Whitniffic Whatnots

Yup! I started another quilt the other night. Another girl quilt, but with a more traditional color scheme this time (blush pink and grey) for my first baby niece. I absolutely love how the blue and green gradient quilt turned out for little Liam, so I thought I'd try my hand at mixing some prints again. I spent about an hour at JoAnn Fabrics matching shades of pink and grey, and came home with a quarter yard of 14 different fabrics, plus a larger piece of a pretty dusty pink print for the backing. As always, I eliminated one solid pink fabric because it ended up clashing when I got home... I think they must have special lights in the store that make everything look good together. I didn't really have a plan going into this quilt, but I knew I wanted to go simple with it. "Baby Butt" (as her big brother calls her) is due in October instead of December like I had originally thought, so I wanted to be sure I'd be able to get it done quickly. So far, that does...

I got to meet Liam last night! He's five days old and itty-bitty and adorable. It always surprises me how tiny newborns are... I wanted to make something for his mommy and daddy (in addition to the shower photo book and wish card deck that I finally put together), and I had seen a lot of "birth announcement" framed prints on Pinterest lately. The frames from the table signs at the shower were still sitting around my craft room, so I decided to re-create one of the prints (literally... I pretty much copied it, just changing fonts, colors and pertinent info). The original My recreation (I actually like it better) We got to see the family last night at a cookout at our parents' house (their mom and my dad... yay, step families!), and we actually met a relative from Belgium who now lives in Indianapolis. She's pretty cool. But anyways, baby Liam is adorable, and his mommy and daddy loved the little gifts I brought them. Book by Shutterfly... I th...

I love making quirky gifts for people I know will really appreciate them. Ever since I came across a picture of an animal cracker pillow through a Google search, I've been convinced that they were the perfect gift for my incredibly talented photography professor friend, who just celebrated her 40th birthday. There's just something about her cool 50's style and kitschy vibe that made me really want to make these for her. Somebody sells these cute felt pillows on Etsy... Except I felt they needed some extra cute... frosting and sprinkles! So I picked up some tan canvas, pink furry stuff and a bunch of colorful buttons. Animal crackers are inherently imperfect, so I figured hand-drawing the shapes would work just fine for these pillows. Of course, I ran out of big paper at home, so I taped a few sheets of printer paper together to draw out a cat, a unicorn (not actually an animal cracker shape, but close enough!), a camel and an elephant.   Then, I cut out...

The truffula trunk quilt is starting to take shape! See, I told you we just needed a little bit of imagination... That's what Dr. Suess is all about! So, here's about where we left off last time. I got the wonky strips pieced together, pressed them, and laid them out on the background piece (the blueish-teal color here). You'll see again why wonky cuts make me squirm a little because of all the waste... chop chop! Sorry for the blurry pic... not sure what happened here.   Each colored section was cut (layered with the blue underneath) into a squiggly tree trunk. the scrap edges of the colors, as well as the blue pieces underneath the colored squiggle are discarded (eeek!), no, set aside for another project. Once again, it's important to keep them in order, because each piece fits into only one other just like a puzzle...   Notice the scruffy little grey dog in the upper corner... that's my mom's dog Schnoodles, whom we were dog-sitt...

I mentioned a while back that my friend Rose had asked me to do some maternity photos for her. We decided to do some at Heritage Hill, where she and her husband got married, and some at Celebrate DePere, where they met. We got so many beautiful pictures (how could we not with such gorgeous subjects?), but here are some of my favorites... Such a cute little bump... I love the light in this one. This seemed so uncomfortable... but Rose loved a similar image on Pinterest. Their "first date" bench... awww! LOVE the colorful vibe of this. Pink cotton candy for a girl! (we did both because the gender was a surprise) That pose again! With balloons this time.