toys are good food

Balboa's Babies

One of April's charity projects was for Balboa's Babies, San Diego's navel hospital NICU. The project leader was kind enough to send out patterns for non-clothing items. (I wasn't quite ready to figure out baby clothes patterns.)

With virtual assistance, I made some snakes and cuddlers, neither of which I have pictures of. The snake is a positioning device that the nurses can wrap around a baby. For smaller babies, a cuddler is used which has the snake-like portion sewn onto a soft bed and secures with a strap. Take a look.

It took a bit more time and effort, but I was also able to make an isolette cover from one of her patterns. This quilted cover shields extra-care babies from noise and light, which can cause undo stress. It has flaps for tubes and a front flap for visitors (nurse and parents, not aliens). Unfortunately, my picture only shows one angle, but you get a better idea of this cover in the picture on the right.----->

Baby Sean

Our friends, Stacey & John, recently 'made' the cutest lil' boy, so I had to make some clothes and a blanket that suited him.

Prior to this experience, I had never really worked with patterns. At least nothing complicated or involving more than two pieces. I was a newbie, green, a pattern virgin, if you will, and I was scared. For some reason patterns don't make much sense to me and I go a bit mad trying to figure it all out.

So I asked my friend Penny to help me with this project, which she did graciously. Of course, Penny also pointed out that I picked probably the most difficult pattern from the set (a bunting) and that I had forgotten the lining fabric. So I switched gears and together we worked on a couple of overalls. I finished it on my own and was so thrilled that I decided to tackle that vexing bunting.

I also decided that due to my success with my first quilt, that a baby blanket would be just the thing for Sean. I picked up a book on chenille baby quilts (in-a-day) and started the project. (For those novices out there, chenille fabric is a bit unruly and a true bitch to work with. Be warned.) The instructions for this quilt were a bit different from my earlier quilt, so I learned a couple of new techniques along the way.