Ah...during Christmas break I determined that I could not work on the babies room until I had finished working on all my unfinished projects. So, I made a list of projects and went down that list one by one. They were mostly wall hangings that I needed to put backs on, sew and bind. Most everything required stitching around the applique and so I borrowed my friends sewing machine that had a blanket stitch and sewed for a straight 5 days and finished my list. It was wonderful.
During that time, I was looking for a pattern to make the babies quilt out of. I walked into the Quilting Cottage in American Fork, Ut and I saw a quilt. I drew the design on a paper and asked if I could have a ruler to measure the blocks. It was a finished quilt on the wall and there was no pattern, thank heaven, or I don't think that they would have let me measure the quilt and made me buy the pattern. It was easy to figure out, and i am proud to say that I sewed my first quilt without a pattern!!!! I knew that I could do that. So many quilt blocks are made in similar ways and i am learning more and more the more small quilts that I sew. So....here is her quilt!!
Sorry. I know that that is not the best picture, but it is going to have to do for now. I went into the babies room while she was sleeping and turned on the lights for this post. She is really out because she did not even wake up as I made quite a lot of noise. I decided that for each of my children I was going to make a crib quilt as theirs to keep when they are older. I had it machine quilted by a worker at the Quilting Cottage. Because her middle name is Azalea, I had her put huge flowers in and this is what they look like.
Oh I love them!!! They turned out so perfect. I have not finished the bumper but it is going to have the fabric from the light border on the outside and the same blocks, just a bit bigger turned on the inside. I am going to use a bumper that my husband's sister-in-law gave me and recover it. I will post pictures when I ever get to it. Hopefully soon, since she has started rolling and now sleeps in her crib.
My second project was this basket cover. I used the same fabric that I used to re-cover the car seat (which I need to post pictures of. I think that it turned out quite good.) I had bought a lot of this fabric. I have found many uses for it already. A year ago I saw this fabric on a sight on-line. It is a Michael Miller fabric. At the time I thought, "I should buy some of this fabric because I would love to use it to make a diaper bag when I have a baby." Little did I know that we would be pregnant 4 months later and a year later they are still printing the same fabric. It is awesome. I made up the dimensions for sewing and the idea from a few different covers that I saw in the stores the week that I made it. I am really excited out how it turned out.
After working on the basket, I looked at the dresser that we were going to use for her. It was originally my dresser from before we were married. When i bought it it was a light pink color. Russ painted it with wall paint from our first place because he didn't like the color. However, he didn't use primer and the paint is chipping off. I was looking at all my scrap fabric that I keep moving from house to house and decided that I needed to make something with my fabric. The following table runner to cover the dresser emerged. I really should take the whole thing off and take a good picture. I love it!!! Just look through many of the other pictures and you can see parts.
In this picture you will also see other objects that I used in her room. I wanted objects in her room that with will remind her of the things that are the most important to her in her life. I think that it is important to have a picture of Christ in her room so that she can look on him often and learn that she is loved by him. There are also three other willow tree figurines (that will eventually be on the shelf that you will see in a little bit and not on the dresser.) One is of an angel praying, so that she can remember to always pray for help and guidance. The other is of a man holding his child. I bought this for Russ and gave it to him as a present on the day that the baby was due and didn't come. The first time that I ever saw my husband hold a child, he held his first nephew like this and held him for hours and just stared at his every feature. I wanted my daughter to know that this is how I saw her father the first time holding an infant and how I knew that he would hold and care for his own daughter. The other figurine is a mother and a father holding their child. Russ gave this to me a few days after Madalynn was born for my first mother's day. Here it portrays us a family and how we want to always be--close and loving.
Russ made the following items for her bedroom. An ABC block for storage. It is really nice and has a nice divider for me to put small items on the side. It is not finished quite yet. I didn't get him a font to put the letters on before Madalynn was born, because I wanted to make sure it really was a girl first. I know, silly silly. I had only seen her being a girl 4 times before I had her, but I was still uncertain.
This toy box is already full of toys thanks to Madalynn's grandparents and other gifts. I made the cushion for the seat out of some fabric that Russ' grandma gave me last April that I found in a box. I love the pattern and I am glad that I have been going through my fabric boxes to get rid of what I will never use, so that I found it. My mom provided the pillow forms when she gave me some of her old fabric last summer and I found them in a box too and used some more of the Michael Miller fabric to cover them. Sorry about the bag on the box. I didn't want to move it in fear of waking the baby up tonight. We are still working on making it child safe and finding some hydrological hinges or something to make sure that the lid does not slam down and hurt a child.
I just couldn't resist putting this picture in the post. Russ took a picture with the baby on the box right before we moved out of our last place. I hadn't finished anything yet obviously. Ah, my husbands little doll.
