Addyson Belle joined the world yesterday, daughter of Ashton and Misty. Here are the first couple of photos of her. I’m sure there will be many more!
For Addyson, I made eight gifts. All of the gifts have been received, so I can write about them now.
A knitted hat was first, made from leftover yarn, just like the previous Vine Lace Baby Hat.
Next I made a quilt, a 9-patch made of pastels I found in my stash. As usual, I had to buy more pink. [We’re hoping Addy likes pink as much as her mom does!]
I designed a simple curved quilting pattern to break up the angularity of the squares.
Some months before, Misty had requested matching garments for her and the baby to wear home from the hospital. Susanna IC’s Summer Blooms Shawl showed up on the cover of Interweave Knits just in time for inspiration (Summer 2012). Susanna’s designs make my heart sing – I’m glad I was able to make one of them. This one has silver-lined beads for added sparkle, knit into the edging.
After I knit the shawl, I took its border design, added a few stitches to keep the pattern straight, and used it to edge this afghan I created. [I left out the beads]
When I got to the center diamond, I swatched until it looked right to me, ‘though if I do this again, I’ll change one of the stitches so it leans in the correct direction.
For this baby, I made a changing mat separate from the diaper bag.
The mat folds up to be its own carrying case.
The purpose of the pockets eludes me, but I’ll assume a mother knows what to do with them!
Misty requested a nursing cover, shopping cart cover, and diaper bag. Not being a mother, I also didn’t know what a nursing cover was, couldn’t fake my way through it, so I had to buy a pattern. I now know that it’s simply a rectangle with an apron-style neck, with boning added so you can’t fold it for shipping.
The shopping cart cover gave me fits. I almost chucked it in the garbage three times! The worst day was when Paul helped me discover that the pattern company had drawn the diagram incorrectly: had I sewn it as drawn, it never would have folded up into itself! I tried to get Sydney to model it for me:
Here it is ready to fold:
And folded up, to make its own carrying case. Misty and Ashton will have a few months to figure this one out before they really need it!
The diaper bag took the longest. The parents’ request was for it to be related to the book Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss. There was no licensed fabric in that theme, so I had to get creative. I chose two pages from the book, traced them, enlarged or decreased them, and then created the two sides of the bag using various techniques of piecing, appliqué, inking, and buttonhole stitch, all in the color scheme of the book. The buttonhole stitch was done with batting and a muslin back attached, so it was quilted at the same time.
Because I had to decrease the “wide open spaces” side to get the design to fit, the figure was too small to stitch in any method. So Addyson is a pink butterfly.
