A Blanket For A Boy

After nine crazy years, my time as a Coast Guard officer is quickly coming to a close. With just a handful of days left in my job, I can't help but think back through the years and about those who have made the good days great and the bad days something to laugh about later. One of my co-workers in my current job has definitely become one of those people. She has been blessed with a second baby boy due this August but it turns out her due date wasn't actually the timeline I was running up against. In less than two weeks I am (a girl who hasn't lived more than five miles from a large body of water in nine years) packing my bags and moving to the mountains of western Virginia. Knowing the stresses of moving would soon be weighing down on me, I attempted to finish this project early....

I didn't do that.  More like just in time.

For this blanket I wanted to use a combination of bright colors and textured fabrics. I also wanted to stick with the standard quilted squares design but use much larger square pieces than I have in the past.

After cutting the fabric pieces, I sewed them into rows and attached the rows to create one large piece of fabric. This part of the process was very quick and took me less than an hour to sew it all together. 

The next step was to create the backing for the blanket. When it comes to baby blankets, I am slightly obsessed with minky fabric. It is unbelievably soft and the raised dots make it pretty adorable and fun to work with. Rather than have one large piece of fabric for the backing, I opted to have a square pattern here also. I measured out four pieces of fabric and sewed them together to create one large sheet.

After attaching the front to the backing, I chose to emphasize the grid pattern more create even more by sewing two additional seams in each direction. As you can see below, the yellow thread pops nicely against the baby blue fabric. 

I really liked the way the seams stood out on both the front and the back and gave the blanket that little bit of extra character. The different textures of each fabric were definitely a great touch to complete the project. 

This will be my last sewing project for a few weeks as all of my belongings get packed into boxes in a few short days, but rest assured that my sewing machine will be hard at work again soon. Making a blanket for this particular co-worker was a perfect project to press pause after for a little while. While I am waiting to get back into the swing of things, I'll be doing some research to find some new projects!

See you next time!

Fireworks & Cupcakes

Happy Belated 4th of July!!!

For months, we have been planning on heading to the Outer Banks to spend the weekend of the 4th of July at a friends beach house. Lo and behold, the first hurricane to hit the East Coast of the 2014 season decides to aim it's slowing moving self straight for the Outer Banks. Luckily, we managed to be going to the one town in the OBX that acted as the cut off point for the storm's path of destruction and the forecast was still calling for a beautiful weekend in the Carolinas. Our plans changed a little but I spent my rainy 4th of July baking cupcakes in preparation for the weekend ahead. The inspiration: red, white, and blue of course.

Using a vanilla cake batter recipe, I made two batches and dyed one blue and one red. While the batches were baking and cooling, I made a large batch of cream cheese icing and divided it into three parts to dye two red and blue and leave the last one white. I realize 24 cupcakes is not enough to create the full American flag, but I figured people would get the idea... (I was still called out). 

I wanted a different texture for the "stars" icing so I used a 4B tip for the blue and a 1M tip for the red and white.  Since there were so many cupcakes to decorate and then place on a cupcake carrier to transport during the 1.5 hour drive, I placed all of the cupcakes on the carrier first, then decorated. 

This was a quick, fun project to kick off our 4th weekend and I think the cupcakes turned out deliciously.  Never a surprise anymore, I ended up with enough batter to make a mini cake. I used one blue layer, one red layer, all three shades of icing, and chocolate chips to build a sweet treat that would hold us over for the night. 

I am just one week away from picking up my life and moving from one end of the state of Virginia to the other; so bear with me as I try to get settled in over the next few weeks and hopefully unpack in a way that will help me find all of my baking supplies. Until next time, enjoy!!