Items for Sale at NPEN and Start of Baby Quilt

Yesterday afternoon, I took a load of items, both knitted and sewn, to a local organization -- Natural Parenting Education Network -- to make them available for sale in NPEN's boutique (while I was there I bought the cutest sewn bib from Amanda of This and That Boutique). This organization is fairly new and has been offering some wonderful outreach programs and events for the community. A portion of each purchase there goes to NPEN, so I hope that some of my items sell so that the sales can help out this awesome organization. If you are nearby, then I hope you will visit (check website for location and hours).

The knitted items: a wash cloth, two pairs of adult socks and two pairs of adult slipper socks, two baby hats, and two pairs of baby socks.

These are the rice bags, filled with a little lavender in addition to the rice.

These are burp cloths (cotton on the front and terrycloth on the back)

Sets of 2 pacifier clips with matching carrying bag.

22 Pacifier Clips; I had so much fun playing with all of these fabric choices.

In other sewing news, I got started on the baby quilt for my son (which will be my first quilt). First, I opened up the three charm packs and set out the squares so I could see what was available. I'm glad that I got three packs because some of the patterns (such as the owls) were very limited in number, so having three packs to choose from helped me to keep the variety rather than getting stuck with some of the same squares over and over. (I think I'll make some boo boo bags -- mini rice bags -- with the leftover squares.)

It took a while to get the squares in an order that I was happy with. Actually, the initial setup wasn't too difficult. But at the end, I found one hole where I couldn't figure out which square to put in. Finally I had to start rearranging some of the other squares before I could actually fill that hole (making sure that the same color or pattern was not side by side). I completely forgot to take a picture while I had the squares laid out. I thought about it when I had almost finished picking up the squares.

Over the past three days I've sewn one strip of seven squares per day. I'm going really slowly with these to make sure my seam is completely straight. I want this quilt to be the best that I can do for my first time and I know that rushing through it will leave wonky seams and an unsatisfying project. So here are the three rows that I've finished so far.

I went to Joann's the other day and found some fabric for the border. It's a stripe pattern with browns and blues that I think will look nice. I'm not sure yet what I'll use for the backing. I think I'll wait until I have the front pieced together and then I'll go browse when I have a good idea of what it all will look like.