my friend nika asked me to make her one-year-old son a baby blanket.  she asked me to do this back in early may.  in late may, i bought fabric.  and then it sat and sat and sat.  i’m just not a big fan of sewing minky – it moves too much – but i love the cozy blankies it creates when paired with flannel.  last week, i finally got it sewed.  woo!

     

i found this great houndstooth minky at fabric depot and decided to pair it with a really nice quilter’s flannel.  it actually looks like wool, but it’s much softer (and washable!).  i appliquéd the little guy’s initials in my favorite joel dewberry aviary 2 woodgrain.  even though it took me a while to get around to actually sewing it, it didn’t take me long to make and i’m really happy with how it turned out.

the blanket ended up larger than other ones i’ve made in this style.  i usually get a yard of each fabric and have minky left over, but this time i got a yard and a half of flannel and had almost no scraps.  that means it’s crib-size!

blanket done, yippee!

and then…i couldn’t resist making a bonus gift.

i mean, if little brother is getting a package in the mail, it’s only fair to include something for big brother too.  that little dude is so cute.  i made him a superhero cape when nika asked me to make a small blanket for G, and i’ve seen that cape pop up in a few facebook photos since (it makes me excited every time).  he’s actually one year to the day older than em – birthday buddies!

so anyway, i’d seen these spongeballs on aesthetic outburst and thought they’d be super fun, and they totally are.  problem is, our weather here has not been summery in the least recently, and “in the kiddie pool” photos were not happening.  boo!  fortunately, they make good bath toys, too.  i sent three up to seattle, and made a couple extra for my kids to play with.

                      it makes me so happy to cross things off my to do list, and the blanket had been on there a little too long.  sorry about that, nika, and i hope your boys get lots of use out of their new blankie and sponge balls!  😀