this baby of mine :: baby cloud mobile, dreamy swaddle blanket & artist rolls

 A little over a year ago I was invited to join a community of bloggers, The Creative Mamas. We commune on Facebook; gathering as bakers, writers, designers of small imaginary worlds, sewists, hand-printers, and everything in between. It’s grown to be a group providing great support and inspiration for me.  I rely on those ladies for so much.  Heck, I am not afraid to say it…I love them!  The creative mojo and entrepreneurial smarts they possess is unparalleled!   Today is a special day for this group because we are celebrating a whole new life added to the collective.  Yay!

Our lovely friend Amy (from This Heart of Mine) has had a beautiful baby boy!  Today is her virtual baby shower and everyone is invited!  So, gather at the virtual kitchen table.  We have got some amazing ideas for celebrating a new baby.  We hope we can inspire your next baby shower, too.  Nurturing a new baby is hard work; being showered with love is how a community says, “We are here for you”.  So here goes:

Amy has two older kids as well as the new baby.  I made two things for the baby and included a little something for the bigger kids (in my experience things can get a little tricky at the arrival of a new baby…best not to leave the big kids out!). I studied the colors she tends to use in her own art work before I settle on my color scheme for the gifts.

I knew right away that I was wanted to make a stuffed mobile.  Nothing is sweeter than the movement of a beautiful mobile.  I decided to make it a rainy cloud mobile.  To make the cloud I tweaked the cloud pillow idea from the Liberty Book of Simple Sewing, changing the size and dimensions.

I improvised on the rain drops and added a baker’s twine string (attached in two places) for it to hang from at the top.  The main fabric is Heather Ross from here and the rain drop fabric is a mix of solids and linens from my stash.

 

I also made a sweet, soft swaddle blanket.  When our people were little, we were gifted many new blankets but we never seemed to have enough that were the right size for a good swaddle.  And, boy oh boy…a good swaddle is worth a million winks of sleep.  Am I right?  Making this swaddle was simple:

+ I cut a piece of cotton fabric 44″ by 44″ and cut a piece of super soft cream knit fabric the same size.

+ Stiched them both RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER, leaving a small gap of 4 inches.

+ Turned it right sides out and hand-stitched the opening closed.  That’s it!

It is a blanket ready to induce sleep!  (Oh please, oh please!).  This print fabric is Riley Blake Madhuri Elephants, purchased from here and the knit is from Jo-Ann.

For the big kids, I threw in two of my artist rolls.  Made from my own pattern, available here.  These are the perfect distraction for kids (who doesn’t love to draw on the go?).  They each contain a pad of paper and 10 markers and all of it rolls up for convenience. I’m hoping that Amy’s big kids can pull them out any time their Mama is busy with baby!

These fabrics are Glitz from Michael Miller.

There you have it.  A package to welcome a new life!  Be sure and click below to see all the baby shower gifts!

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This Baby of Mine is a virtual shower for our dear friend Amy of This Heart of Mine. We wanted to shower her with love and congratulations on her newest addition even though we live all over the country. Our posts are full of great ideas for sending love and help to a friend with a new baby, even when you live far away.