Happy 1st Birthday, Shannon!

My great-niece, Shannon had her very 1st birthday party this past weekend.  She sent me the cutest invite to her party w/ a number 1 on it.  I decided I had to make a number 1 (and polka dots, because they are my favorite) on her birthday card.

It just so happens that Krista over at Cards & Things Challenges had a color challenge made especially for little girls' birthday parties.  PINK!!!  Well I guess this challenge can be used for a lot of different cards, because I'm definitely NOT a little girl and I love the colors.  :)

Here's Shannon's card after a lot of trimming and measuring and trimming again. 

The number 1 is the front of the card.

I punched Rose Red, Crumb Cake and Early Espresso circles and glued them on Pretty in Pink cardstock. Then I ran it through the big shot. TIP: Embossing with the lattice square does change your cardstock size. I start out a little bigger than what I need so I can trim down to the correct size.

 

Here's the card opened up.

 

I cut my embossed background and inserted a white piece of cardstock behind the number 1 to write a note to Shannon.

 Ribbon Shares are available again. 

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Soft Little Monkey Rag Quilt

I finished the second quilt for my customer!!! I'm so SO happy with how it turned out.

Are you thinking about making a rag quilt? Do you have 24 hours? This crib size monkey quilt took me a day to complete start to finish.

Yes, it's really that easy.

What you need to make your own baby quilt:

Big Shot, Scallop Square Die (115950), about 1 1/4 yards of cotton batting, 3 yards material (cotton or flannel), sewing machine, coordinating thread, pins, sharp scissors for cutting scallops

Here's the steps to make your own rag quilt:

• Cut the cotton batting (108- 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" squares)


• Using the Scallop Square Die, run the fabric through the Big Shot (216 scallop squares) I used plain ol' cotton fabric for this quilt, but flannel is also used in rag quilts.


• Sandwich the batting between to fabric squares and pin them


• Then quilt an X through all the sandwiched squares


• Lay out the quilted squares on a table or the floor and arrange them for the quilt


• Stitch the rows together (9 quilted squares per row) I used a 3/8" seam for this quilt.


• Then stitch the completed rows (12 quilted rows) I pin where the corner of the squares should meet so that they line up pretty close.


• Make a seam around the outside of the quilt. I use 1/2" seam.


• Clip all the scallops


• Wash and dry (this makes the seams fray and the quilt SOFT)

This quilt is so soft. It's amazing what a difference a wash and dry make:

I love the edges. They frayed out beautifully. (The more times you run your quilt through the washer and dryer, the fluffier and softer it will be become.) This quilt was washed and dried once.
Here's the traditional backside to the quilt.

This is the close up of the material used. My customer choose little monkeys and material that has nursery rhymes printed on it.