Animal tag blankets

A few friends are having babies soon (like in the next few weeks soon), which whilst being very exciting and joyous in itself is also an excellent excuse for some baby-related craft fun!  

I decided to make tag blankets thinking they would be straightforward and pretty, and then got a little bit carried away scrolling through all the gorgeous designs out there...out came my pencil and paper and I started sketching some patterns!

I found a cute elephant blanket on etsy.com and loved the idea of flapping ears that would crinkle for added sensory enjoyment.  I sketched a template, had a false start cutting out two of the same sides instead of one reversed (oops) and three hours later this little fellow was all done!

Lots of bright colours and different textures, plus he's rather adorable.


As I made a teddy themed quilt for my niece last year, I wanted to make a teddy tag blanket to match for her first birthday.  A bit more of a challenge as I wanted the face on the front and the tail on the back so I had to appliqué each side separately before stitching and stuffing, but he's turned out just lovely.

And my niece absolutely loves her bear tag blanket! She spent all day poking her finger through the ribbons, sucking the ears and shaking the bear around with squeals of joy! 

Quilting for Penny

My mother-in-law is a quilter, and when I said I wanted to make something special for my almost-arrived niece, she suggested we make a baby quilt as a summer project.  I had never made a quilt before, and my sewing experience was rather limited, so I jumped at the chance to work with Jenny and make something beautiful in the process.

My brother and sister-in-law tend to choose rustic, shabby-chic colours and patterns, so we decided on a teddy bear theme in browns and creams.  I sketched the original teddy bear block pattern and it evolved from there step-by-step.

The bears are appliquéd using fusible paper and machined blanket stitch, all using different combinations of fabrics for a rag-tag, patchwork feel.

We used the appliqué stitch to quilt the blocks so the bear outline is repeated on the reverse of the quilt.

The border was made using scraps and then quilted over with hearts 

Jenny was very patient and an excellent tutor, and my brother and sister-in-law loved the quilt - hurrah!