Winter crafting

This year was a very fertile year as most of my friends are pregnant.

My best friend just had her third baby, a boy. Another close friend is having her first baby in August, she is having a girl. And one of my oldest friends' wife is also having a baby in August, also a girl.

So to get, make the right gift is very important. My best friend has a beautiful home, a fully fitted nursery and a mother in law who does the most fantastic crafts, she crotchets, quilts, fabric paints, does woodwork and makes ceramic dolls. So I chose to make her a quilt, knowing the style her mother in law does, I made my style quilt!

How I made the quilt

1. I decided on the size I wanted to make it.
2. I decided on the pattern, design I wanted to use.
3. I got the measurements together. The actual finished measurements.
4. Now I added on seam allowance, 0.75mm on each side.
5. I chose my fabric. I always use cotton.
6. I cut out my quilt pieces.
7. I stitched it together using a sewing machine. I prefer hand quilting but this was a project I needed to get finished rather quickly.
8. I sandwiched the top, batting and bottom fabric together with a basting stitch.
9. I machine quilted it all together.
10. I finished it off around the edges with bias binding.

And voila! It is finished.

My close friend is very healthy and will not use disposable nappies so I bought her pre-made toweling nappies.

My oldest friend, and his wife are Jewish. They have the most fantastic support system. They have everything they need and more!

Therefore I have chosen to crotchet them a baby blanket. Their pram is pink, baby carrier is pink and most of everything else, so taking that cue I chose a mottled pink acrylic wool. I normally do not use acrylic, but because our winters are wet and I know what it is like having a newborn baby I got a yarn that washes in the machine, dries quickly and the colour will not fade. It is also 100 percent acrylic sticking with the torah - the torah states that we should not mix different types of yarn. According to my friends this is to keep the purity of the yarn.

I am not very advanced with crocheting so I used a very basic pattern. And, this is what I ended up with.