My quilt for Baby Girl

I'm not sure how it started, maybe on one of my many trips to the Quilt Store to plan and pick up fabric for the two lovely quilts that Nana is making for Baby Girl, I decided it was important that I make a quilt for her too. She needed to have a quilt from her Mama and I needed to make this for her no matter how imperfect and beginner my attempt would end up. With the help of several (overdue) library books and many emails and phone conversations with my Mom, I am very proud to have finished my first quilt. I imagine cuddling with my little love in this blanket and hope it's one that she will love.

I decided not to over think the quilting and simply bought a lot of fabric that I loved. I knew the colors would all work well together because I chose my favorite colors. I have a serious obsession with all things striped and polka dotted so there are quite a few of these patterns as well. The fabrics make me happy and I love the variety.

Thanks to a wonderful gift from my Mom of a cutting board and rotary cutter, the cutting of the squares was super easy! It took much longer to decide on the size, but I eventually decided I wanted the final squares to be 3" so I cut my fabric squares to 3 1/2" to account for the seam allowances.

I then spent one evening crawling on the floor laying out squares. A fairly hilarious thing considering the size of my belly. I also spent a great deal of time shooing away the cat who was every curious about why fabric was on the floor and continually had to investigate. 

Once the squares were laid out I spent only a little bit of time arranging them differently. I pretty much just laid them out randomly and as long as the same fabric wasn't close or too much of one color/pattern was too close, I didn't overthink it too much. I wanted it to look random and unplanned.

Then I got to work pinning and sewing the squares together. I thought it would take a lot longer but once I got going I couldn't stop and the rows came together really quickly. My first couple of rows didn't quite match up as well as I would have liked since I was just getting the feel for what a 1/4" seam allowance should be. As I got more practice and more sewing I found myself getting much more consistent. I had a couple mistakes with sewing things backwards (that's why I have a seam ripper!) but overall I found that if I took my time and thought things through before I started sewing (sometimes hard for me) and that I maintained consistency throughout, I didn't have many problems.

I am incredibly pleased with how well the top came together. My seams aren't perfect but I wasn't trying for perfection and I just love the way it looks. The fabrics are bright and happy and I love the squares. I knew I wanted this to be a soft and cuddly baby blanket so I chose to use quilt batting and the very soft minky dot fabric for the quilt backing.

Again I spent an evening crawling on the living room floor pinning the quilting layers together. I was careful to get everything smoothed out and probably pinned way more than necessary.

I decided to quilt the top with straight lines about 1/4" out from the square seams. This was easy and I didn't have to worry about practicing advandaced quilting techniques, I just sewed lines. The quilt got pretty bulking with the addition of the batting and minky fabric so it got a little tedious to do the quilting but I loved seeing the progress and it didn't take nearly as long as I imagined it would.

I was incredibly pleased with the results of the quilting. I feared that somehow this step would ruin all the work I had done to sew the squares together but it definitely completely the quilt. I used white thread so it shows up only subtly on the back and front. There are plenty of areas where the squares don't line up and thus my lines are a bit wonky, but I'd like to think you only notice that if you look hard enough :) The quilt is soft and cozy and obviously already loved by certain family members!

The final step was the binding. I was excited but had the least experience with this step. Basically, I knew nothing about what to do. With the help of some library books and mostly from my Mom, with one especially helpful Facetime session, I attempted my first quilt binding. It was actually alot easier than I anticipated and I really enjoyed this step. I machine sewed the binding on the top and hand sewed it to the back.

I am incredibly proud of my quilt and cannot wait to snuggle a sweet babe in it. As a final finishing touch I added a little "Love Mama" to the bottom corner. I knew I wanted to sign the quilt but this one was meant for Baby from Mama so I decided to add a little hand embroidered love note.

The last couple of weeks...

