Life with baby!

I promise I haven't disappeared forever, really!

Things here are going well. Button is 6 weeks old now, and we are slowly (very slowly!) learning how to juggle life and a baby, all in the midst of moving house! So we are currently living amidst a mess of boxes and craziness, because unpacking has to be done around nappy changing and feedings and burpings!

It's hectic, but this little face makes it worth it :)

I can't wait to get back into some crafting again, but first I have to find the boxes containing my things, and also find a way to put the baby down once in awhile. Button is not a fan of laying in the moses basket for more than a few minutes at a time, so I am learning how to do everything with a baby in one arm or the other. It is so tiring! Also it's surprising how heavy a 9ish pound baby can seem after carrying him around all day. Hopefully when he learns to grasp and play with things he'll be able to amuse himself for a bit longer so I can return to being somewhat productive, but at the moment he seems to only be happy in my arms!

As a side note, those burp cloths I made? SO useful! I wish I had made more than 5, because I use them so much. They are extremely useful for tucking into my bra when I'm feeding to avoid getting milk all over my shirt, and for slinging over my shoulder while I'm burping Button, and even for laying down under Button's head so that when he spits up in his moses basket (the few times he's tolerated being in it!) it gets absorbed and the mattress stays clean! I definitely recommend them as a baby shower gift (or just for yourself).

Button Arrives!

We have a baby! Button arrived on July 25, weighing in at a healthy 7lbs 2oz. He is gorgeous and perfect in every way!

Little Button!

Sheep and Chevrons Car Seat Cover

So today I decided to FINALLY check out the fabric store that is (sort of) nearby. I trekked across Sheffield, which was a pain because of roadworks and a main road being closed and I had a bit of trouble getting around it, but eventually I made my way to Patchwork Garden. It's a really cute little store. Not really on the scale of fabric stores in the US in terms of quantity, but they had a lot of really cute fabrics and a decent amount of choice for how small the store was.

So I found some pretty cute fabric with little sheep on it, and a sort of matching stripey fabric. I didn't really have a particular project in mind when I went into the store but I had a quick look on Pinterest before setting out and decided this fabric would look cute as a car seat cover or a light quilt or something similar. So I got 1 1/2 metres of each fabric, so I'd hopefully have some extra depending on what I wanted to do with it.

So when I got home I eventually decided a car seat cover was a good project, and was something a bit different and would require a bit more engineering than just a standard quilt. I found a pattern on CraftStylish via Pinterest, and used this as a rough guide for measurements, but mostly I worked the size and everything myself, because I wanted a bit more of an intricate design.

My inspiration.

I decided to do a chevron pattern, so sketched out a rough estimate of how many triangles I'd need and the rough sizes, and decided on 6.5" squares to make 6" HSTs, to make an eventual cover that was 36 x 42" (6 x 7 HST squares).

The cute fabric cut into squares! Sheeps!

After cutting out squares, I used a fabric pen to mark cross corners of all of my gray squares. You can try eyeballing this if you prefer while you're sewing, but I don't trust myself to do that because I am a bit of a speed demon and tend to make mistakes that way.

Next I used one of my favourite techniques - chain piecing. I'm not actually sure if this is the proper name for it, but if you're doing something really repetitive like making a gazillion half square triangles, it speeds things up considerably, and also saves on thread waste as well.

Chain piecing in progress.

To chain piece, basically just don't break the thread in between pieces and keep on going. I sewed 1/4" to each side of the marked line. You can break the pieces after doing the first chain of seams, or if you're impatient like me you can keep them all chained up and just flip the chain around to sew the second side.

After sewing both sides, cut down the marked line, and press open - voila, a million HST squares!

Lots of squares! I did these all randomly, but if you have a directional fabric that you want to all be in the same direction, you'll have to do a bit more planning.

The next part I did a little bit oddly, and again this is sort of how you like to put things together, but I like to put bigger pieces together, so I basically just sewed all the squares together in pairs. I alternated them just to make sure I'd have them in the right configuration, but in hindsight I'm pretty sure this wasn't necessary.

The makings of chevrons!

I'll spare you the boring details, but basically I lined these bits up and sewed them into the top of the cover. I then pieced together the back using scraps, because I (once again) cut more squares than I needed. Sew the top and bottom right sides together, curving the corners if you want, leaving a space to turn. I then edge stitched the top all the way around, and lightly quilted along the chevrons just to keep the layers of the top from coming apart. You can embellish with rickrack or binding or whatever, but I just kept it simple. There are also some versions that have flaps to open the cover, but I like the idea of using this as a kind of light quilt or nursing cover or something as well, so I kept it as is.

I then pieced together some scraps for the handles, measured out where I wanted them - it turned out they were going in the exact centre of the top to fit my car seat, but if you have a particular car seat I'd advise measuring it to make sure it works for yours.

The inspiration used velcro, but as I couldn't find any non sticky velcro, I opted for buttons (also, buttons for Button - yay!). I had a bit of trouble with the buttonhole function of my sewing machine, so I practiced on some scraps beforehand, and used this tutorial which was quite helpful, and eventually I got 3 buttonholes on each strap.

I didn't take any pictures of this process, because my phone battery died, but basically the procedure in the tutorial on CraftStylish is pretty good, you may just have to alter the measurements slightly for your exact needs and how you want your cover to hang.

A finished car seat cover!

