Boy or Girl?

How do I make a quilt when I don't know the gender of the baby? This was my dilemma about 8 weeks ago when thinking about the quilt I wanted to make for my good friend Dana and her new baby. She chose not to find out what the baby was and I really didn't want to make a gender neutral quilt.

One night, while trying to go to sleep I came up with the idea that I would make two quilts, one girl and one boy. This way, I would have a quilt ready to give her when she got home from the hospital. Then, whichever quilt I didn't need, I would sell.

I set about my research for fabrics through my regular channels online. Yes this quilt was for the baby, but it is for Dana too, so I wanted to make sure it suited her tastes as well. I found the boy fabric quickly, an adorable monkey print in greens, brown, orange, blue and white. The monkeys came from the Urban Zoologie line and the coordinating prints came from the Remix line, both from designer Robert Kaufman.

Now I had a little more trouble finding fabric for the girl quilt that was just right. After a few searches, I found a retro looking fabric called Flock by Andover Fabrics. Soft pink, orange, brown, yellow and white, it was calling Dana's name.

Since I was knee deep in production for Fog Fest, I came up with a design that was cute and would showcase the fabrics, but could be constructed quickly. Also the baby's due date was fast approaching! I went with a simple framed four patch with a large border on the outside. The back was pieced together with a row of 4" framed squares pieced to the main panels. Each was quilted with a coordinating thread in a meandering pattern over the whole quilt.

Both quilts turned out completely adorable and I made matching toddler pillows to go with them. I made them slightly larger than a crib size, so they will fit a toddler bed nicely and be cozy to snuggle with as the child gets older.

Well, surprise, it was a baby girl! So Dana and her new daughter have a beautiful new quilt. She absolutely loved it and loved the colors, so my gut feeling was right! The best part was seeing her smile and almost tear up over it.

The adorable monkey quilt will be available for sale at Fog Fest or in my Etsy shop after October 2nd. 

Fog Fest Booth Test Run #2

We had a chance to do another test run of our booth today. After tweaking a few things, now we are super happy with the results!

Michelle and I have two different crafts and it so happens, I have a lot more variety of items than she does. Our original set up had her stuff all on one shelf and the rest of mine everywhere else. It felt too "this is your side and this is mine", which is something we talked about avoiding in our original discussions. So today we did a much better job of co-mingling our items on the shelf and the back display table. We achieved the cohesive look we were going for.

We came up with a Plan B for the bag display just in case we can't zip tie the wire framing to the frame of the tent. Also we set up with the mannequin heads which we added wigs too at the last minute.

We are loving this wig with the beanie on it. The bangs sticking out are so great!

With just a few more items to create for inventory and price tags to be added, I would say we are just about ready for our first craft fair!

Fog Fest Booth Test Run

Michelle came over on Friday and we had a chance to set up a test run of our booth. I must say, we were pretty excited at the results. Michelle did such a great job of designing it and making it all come together.

The cool thing is we have spent very little money making it look nice and professional. We re-purposed the black wire frame from my house, the A-frame shelf came from eBay and I made the T-stands. We marked off a 10 x 10 area on my backyard patio and used the fence to hang the wire frame. The wire frame and quilts will actually be hung from the frame of the tent that is provided.

We stepped back and admired our work. A plan Michelle drew out on paper, now had come to life. We just looked at each other and grinned at how awesome it looked. Now, hopefully there won't be many surprises on our first day of set up!

Wire frame to hang all the bags.

Got my 5 year old to take pics of us holding quilts to see how they would look as the backdrop.

Home made T-stands to showcase the belts and headbands. Vase for cat toys and a container for the marker roll-ups.

Another quilt back drop.

Baskets to hold the remainder of the quilts and the baby blankets.

A-frame shelf to showcase all the beanies. We ended up painting the shelf white.

Two very happy and excited girls!

Ramping Up

Oooohhh! Michelle and I are ramping up for Fog Fest and we are getting very excited to be participating in such an event. Our production of items is booming and our inventory just keeps growing. One of our main concerns (well, mine really!) is not having enough items, but every time we get together to go over things, Michelle brings me back to a comfortable place.

Our booth design is coming together nicely, thanks to Michelle, and we are hoping to have all we need to do a test run in a couple weekends. Thanks to a Pinterset post and the blog that went with it, I have been having fun making my own T-stands to display my belts and headbands. Super easy to make after a trip to Lowe's and Michael's. A saw, a drill and some Gorilla glue and I have this beauty. Now it just needs a coat of paint!

Toddler Pillows

When my oldest daughter started preschool, we had to put a "sleepy" bag together for her to keep at school. A crib sheet, a blanket and a sleepy friend or special item is what the bag consisted of. My daughter wanted to include a pillow also, which was fine, until I realized how cumbersome it was to take her Dora pillow back and forth to school.

I had an extra pillow form lying around and decided to take her to the fabric store and pick out some fabric so I could make her a very special pillow to keep in her sleepy bag. She thought this was the greatest. When my son started a year later, of course I had to make him one too. Now, my youngest hasn't started preschool yet, but caught onto these cool "little" pillows her brother and sister have, so now she has one too.

I noticed that the teachers and even other parents had asked me about these little pillows. Commenting on how adorable they were and where ever did I find them. They are incredibly easy to make and take about a 1/2 yard of fabric. Now my kids love the super soft satin they have on their blankets, so I make each of theirs with a satin side and a character side.

These little cuties will be making their appearance at Fog Fest and in my shop, so stay tuned!

Fog Fest...Here We Come!!

Well, today it is official...we got our acceptance for Pacifica Coast Fog Fest 2012! My friend Michelle and I will be participating in our very first craft fair. We are so excited to have this opportunity, as we both have been hard at work over the last few months, fine tuning and adding to our inventory of items. Michelle and I have attended numerous craft fairs and shows over the years and have always wanted to be a part of one.

Stay tuned for updates as we approach the fair and if you live locally, we hope to see you there! In the meantime you may check out our shops on Etsy:

Lovey Bug Designs

PresqueIsle 

Block Three & Four

Yes, I am still working through the Clover & Violet Quilt & Stitch Along. I am very behind, but trying not to stress over it. Recently, I spent a week in Lake Tahoe with my kids and my parents and I was able to complete Block #3 and Block #4. I began working on Block #5, but it is not quite finished yet.

Block #3 took me a long time to complete. Most of the designs in the stitch along are quite simple and require simple stitches that don't take a lot of time. For block #3, I decided on a leaf stitch for each of the petals and it was really time consuming. The end result, however, was really gorgeous.

Block #4 was a simple dragon fly. This one took about 2 hours to complete since I used a satin stitch for the body and a back stitch for the wings. I was worried about it looking to plain, but I really like the end result. Some of the other blocks are much more colorful and intricate, so this will stand out nicely among the rest.

Hoping to move along more quickly now, although I don't think I will catch up to the rest of the group. While trying to prep for a craft fair and take care of three kids, I will just do the best I can!