Too Many Showers

Two baby showers in two days are too many. Saturday’s shower was actually a baby viewing shower since the guest of honor had already been born. The baby was passed to person to person (other than me) as the new mom open up gifts. It is safe to say that I have yet to fall for the “charms” of a baby (now baby clothes are a different matter entirely) and really didn’t care either way about holding the baby. In fact I actually avoided it. Sunday’s shower didn’t start off well but turned into a nice little affair. A few tips on how to have happy guests at your shower: 1) Don’t plan a baby shower on Mother’s Day, 2) Don’t plan your shower from 4:30 – 7:30 on Mother’s Day, and 3) Don’t expect your guests to bring food – gifts and food – my friend you are overreaching. But despite my initial hesitation, which was probably based more on the fact that I had to go to two showers in one weekend then anything, it also was a very nice time.

For the second shower I tried my hand at making a baby blanket. The parents are waiting until the baby’s birth to find out the sex so I picked colors that were gender-neutral. I also wanted fabric that would pop and be visually engaging for a little one to look at. I settled on three Michael Miller prints from the Woodland Delights collection, all three fabrics had the same bright red and beautiful blue hues. The patches were 4 ½ x 4 ½ with a quarter inch seam allowance. I also followed Lisagh’s tip and made sure that all the raw edges were pressed back into the same direction. For the backing I used a plum colored fleece that was similar in color to the zig zags, the fleece was thick enough that I didn’t need any batting for softness. A few of my patches were a little off in size however I was very pleased with my actual stitching and with how the blanket actually turned out. I’ve already started cutting out blocks for a larger queen sized blanket.