I think it's a little bit big, cause the edges are touching the ground, so if I made it again I might take off one row of squares from the length and then add a small border to get a better size, but overall I think it turned out pretty well. It's not got any batting in between the layers, so it's really lightweight, and I think it'll be useful for keeping Button asleep while we're out and about, and keeping the sun off him as well. Plus it will be useful for deterring random people from disturbing him while he's napping!

Still no signs of Button's arrival yet, although I've been feeling more and more intense Braxton Hicks contractions, so hopefully that's a sign things are moving along. This hot weather is killing me though! I can't believe I used to survive American summers, because it's only like 24 C (75 F) here and I'm dying! Granted we had air-conditioning pretty much everywhere in the US, so whenever I was inside I'd have sweatshirts on throughout the whole summer.

Despite no baby yet, A and I have decided to move back to Edinburgh to be nearer to family, which will be really nice once Button is here. Originally we were going to stay in England, because I absolutely love my job, but being on maternity leave so far from family and friends was a bit of a bleak prospect, and various things occurring at once that make it the ideal time to move back. Despite the sadness of leaving my coworkers here that have been so amazing and supportive, and leaving some of my clients and their pets that I've grown to love, I am extremely excited to move back to the greatest and most beautiful city in the world, and hopefully get back some semblance of a social life as well! It's all happening in the next month!

Cross your fingers Button arrives soon! :)

Lattices and Lillies - Part 2

So today I set about trying to figure out how to make the back of the quilt work, given that I hadn't really gotten enough fabric for the backing, which was originally going to be solid green with one lattice block in the corner. Because I had a few extra triangles, I decided to just make a row of blocks instead.

The colour of the back doesn't really show well here, it's a bit more of a blueish green than the weird olive-y colour it shows here. But anyway, after measuring that my quilt was around 41" square, I decided (to be safe) to make the backing about 43" square to give a bit of leeway. After constructing the blocks I still didn't have enough width, so added some 3" strips to either side, and then cut the remaining fabric in 2 segments, one about 8" and one about 24". So that should give me a backing that is slightly bigger than necessary, which is good, better too much than not enough!

I also had to decide what to do about the binding. Given the dimensions of my quilt, I calculated I needed about 172" of binding, plus a bit of extra, so 200". Ideally I'd have probably wanted to use either the lattice fabric or the backing fabric, but in typical me fashion, I cut too many strips for the lattice itself, which were too thin for binding, and wasn't left with enough. Fortunately, from the fat quarters I had a small strip of each left over, and managed to scrape together enough fabric. In fact, I probably have too much now. I think I have about 300" or so. I'm not sure how it'll look as well, might be too busy, but I'll have a play around with it before sewing it on. Otherwise I'll probably get an unrelated fabric in a matching colour.

My binding roll!

Now I just have to wait for the batting to arrive in the post so I can start quilting, because the leftovers from my last quilts are just a few inches too small! I feel like I spend half my time waiting for things to arrive in the post.

In other news, I'm getting seriously ready to have this baby now, especially now that Button is considered full term (yay!). Much as I love being pregnant (most of the time), I have forgotten what it's like to walk without waddling, or turn over in bed without grunting. I feel like a bit of a time bomb, and I'm just ready to experience labour, and have my life totally changed. I know I'll probably miss feeling Button kicking inside me (even though sometimes it hurts!), and knowing that my body is capable of such a miraculous and amazing thing, but I can't wait for the adventures that Button will bring!

Buttons, Baking and Babies

Hello! Welcome to my new blog, Buttons, Baking and Babies.

First off, a bit about me. I am a veterinary surgeon, originally from Connecticut, USA. I managed to get into the University of Edinburgh's vet college, and, while it was never my goal or intention, fell in absolute love with Edinburgh, and met a really fantastic man as well. To make a rather long story short, we had a low-key registry wedding for the purposes of allowing me to stay in the country after graduation, then had the whole big proper wedding exactly a year later at one of the most beautiful castles in Scotland - Dalhousie Castle! What a great day!

My husband and me!

Anyway. After many months of searching I finally landed an awesome first job down in near the Peak District of England. If you happen to be interested in animals or my exploits in vet school, or the lead up to this blog, feel free to check out my other blog 'From Auld Reekie to the Peaks'.

So, moving on. This blog will probably start off mostly about my crafting projects and possibly culinary exploits, but very quickly will probably become obsessively about babies. That is because....

This is me!

That picture was taken just last week! I am currently 35 weeks pregnant with our first child! Andrew, my wonderful husband, and I have nicknamed him 'Button' for while he is still a bump. I think A is a bit superstitious about announcing the name before he's born. Which leaves me at a bit of a loss cause that's the first thing everyone asks, and I have to say, well yes, we have a name, but I'm not telling you. So for now he is Button. I have a feeling this nickname will continue well into childhood, but that's okay cause it's a pretty cute nickname :)

Being so heavily pregnant, I've got exactly 5 days of work left before my maternity leave (yikes!), and I am notoriously bad at sitting and doing nothing. So I have got some projects lined up for when I'm on leave before Button arrives (and hopefully I'll find some time to craft when Button is sleeping, although I imagine at least in the beginning I'll be sleeping whenever he is sleeping! I'm not sure I'll be baking for awhile, but it's another thing I hope to get back into, especially as Button gets older (I am already excited about making birthday cakes, how sad is that?!