The happiest of happy mail probably.
One of my oldest and dearest friends lives in Vermont. She is almost 8 months pregnant and too far away for my taste. We did always say we were going to live next to each other when we had kids, oh how things change. Good thing cell phones and free long distance came along. A few weeks ago my mom was watching Tuesday when I went for a haircut. I took the opportunity when I got back in the car (which was parked in a nice sunny spot) to ring up Ceara (fyi as you read this you say it like “kira”). Over an hour later I got moving. I hope you have a friend like that. One you can just talk and listen to. It’s a beautiful thing.

Ceara, of course, attracts wonderful friends to her where ever she may be so I wasn’t surprised that one jumped at the chance to throw her a perfect party. I wasn’t sure if I would get all the projects done I had planned, but really my pride was on the line after the last big thing I made her took FIVE YEARS. Yikes. I was a bit over my head with that one really though. Anyway I loved putting together this package. I went with her school colors (NOT MINE) yellow and green. I know I copied you on this Nora, but can’t find the link. It was totally Nora’s idea though:

So easy to do with the scraps and herringbone ribbon from my shop (this natural twill would also work great).
Do you want to know what was in the package? On top (that her friend put in a bag for me) was lots of little fun stuff like a shirt predicting her child’s future. Sarah and I found that shopping in Corvallis. The example in the store was “professional bowler”, which I found funny. She got “generous tipper” which I find a bit weird… the baby doesn’t have to wear it Ceara! Bj passed along his favorite baby book to Grant, and I filled the rest of the stuff with baby nose spray, lap pads, teething tablets, and stuff like that. I made her baby a little hat:

The yarn and book (from which I got this dead easy pattern) are both from my friend’s awesome new yarn shop here in town. My friend who happens to be my next door neighbor. I will be reporting about this awesome new wonderfulness soon. Can I just say that with Ceara’s lovely skin, and her husband’s even darker lovely skin that their probably edible looking creamy chocolate colored baby is going to look fabulous in this! I might have to eat it. Mmmm baby head in wool….
Now the big thing I did not get to choose the colors of. You may remember that I briefly mentioned when I visited Ceara that we picked out some fabric for a baby quilt. It had to match the room. And to be really nice I made it look great with all the Duck gear I’m sure they will have around. 🙂

And can I just say… I really love it! I think I might be unusually prejudice against yellow and green since I was raised to be a Beaver, but I might be loosening my stance a bit (ok a lot, I could have kept this). I designed it a few weeks before (ugh nothing like waiting until the last minute Amber!)

To include some big blogs with the little ones to give it more interest and highlight some of Ceara’s (and my) favorite prints. The back I also pieced:

With a little embroidery square:

I basted with quilting safety pins so I put a whole bunch around this area so I would quilt over it… then I quilted over a pin:

That I tried to remove which led to me BLEEDING ON THE QUILT. I got it out though, but not the safety pin with out a little damage to the stitches. You know what though? Here is another wonderful quality of Ceara’s: she won’t care. And I know this because if I didn’t blog about it I bet she wouldn’t notice. Not because she doesn’t notice things, but because she is not a crafter. I’m not being mean saying it. Her hobby is music, mine is craft. Yes, one of my best buddies does not craft, can you believe it? Anyway.

I all over free motion quilted it…

And did a sort of loopy-d-loo boarder with variegated yellow thread in TWO HOURS on my awesome machine that I love oh so much. It’s a bit wonky and totally random but I love it, it was so fun and I want to quilt fifty more things right now to practice and get better (don’t remind me about those UFOs…). Oh and I did a scrappy non-biased binding. I love this, and will do it again (got the idea from the now defunct blog Crazy Mom Quilts – still up with lots of tutorials archived).

Tuesday loved it too. The matching was accidental… though to be fair she is in green an average of four times a week. I had so much fun coming up with this quilt. I have been reading lots of “modern” quilting blogs and there is so much good info out there. Very inspirational.
Of course I couldn’t wait to see how this was received. Ceara loved it! She called me tonight and it’s hanging over the baby’s crib, awe…. I was like, “good, now I can blog about it.” So I did. Goodnight!