Another secret project ta-dah!!

I know I have been talking about all the presents I have been making and you guys must be thinking where are all those finished objects, well I can finally show you the 2nd gift I have been working on. I haven’t shared this with you for fear I was never going to finish it. When it comes to sewing and quilting I’m a terrible procrastinator but this particular project had more hurdles then just my laziness.

I first saw this style of blanket at Aesthetic Nest where the lovely Anneliese has even written up a wonderful tutorial to help anyone else who wants to recreate her beautiful  creation. It took me a while to actually start (that was the first obstacle) I would just keep going back to Anneliese post and gushing over her wonderful blanket, thinking can I, can’t I. And then finally my sister in-law fell pregnant and I knew I just had to make her a blanket.

So with her little one in mind I headed off to the fabric shop. Now I had no idea of the sex (we were lucky enough to be included in her news very early on) so I wanted a neutral colour and something that could work with any theme the mum to be decided to go with.

With that in mind I chose yellow. I’m not the biggest fan of yellow for babies its why I have always found out the sex of my kiddies and then proceeded to tell any one who cared haha. But I loved that star fabric and it reminded me of lullaby’s which I thought was perfect for a little one nodding off to the land of slumber. So I started following Anneliese instructions and laid my fabric out

I even cut it all up, making sure I cut the flannel on the bias so that it would make the desired chenille lines. And so far I had run into no problems I even started sewing my 1/4 inch channels up and down up and down, then I left it on the machine but I didn’t sit down for such a long time and when I did sit back down to it the tension on my sewing machine had magically changed itself. Of course I didn’t realise this and had sewn two whole lines before realising. So I then spent a lot of time unpicking and sewing on a little test strip but my tension would not go right. I decided to leave it a while. I mean that always fixes problems. I know we have a an old analog tv we still use to watch dvds in bed and occasionally it stops working, we just wait a while maybe a month and low and behold a miracle happens and it works again. It just needed a little holiday so with this hope in mind I hope my sewing machine needs a little rest.

A while when I return to my machine ok maybe a long while my tension is magically fixed and I begin churning out those lines but then I run out of thread on the bobbin. I wind a new bobbin and the tension is gone again. I wind another bobbin still not working, I do the leave it but it doesn’t work this time. I clean my machine I read every little thing I can find on tension but nothing seems to work and finally I think maybe the cottons too old so I head off to the craft store get some new cotton wind a bobbin and it works. I even run out and wind another bobbin and still my tension is on que. But like I said at the beginning this blanket had many a hurdle and if you thought that I was in the clear now you were wrong. I was about 5 strips away from finishing after hours and hours of sewing and the unthinkable happens my needle breaks and I didn’t have a spare. Another trip to the craft store, pop new needle in and begin sewing for the what seems like the millionth time. And I’m done I have sewn all those lines and it’s time to cut. I’m lucky in a moment of not looking at prices I purchased the Olfa Chenille cutter and it makes light work of all this channels and I’m done in no time.

It’s late at night I’m home alone and may have had a few wines and I am ecstatic at this point!! I’ve managed to get this far!!!! but then I’m so scared to bind it. So it sits and waits for the courage to well up in me and then I find this amazing tutorial and I have that a-huh moment and know I can do it.

It’s all bound and washed and dried and the ruffles  looking amazing. I’m so happy with this blanket. I can’t stop looking at it, patting the ruffles.

With all the obstacles I ran into making this blanket mainly due to my own stuff ups alright completely due to my own stuff ups haha, I loved making this blanket I really did have so much fun with it. My sister in law finally received it. After starting this blanket around the 4th week of her pregnancy and finishing in her 20th week she owns a ruffle blanket. She loved it and I just know that any little bubba would love to lay in all those soft ruffles.

xx