by Andrea | Aug 19, 2016 | DIY, handmade, quilting, Sewing, tutorials
Sewing for twins is the best! We have some dear friends who my husband and I got the pleasure of doing marriage counseling with. Blake officiated the wedding ceremony. When they decided to have a baby, God gave them two! I remember sitting on the couch and holding my 1 week old Ruby when we got the news.
When we found out the twins would be a boy and a girl, I immediately knew what I wanted to make them. Carseat Quilts! Have you ever worried to death over your tiny infant in that huge carseat being suffocated by all the blankets? Well, I have. I’m a worrier….This time, with Ruby I used an American Girl Doll blanket when I tucked her into her carseat. It was perfect! It fit right around her and tucked in just enough. Babies grow so fast but it’s nice to have just what they need when they need it. When they grow out of the blanket it can be a wall hanging or a doll blanket or a lovie…
BUY A CHARM PACK
I bought a really cute stack of 5″ charm squares at Missouri Star Quilts by Alexia Abegg for Cotton + Steele Fabrics called “Hatbox.” It’s on sale right now for $6.95! That makes for a VERY inexpensive quilt, especially if you use what you already have in your stash for the rest. In case you don’t know, a Charm Pack is 42; 5″ x 5″ precut squares of quilting coordinates. It’s just so easy. I used to love buying 2 yards of my favorite fabric but now I like having them all cut up for me! Less is more…
DIVIDE AND SEW
If you divide the charm stack you can make two carseat quilts. Hatbox came with two color ways…one with pinks and the other with greens, making it the perfect stack to use for the twins. The quilt measures approx 19″ x 24″ when your done. It’s nice to keep your quilts between 14″-19″ wide and 19″-24″ long for a carseat quilt.
Lay out your charms in 5 rows of 4…..Sew together, add very lightweight batting and backing or flannel and bind. I used Mountain Mist Cream Rose batting and Cloud 9 double gauze I had leftover from baby swaddles to finish these up. Both can be found at Joanne Stores.
QUILT & BIND
I chose to quilt in the ditch with decorative stitching. I thought the fabric had a vintage feel and that finishing it this way gave it an almost antique crazy quilt vibe.
If you need help with binding you can find all sorts of good tutorials out there in a google search. I have demonstrated using quilt backing to bind the quilt in both of my previous quilt tutorials here and here.
Here are some pictures…Bowen and Willow are ADORABLE and I’m thankful their parents were willing to share such sweet pictures!
Happy Sewing!
by Andrea | Aug 9, 2016 | Christian, Faith, God, Home Decor, Interior Design
There are times in life to weep and in much needed contrast, times to laugh. (Ecclesiastes 3:4) I’ve had my fair share of both. The weeping ones are my least favorite, but they help to make the laughing ones ever so much more appreciated don’t you think? Quite unexpectedly, a time to laugh arrived this very Monday morning. The relief and joy it brought to my heart were much needed.
It started at 6:45 am. Alarm goes off. Husband jumps out of bed, excited for his first day of Med School. He says, “Oh no! I forgot to find my belt last night!” I should include here that we had just unloaded the entire contents of our 24′ moving truck Thursday night and had not made unpacking our bedroom a top priority. In fact we never found his suit and he had to get one at Goodwill for the first day portraits!
The gritty sound of ripping tape off cardboard boxes abruptly broke the morning silence. If there is one sound little Ruby Jane cannot stand, it is that sound. She comes unglued. She is wounded by that sound. Undone. True story, the day our moving van arrived in KC, I left Ruby Jane sleeping soundly at Grandmas house and went over two hours early before the moving help arrived to tape up all the boxes so she wouldn’t have to hear it! It’s kind of hilarious in a “Wes Anderson movie” sort of way.
We never found the belt, but Ruby did wake up quite traumatized. So off to school he went, stomach aflutter and ill fitting pants and all the hope of a new adventure freshly begun.
About 30 minutes later he called. “I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news.” His voice was merry but my stomach dropped, “School doesn’t start until tomorrow. I’m a whole 24 hours early.” A time to laugh. Oh how we laughed! Thank you, God! We so needed a good laugh. The weight of it all was lifted, and we finally stopped for a minute to relax and enjoy this new season.
It will be hard and it will be long, but as Dr. Martin put it at Blake’s White Coat Ceremony Saturday, “take time to laugh…the days will be long but the years will go by quickly!”
Many friends and family have asked a lot of questions about what lies ahead for us. Here is what we know. Blake has two years of classes in Lynchburg, VA at Liberty University COM . Then he has two years of clerkship where his learning/training will take place in a hospital. We don’t know which hospital and we may have to move again for this part. He will do several clinical rotations to get a better understanding of what area of medicine is the best fit for him. After those two years, he graduates as a Doctor Of Osteopath and applies to work in a hospital as a paid resident under a D.O. or M.D. in the area of medicine he would like to practice. Right now he thinks he would like to work in the E.R. We know that could change and depends on what type of residency he gets into. A residency can take anywhere from 2-7 years. Yup, you read that right.
What will I do? I will be at home parenting and making sure our pets heads aren’t falling off…(Dumb and Dumber reference) I will continue to freelance design and I will try homeschooling the kids this year. I can’t wait to get settled into our new place, make it all homey and start sewing and blogging again. We’re excited to be Virginians. We will be exploring the East Coast! We have already begun by taking the girls to Sandbridge Beach for their very first swim in the ocean! Here are some pictures of our first two weeks here. They include Liberty University COM white coating ceremony, Ruby getting pink eye our first day here of course, first time at the beach, and our new townhouse move in day!
We miss our KC family and friends but we already love it here! Come see us!
-Andrea
I took the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains picture from the patio at Blake’s school building. I pray it reminds him everyday that our help is from the Lord who has brought us here.
1I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
3He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
6The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7The LORD will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8The LORD will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.
Psalm 121
