" WOF and used a triangle ruler to cut out the flags.  After I quickly sewed up each side, my husband (who often gets dragged into my schemes) pinked the edges.  A quick sew into the fold of double bias tape and voila...buntings! One is plain, without lettering, and one welcomes the baby.  For the lettering I typed the words in a large font on word processing software and printed using a bold font.  With the light box I traced the letters in reverse onto Heat n Bond, cut and iron onto the flags and finished!

Then I made this little table runner.

I tried a new method for machine sewing down the binding.  I still prefer to hand sew binding, but for fast projects like this one and quilts where I know there'll be a lot of use and washing, machine binding makes sense to me.  For this I sewed the binding strip (2.5") on the front, wrapped it around the back and sewed right up to the edge on the front.

This caught the binding on the back most of the time and leaves a barely noticeable line of stitching on the front.  I think with a little practice this might be my go-to machine quilting method.

 Isn't that diaper cake made by the future mom's sister adorable?

Speaking of her sister, she is also expecting!  Her second child is due one month after my daughter-in-law!  I made her this little diaper bag that will hold a few diapers, wipes, ointment, etc. using this tutorial by Anna of Noodlehead fame.

For Christmas I made the girls zipper pouches with Gilmore Girls fabric.  Knowing that some of my daughter-in-laws friends would be at the shower, I used up a little bit more of that special fabric and made some Lil Cutie Pouches, also thanks to Anna's tutorial.
Time to start packing for QuiltCon!
Kathy