The baby shower and the quilt debut!

We threw my sister an “April Showers” baby shower last weekend, and I must say it was adorable. But then again, Sarah is a shower-giving pro, so it was fitting that her own shower be extra special.

Most of the credit for this shower goes to my other sister Lindsay, who graciously hosted it at her house and did most of the decorating. My mom and I provided most of the food, and Sarah, even though she was the guest of honor, even helped with some party favors (because she can’t stand to pass up on a good craft project). She also gave us the world’s greatest hostess gifts, I might add.
Lindsay came up with the genius idea of serving drinks in mason jars, because (a) they’re adorable, and (b) they have a lid, which means no spills on her carpet! She just punched a hole in the top of each jar and inserted a straw. She also tied a name card to each drink so guests could label their drink and avoid mix-ups. I may use this idea at every party at my house for the rest of my life, especially once children are involved. Do they make plastic mason jars?

Oh wait, those are called sippy cups.

Since the shower was in the evening, we served a full dinner of chicken salad sandwiches, miniature ham and cheese sandwiches, fruit-kabobs, tomatoes with basalmic, pecans and peaches, various dips, and several desserts for our 30+ guests. Thankfully it was a team effort. 
Here are my sisters: Sarah, the interior designer (and baby Luke), and Lindsay, the Neuro ICU nurse. Unfortunately we’re covering up the adorable burlap bunting that said Luke with rain clouds.


I was lucky enough to have two of my favorite girlfriends (and former bridesmaids) help us celebrate – Andrea and Katie. (Katie’s the one getting my next quilt project, in celebration of her August wedding. And, well, Andrea is pretty much a member of our family.)

Here’s most of our family: Philip (Luke’s baby daddy… and Sarah’s husband), Sarah, me, Lindsay, my mom and dad. It was an all girls’ shower so Mr. Right and Lindsay’s husband Dallas didn’t get to come. Philip and dad came at the end to help load the cars, which we definitely appreciated.

By the way – my sister got a ton of loot at the shower (such sweet friends), but I must admit that I don’t know what most of it is for. Baby things are like foreign objects for me right now… someday I’m going to need a crash course in baby gear.

And finally… drumroll please… here’s my latest project, Luke’s baby quilt! Ta dah! (imagine me using my best attempt at spirit sprinkles or jazz hands)

It was my first attempt at triangles, and I LOVED the process. My current project is another triangle quilt (I think I mentioned my 526 triangles?), but what I love about triangles is the next quilt will look NOTHING like this one – there are so many fun ways to use them.

I also must brag that this is the straightest quilt I’ve ever done – thanks in part to my fancy Janome machine. It’s so much easier, and I’m learning secrets that help me keep things straighter (although if you look closely, you will definitely see mistakes). Instead of sewing this in rows, I patched it together in squares, then bigger squares, and eventually had four big squares that I sewed together. This helped me so that if one part got off, it didn’t affect the rest of the quilt.

This quilt was made using vintage reproduction fabrics from my local quilting specialty shop – they cost a lot more than JoAnn’s, but they were also cute enough to justify the difference. Because of all the reds and whites I chose to prewash all of my fabrics, so this one probably won’t crinkle up as much as my regular quilts. I just couldn’t chance any bleeding colors. Oh… and I did a combination of machine- and hand-stitching on the binding. Sometime soon I’ll experiment with all machine-binding, but I’m still a bit worried about ruining an almost-finished quilt.

Here’s another view of Mr. Right “modeling” the finished product – what a sweet husband:

And the back… my favorite part… it features vintage bicycles and scooters. ***Sigh***

I can’t wait to see Baby Luke use his quilt! I hope that someday he drags it around the house, leaving it a dirty, tattered, well-loved blanket. Because that’s exactly how all quilts should be used… they should be enjoyed and loved.

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