Malcolm's Nursery Set

Or, More Proof That I Haven't Been Idle.

Shortly after learning that my brother- and sister-in-law would be having their first child late this summer, I found the perfect nursery panel on clearance at work.  There were only 3 left on the bolt, so I bought all 3.  One panel is still being made into a quilt-style blanket.

The panel itself consists only of the various-sized animal blocks.  I added the light brown border to it, and backed it in the same fabric.  (It's a Keepsake Calico print from JoAnn's.)  The part that looks like a white border is actually a lightweight cotton batting.  I went over all the straight lines in the panel with the sewing machine to help it look more genuinely quilted, and I'm still in the process of outlining all the animals by hand.  Once I'm done with that, I'll cut down the extra batting and square it up before binding it.  

I cut up the second panel to make all sorts of fun things.  The large giraffe and crocodile block became a small, lightweight baby blanket.  There's no batting, but I did back it in a soft yellow cotton flannel, and bind it with pre-made double-fold bias binding from Wrights.

The twelve tiny squares became a set of two plush cubes, one of which has a rattle inside, so that little Malcolm has something soft and bright and colorful to look at and play with.  I used a mid-weight stabilizer to help reinforce the fabric, and help them to hold their shape.  If I do something like this again, I think I might use a heavier stabilizer, but I don't want them to be too stiff.  Hmm...

And the three large blocks I turned into wall art for the nursery.  I bought 3 12x12 canvases from Michael's and decoupaged the fabric squares onto the canvases.

Cute, right?  I haven't done anything with the last panel; maybe I'll make a blanket for my own little boy, now that I'm expecting again.  But I didn't stop there on Malcom's goodies.  I've had this Heather Bailey pattern since before we left Germany, but I'd never made one.  I thought this would be the perfect time to give it a try.  The fabric (a fat quarter from JoAnn's) and the bit of ribbon (for the tail) both came from my stash, and match the rest of the set very well.  Unfortunately, he's so tiny that I had to stitch him entirely by hand and I'm not sure how much abuse he'll be able to take.

A few weeks after discovering the panels in the clearance section, I found a coordinating fabric still with the rest of the nursery fabrics.  There was only a little left, so I bought all of that too, even though at the time I had no idea what I would do with it.  As it turns out, I had just enough to make a Boppy cover for her.

I used this pattern that I found on Etsy, and holy cow, it could not have been easier.  The pattern says that it's a 30 minute project, start to finish, but it took me about an hour.  (Maybe Corinnea or Kelly could have done it in half an hour, but I've not reached their Guru status yet.)   I think that I will be making some changes next time, though.  For one, I want to try using a zipper next time, instead of the overlapped opening that this one has.  It was really super easy to put together, but getting the pillow into the cover is a bit of a pain.  And the cover ended up being a little too big for my Boppy, so I think I will widen the seam allowance a bit.  We'll have to see how it fits Carrie's Boppy, first; hers is newer and may be bigger than mine.

The last thing is a fitted crib sheet.  I used this tutorial, and it was every bit as easy as making the Boppy cover.  The finished sheet fits both of our crib/toddler mattresses to perfection, so I won't be changing a thing when I make the next one.  (There will be a next one.)  I'd wanted to use that leafy fabric (that I ended up using for the Boppy cover) for the sheet, but I didn't have quite enough of it.  With the help of one of the other girls at work, I found this Quilter's Showcase print that's a perfect match for the orange in the panel fabrics, and compliments the rest of the set rather well.

Not too shabby, huh?  It's only taken me....what, 6 months to get all this together?  I'm such a procrastinator.  Now that my poor nephew is more than 6 weeks old, I'm finally getting around to sending a box for him... He'll have to wait for his wall art, because I haven't been able to find a box to fit them, and the big blanket is going to be a Christmas gift, but everything else will be heading his way this week.  :)