Traveling Handmade

Last year when QuiltCon (Feb. 21 - 24, 2013) was announced, I was so excited. I hadn't been able to make it to either of the Sewing Summits. So, I made tentative plans to go. I even told my mom about it (she's a quilter, but not necessarily plugged in to the online world of quilting or "modern" quilting). I've never been to Austin, but heard it's a fun town and I thought it would be a great chance to see some of my favorite quilters' work, up close and personal.

But then, something more wonderful happened: I discovered that I was expecting - on Feb. 21! So, no QuiltCon for this quilter. But I know it will be a great success, so I am looking forward to going next year, with my one year old in tow (or maybe I'll be ready for a little mom-alone-time by then!).

I've seen so many great Traveling Handmade posts from people attending the Sewing Summit and maybe we'll see some for QuiltCon, too. Then, I thought, "well, can still travel homemade!" I may not be traveling all the to Austin from Wisconsin, but I'll be traveling 25 minutes to the hospital and the infinite distance from being a non-parent to becoming a parent :)

So, in addition to my hospital bag and nursing pillow and burp cloths, I put together a car seat cover and a nursing cover this weekend. I used this tutorial for the nursing cover from Made By the Mama Monster, but there are a ton of tutorials. I was going to use the Groovy Guitars print from Michael Miller but some of the tutorials suggested using a print more suited to mom, rather than baby. I actually agonized over which print to use and finally cut into my precious Tula Pink Birds and the Bees print (see above). I have some silly mirror/self-portraits of me wearing it in my Flickr photostream and I used a few flannel leftovers for corner pockets.

For my car seat, I used this tutorial from Wannabe Crafty for the car seat canopy/cover. There are also a ton of tutorials for these, but I liked this one because it had little window. 

I used a Michael Miller flannel print and I backed the canopy with minky in a lovely color called "Tiffany." It's a little lighter than the hippos, but that's the challenge of picking colors online.

Minky is a PITA the sew with. I've done it several times. But this time, I thought I had cut the flannel and the minky to the same size but when I started to pin, it quickly became apparent that they were not the same size. Or, the minky stretched out of shape. So, it could stand to have a couple inches or so towards the top. But ultimately, I am pleased with it and it should stand up to a Wisconsin February.

Here are my Text Me swap fabrics already cut in fat quarters and ready to be sent! There are so many great fabrics in this swap and I can't wait to see what gets sent back. Anyone who wants to join in can - just have your FQs to Jessica by Feb. 15!