Oh, baby!

This week's finish is a flannel trip around the world.  I have finally finished a quilt for my soon-to-arrive grandson. 

There are 81 squares in the quilt, set 9 across and 9 down.  I cut them 5 in. square, and added a border of the same size.  When finished, the quilt measures 49.5 in. x 49.5 in.  It may have shrunk a little in washing, as flannel does, but I did wash all the fabric ahead of time to minimize that.

I got to use lots of my favorite flannel prints.  This is the very last "Baby Boy" print I had.

This is also the last of the cowboy teddy bear fabric.  The ducky print was left over from a burp cloth.

I was really glad I took this picture before I started sewing the squares together!  My rotten cat got into my sewing room and scattered the squares everywhere.

I tried a new thing when marking the borders for quilting--I used soap.  My husband has a weird idea of what a soap "sliver" is.  I think this is still a good sized piece of soap, but he didn't want to use it anymore and got out a new bar, so I marked the quilt with this one. 
I've been using chalk to mark with for years, but it tends to rub off as you're working.  I was hoping the soap might be better.
The verdict?  The soap is slightly better.  This big hunk marked kind of a wide line, but that was okay for what I was doing here.  And it smells nice.  This is Ivory soap, I don't know how other brands would work.  It washed off easily.
It's still babymania around here, with just about a month to go.

Last weekend, we had a baby shower.  We held it at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts in Cedarburg.  Instead of tablecloths, we used baby-style fabrics, which you can see some of here.
A real baby came to the shower!  This is my daughter's friend with her little one.  My granddaughter is the little girl in the pink, and next to her is her mother, my oldest daughter.  The old lady is me.

We will be using the fabrics from the shower to make baby quilts for charity.  Some will go to Project Linus in West Bend, and some will go to Quilts for Kids, to be given to kids in hospitals.

I've started kitting up the fabrics, and have two done so far.

The first kit features this adorable whale print.  This will be a 4-patch quilt, made from the Quilts for Kids pattern on their web site. 
Here's a link to the pdf for the pattern, if you're interested.  It's the same pattern they put in their kits, so there are instructions on returning the kit within 4-6 weeks.  Just ignore that if you're cutting your own fabric.
Quilts for Kids 4 Patch Pattern

I branched out a little for the second quilt.  The pattern comes from the Moda Bakeshop, and was submitted by Jo Kramer of Jo's Country Junction (I love her work!)
Here's the link to the free pattern:
Step Up Quilt Pattern

This quilt will be red, white, and blue, to go with the light fabric, which has little teddy bear sailors printed on it.  I'm making it smaller than the original.  It's sort of similar to the Falling Charms quilt.

My sewing room is an absolute disaster right now, with all sorts of fabrics being auditioned to go the with baby fabric.
It's a fun kind of chaos.
Have fun this week.