Baby Craze

The Craze is beginning in my circle of friends. You know, that Craze that starts after you and your girl friends graduate from college and start your adult lives. While it can sneak up on you, it's actually quite easy to spot the first signs of the Craze. You're walking down the street eating ice cream and visiting when all of a sudden your friend stops mid sentence and a big smile creeps over her face...as a baby stroller rolls past the two of you. Then this friend tells you that she and her husband have started planning. The next thing you know, you're sitting at a baby shower trying to guess which melted candy bar is in the diaper (I swear I saw it in a movie...Lindsay, don't do that to us, please).

I haven't ever been a big baby person...show me a kitten and you have my heart...but I never was the girl who would throw herself at strangers to oogle over their baby. I never was the high school girl walking around the basketball games with a new acquaintance's baby on my hip. Because of this, I've worried about how my friendships would change as my girls began to have children. Of course I would love the babies, but how much pastel and cutesy would I be able to stand? I think I have figured out how to survive the Craze and the inevitable offspring: baby blankets!

As I explore more of quilting's blog world I see so many adorable fabrics for baby things. Like these, and these, and definitely these.

Jacob's good friends have an adorable little girl who will be a year old this summer. Because they are so important to him (and because I loved the little birdy fabric) I decided to make my first baby blanket for their daughter. The patterned fabric is actually PB Kids fitted crib sheets and the solids are Amy Butler. The backing is a light yellow minky. I wanted a dotted minky, but you can't always get what you want, right? Seeing as I just got my sewing machine back from the doctor's (a.k.a. Momo's), I was nervous about working with the minky. But I followed this tutorial and the blanket came out looking great! Next weekend we're going to visit Jacob's friends and I can't wait to give them this:


With my first baby blanket under my belt, I feel really comfortable working with the minky. So, note to friends: I love playing with this fabric. So have babies so I have an excuse to keep it up! :)