Also known as weeks 25 - 27. I've been a little slow at updating and putting up photos lately and it seems like time is going by so fast these days. I cannot believe I'm already in my third trimester...woah. It feels like it hasn't been that long since we found out but this is such an exciting step and I can definitely start to think about our little one being here very soon. There's no mistaking that I'm pregnant now, and also not much sneaking into regular clothes either, as much as I still try haha! I'm feeling both very excited about how soon our little one will be here and a little nervousness about how much we have yet to do to prepare for her arrival. I've been a big maker of lists lately and that seems to help me stay calm!

I've been feeling really great lately! Everyone asks how I'm doing an honestly I'm feeling pretty darn good. There are, of course, minor aches and pains but nothing that I didn't anticipate or that is really worth mentioning here. I'm still running which I think helps tremendously and while it certainly doesn't get easier to run I've really fallen into a good routine and I'm finding that my body is capable of much more than I think. The whole idea that pregnant women are weak and need to be coddled is so silly...womens' body's are crazy tough and I'm glad to be able to continually keep myself strong and active. Recently I've ran an 8k race and a 5k race, both at a faster pace than I imagined I could do and was pleasantly surprised with how my body felt in response to the activity. Yes, I was tired but I also never felt exhausted or that my breathing/heart rate got too high. I found that my aerobic and leg strength are still there and while I'm not running even close to the same times I used to be, I'm running decently and I'm so encouraged for my return to competitive running! My 8k (5 miles) time was 45 minutes or about 9 min per mile and my 5k was 25:30 minutes which is a little over 8 minutes per mile pace. I was also the 2nd overall female in this (very small) 5k, which I found to be pretty darn funny. I didn't run across the line backwards so technically I was the third female to cross the line!

Finishing the Wings to Fly 5k in El Reno

Running with baby! My littlest running partner.

At home we've been busy preparing the house and getting some of those final remodel to-dos crossed off the list. The house needs just a couple more photos hung and shelves organized and then a MAJOR cleaning and I think I'll be ready to share an extensive look at our newly remodeled home with plenty of before pictures as well. Below are just a couple snapshots from some of my efforts this weekend.

We took a major step towards officially becoming parents this weekend when we put together Baby Girl's crib. Although she won't sleep in her crib immediately, I just love seeing it set up in her room and it makes me even more excited to start getting all her decorations in order. I have lots of crafting projects planned to create various wall hangings and decor. It seems like my version of nesting is crafting which I'm sure comes at a huge disappointment to my husband since crafting seems to make the house messier and more unorganized...but it makes me super happy so hopefully he sees the benefits! I've also become hugely obsessed with quilting and making blankets for Baby Girl. I won't go into too much detail since I want to dedicate an entire post to my quilt making adventures.

 Daddy did a great job!

 Besides preparing our house and running, we haven't been doing too much. I'm enjoying alot of time spent together just the two of us and quiet evening together. I'm savoring every quiet breakfast together and relaxing post-run lounging because I know things will be very different soon. I'm so excited for the change but also savoring the remaining time 12 weeks or so that we have together and trying to enjoy little moments together.

Best Friends

Baby W's best friend, Allison Claire Elliott was born last Monday two weeks ago (time flies)! I can't believe she's here. It seems like just yesterday I sat on the couch at her Mama's house and she surprised me with the news that she was pregnant! It's been a crazy but fun time watching her experience the early pregnancy symptoms and fears and then a few months later getting to share in the journey with her when I found out I was pregnant! These two will probably end up (based on when I deliver) being about 4 months apart and we know they are going to be best friends. Well, they don't really have a choice right now because their Mama's spend so much time together.

I really enjoyed getting to visit Brooke at the hospital and enjoyed the opportunity to photograph sweet Allison when she was just a few hours old! I love fresh newborns and while I'm grateful for the next few months of preparation I'm getting more and more excited to hold my little one too. For now I'm perfectly happy snuggling with Allison whenever I can :)

I'm so incredibly proud of Brooke and how well she did with her delivery. She is such an inspiration to me and I'm so glad to have such a great friend to share in the joys and sacrifices of pregnancy. 

Congrats Elliott family, she's definitely a keeper!