A Baby Blanket, a Saturday Surprise, and a Single Girl

Single Girl templates in folded envelopes

Most of last week's sewing was dedicated to working on a birthday present and a baptism present. Since the baptism was this past Sunday, it took precedence and the long-suffering birthday present was shunted aside again.

For my new goddaughter, I made this knit blanket (out of knits, not knitted - I haven't mastered that skill, yet...) with her name on it using this tutorial from Make It Love It. It was only my second time working with knits and the first time was making small burp cloths. But I found the blanket to be quite a challenge! No matter what I did, the edges stretched and stretched. I actually attached the ribbed binding,  cut the whole thing off, ripped the binding off, trimmed some of the stretched out parts and started again. And I thought it would be a quick and easy project. Silly me!

In the end, it was still a bit wavy. I'm not sure how to cut down on that. I used my walking foot for the binding the first time, but the second time I used my regular piecing foot and I didn't see a huge difference in stretch. Then I steamed the heck out of it, but truth be told, I couldn't see how much a difference that made. All in all, I think it's pretty cute and will be useful, though not as neat as I wish it were.

As luck would have it, I got sick right before we were to drive up to my in-laws on Saturday. While I was taking it easy, I received an email from Pete Spain. I'm sure the quilters out there recognize that surname! He said that my email address had been drawn from the folks who receive Kate Spain's newsletter and I would be receiving some of her highly-anticipated new line, Terrain! And indeed, on Monday, this is what arrived in the mail:

I really love her fabrics. Here are a couple projects I made this winter with her other lines:

Verna

Central Park

Fandango

I was still a little bit under the weather yesterday (Monday), so instead of working on birthday presents, I started cutting out pieces for a couple Single Girl pillows. I had two partial Arcadia charm packs and it was enough to make two pillows-worth of pieces.

I know this pattern has been the subject of some blogosphere controversy, but I am firmly in the "Love it!" camp. Of course, that's me saying that before I've tried to make it... I plan to make a quilt, but I thought a couple practice pillows might be in order since curves are new to me. I might make the bed-sized one out of...

Yes! My Prince {Charming} has come! Adding to the fat quarter set I received from The Fat Quarter Shop, I now have 25 of the 30 prints. I'm not going to track down the last five; I think I can supplement from my stash to get enough prints for the Single Girl. I need 31 prints to form the full ring and I think I have six that will work out.

I'm so excited to play with this fabric, but that's always the way at the beginning, right?! After the birthday bonanza, I can get back to quilting a little more. I'd like to clear a few UFOs off my list, including the one that has been hanging on my design wall for... three weeks? I just have to sew the strips together(!). Plus, I have a couple other projects languishing in blocks that I want to finish up. Maybe I should alternate between UFO and new, so that I have some finishes instead of making more UFOs!