The best story of putting together the babies room is the story of the ottoman that Russ made for me. I knew that I would need one to use the glider that I bought at a garage sale 5 years ago. The chair has the straightest back and it not very deep. So to sit in it and hold a baby would be hard. So I told him that it would be nice to make an ottoman or buy one. Well, one day while Russ was delivering mail he saw an old Glider in an irrigation ditch that had been partially burned when the farmer had burned the weeds. He went back that afternoon and got it out, took off the top of the chair, sanded down the burnt wood and painted it to cover up the other flaws. I had some upholstery fabric and part of the cushion left from making the toy seat cover and we put it on the top. I think that we did a decent job and here it is--a great big, wide ottoman finished for just the cost of the paint.
Just as I am thinking that I have been typing for 30 minutes and posting pictures----you must also be thinking is this post ever going to end...... Well, there is so much more in sight. Now that I am taking pictures and realizing just how much I have done for her room and the small details that I have made I am really in awe. I just had to run back upstairs for a couple other pictures that I missed on the first trip.
I realized that I really wanted some wall decor and a lamp for going into her room at night and not turning on the room light. Since her middle name is Azalea, I thought that it would be nice to have pictures of an Azalea in bloom to represent the birth of new life and a picture of the flower open, vivid, and beautiful to show the growth of a child and their beautiful potential in life. The buds are a photo that I bought off etsy from
Nadine and Kathleen. We cut it down to put in the frame. The larger photo we actually got from Wikipedia.
The lamp was a journey. I was looking for a fun and different lamp bottom. I would stop at yard sales and look in every store from DI to consignment stores to Walmart and Smith's Marketplace. I finally found it in this totally run down and dingy store that I swear has been buying everyones junk at yard sales forever. The lamp shade that came with it was horribly hideous. I should have taken a picture, but I just threw it out. We spray painted the base a pink color...then I decided that that might be a bit too bright so we rubbed it with white paint.
I bought a lamp shade eventually for super cheap and decided after seeing lots of cute lamp shades in many consignment stores around American Fork that I could add some fabric to the shade to tie it into the fabrics and theme of the room. So, I cut out the fabric, used some spray adhesive and put it on.
Here is what it looked like before we rubbed on the white paint.
And here it is after the paint. Of course now that it is finished I realize my one big huge flaw.....the fabric is an off-white and the base is a white. Eventually I will have to do something about that. It looked better just plain pink to me and maybe I will just spray it again later on.
Many people have given us hair bows and headbands for the baby. I have seen some letter holders for clipping on the bows and so I bought this wood letter and covered it with scrapbook paper, chalked the edges with pink chalk, had Russ drill a hole for the peg to hold the headbands and had him staple on ribbons. It will eventually be hung on the wall over a round drawer knob and I will take pictures when we finally get it up.
I wanted some cute fabric boxes to hold her diapers, wipes and soaps. I decided that I would look online and see if I could find some cheap ones to buy and found a tutorial on
Sew4Home that I decided to use instead. This project required some cardboard and fabric. Since we just moved, I had plenty of cardboard boxes I could cut up. The thing that I like the most about these boxes is that they completely collapse. The bottoms come out and the side fold in. That way I can store them a lot easier than i could if they were baskets. Bonus!! I made a mistake in measuring the middle one and so it was one inch smaller than I wanted, but that happens.
The following picture is a picture of a shelf that I bought at a garage sale that has a dowel that will have a wall hanging on it that I am finishing right now and the picture of Christ on the top and the willow tree figurines. This was my first project ever spray painting. I didn't know that I could be so terrible at something. However, there were tons of runs in the paint and Russ eventually sanded it down and re-painted it. It is going to be great.
The letters Russ made. I cut out letters from a font on my circut machine and we traced them onto a board. Russ bought a jigsaw and we cut them out and sanded them. We are priming them right now and eventually they are going to be spray painted the same colors as the ABC block. They will be hung with ribbons stapled on them. The ribbons will be painted as well. Russ is going to make a second, much longer shelf for the wall that the letters will hang from. On that shelf the two photos of the flowers will sit. I am really excited for this project to be finished. It is the last that I am planning for the babies room besides finishing a bumper for the crib.
Here is Russ working on the letters :)
Here I am after using a power tool to create something for the first time in my life. It was a practice letter and it turned out ok. We learned tools are made for right handed people. When i leaned over to look at what I was doing, the fan blew saw dust in my eyes and it was blinding. It took Russ a while to try to figure out why I kept getting saw dust in my eyes, even with glasses on. I thought it was funny afterward.
For her car seat, we bought a used car seat cover off ebay, washed it and I took it apart. I sewed fabric onto the top of the pieces and put it back together. Here is the finally product.
I also made a car seat canopy. Here it is.
Her room:
The ABC box is between the dresser and her crib. And here is my little on in her crib asleep for the night :)
And here is a picture of my little one at 3 1/2 months old..and just as happy as can be. She is the reason for all this work and it has been fun. Keep tuned in...the rest of the room should be ready and up in a couple week.
This is a picture of the dolls that we are going to stuff on Tues at the activity. This is the easiest thing that I have ever made, so noone should be afraid of sewing something like this. 
