Spring is in the air... and fabrics!

I must have fully embraced the start of Spring this year because every project I've done since has been in fun vibrant Spring colors and flowers flowers everywhere! I can't get enough of this wonderful line of fabric by Melissa Averinos called Sugar Snap. It's her debut line, so check it out in person at Fiberologie (for you locals) or online at Free Spirit, and snatch it up so you can say "I've been addicted to her fabric since her very first line!". By the way, Melissa also has a great blog at www.yummygoods.com!

Okay, so my latest bit of handmade goodness for the baby to be (in Sugar Snap none the less)... a play mat! I’m cheating a bit and getting some help, but I can justify that easily enough. I’ve only made 1 quilt since I started sewing. It was an I Spy quilt I made for Elle’s 2nd birthday. I was very adamant about completing the quilt from start to finish all by myself despite the fact that it was a very ambitious undertaking for someone who had never quilted anything. So I did. I cut, embroidered, pieced, pinned, quilted, and bound the quilt all on my own. Been there, done that, I don’t ever need to do it again! I actually like doing the piecing, I don’t even mind making all the binding & pinning the layers together, but the stitch in the ditch quilting and sewing the binding on is just not for me… it takes way too long!

Enter my good friend and partner in crafting crime, Ann. Ann makes all the lovely quilts for Elle Belle, has a ton of quilting experience, and does an amazing job at it! All of about 3 minutes after I finished piecing this play mat, from Amy Butler’s Little Stitches for Little One’s book, I had an email out to Ann begging her to quilt and bind it for me… I even bribed her with making and sending the perfectly pressed binding along with the top, batting, and backing. Being the sweet quilting genius she is, she agreed! Yea me!

It went so quickly, I didn’t think to take pictures of the full work in progress. But, I had to give you a sneak peak of the top I’m sending off to Ann just as soon as I get time to sit in front of an episode of Martha Stewart to cut and press binding.