Oooh, Baby Baby!

Phew! We've been doing lots of secret sewing over the past month and now that these gifts have been given, we can finally let the cat out of the bag and share some pictures.  

When our dear friend Jennie announced she was expecting a baby girl, Laura and I remained completely calm and congratulated her politely. Of course by "completely calm and polite" I mean "jumped up and down and more or less harassed Jennie via text message until we got access to her pinterest boards" - totally normal, right?

Once we had access to the design map (Pinterest boards = creative blueprints) of Baby C's future nursery, we set out to do one of the things we do best... buy fabric! Just like some people stock up on canned goods before snow storms, Laura and I know that the best way to prepare for a baby that isn't your own is to stock up on fabric and start sewing!

Jennie picked out the most beautiful palette of aquas and lavenders to accompany Baby C's 'mermaid' themed nursery. 

                                                                                              

Allow me to interrupt myself for a moment to say - buying fabric for a baby shower is pretty much the best. 

1. The fabric itself is gorgeous. Babies these days have no idea how good they have it... trust me when I say NOTHING in the 80s held a candle to these stunners from Sarah Jane, Amy Butler, etc. Fabric 'roll around' heaven!
2. There is 0 guilt. Typically when 7-8 yards of designer fabric shows up at my door, the first thing I do is quickly hide it in the stash so no one (coughmyhusbandcough) can ask any questions. When Laura brought this bag of treasure over I strutted around my house like a peacock showing it off to anyone (coughmyhusbandagaincough) who would listen and didn't need to explain anything because 'it's for a gift.' Ha!
3. Baby things are flat out adorable. Everything is perfectly tiny, whimsical, and pretty much begging to     be patch-worked. Sign. Me. Up.  

Laura and I made a list of items we thought Jennie and Baby C 'needed,' divided up accordingly, and went to work. Our list included: 

tiny baby booties (ithinksew.com)

diaper clutch (made by marzipan)

patch-worked bib (pattern drafted by Laura)

raggy busy blankie (pattern drafted by Sara)

little geranium dress (made by rae)...

... with matching bloomers (simplicity pattern 1826) 

wet bag (sailboat pattern)

burp cloths (the happy scraps)

glider throw pillow (same sailboat pattern as above)

and a lovely bag to put it all in! (McCall's m6905 bag)

Now comes the hardest part of all... waiting for baby C to arrive! What better way to welcome a baby girl than with love, whimsy, and a mermaid motif <3

Inspiration: Nashville

My husband and I took a long weekend trip to Nashville last weekend. I had been a couple of times before in my corporate event planning days, but this was the first one that wasn't filled with early wake-up times, insides of convention centers and client entertaining!

We had an incredible time (I'll give you our "perfect" itinerary if you want!) filled with music, food, vintage shopping, SLEEPING and fabric shop prowling.

He's a good sport for putting up with fabric shop adventures!

First up was Craft South in the 12 South neighborhood (my favorite). Not going to lie... I had a major fan girl moment when I realized that this was Anna Maria Horner's shop (for the uninitiated, she is a fabulous fabric designer with Free Spirit). She just opened at the end of May after 2 years of pop-up classes and workshops and her store is swoon-worthy for a sewing junkie like me. Her assistant was wonderful and spent a good half hour talking "shop" with me. I have so many new ideas for all of you! After touching almost every bolt and skein in there, I settled on a bag of her scraps (I do love scraps).


And THEN I got to have ice cream from Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream. I love ice cream as much as I love fabric and Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream is my go to recipe book. Fabric, ice cream and some live music-- I was in heaven!

Ok, but this post is about inspiration!

My 3 year old loves postcards. It seriously makes buying him gifts when we travel so easy because he's over-the-moon happy with a 50cent postcard. I buy 2 to make it seem like I'm a big spender. These things are treasured and get beyond ratty so I keep filling his stash.

I figured a guitar might appeal to a 3 year old more than Elvis, so I picked up these neon filtered ones. When I got home the colors just jumped at me and I scrambled to my stash to find some fabrics to go with it. (No joke: got home late last night, woke up, unpacked, found cards, went to stash-- some may say it's a problem!)

I'm not sure if I'm going to make anything with this pull, but I love taking something ordinary and figuring out how to make it textile.

Starting with an inspiration piece like a postcard is also good to help me get out of my color comfort zone. When I'm dreaming up colors for a project, especially quilts, my default is always turquoises and yellows/oranges. I don't know why. I ALWAYS start there and then have to remind myself there's only so many turquoise and yellow quilts I can own. I love different color combinations but sometimes it's hard to break out of our default. I love these fabrics together but probably wouldn't have pulled them on my own in a million years!

What inspires you??

Happy Stitching!
Laura