Receiving Blankets

We are gearing up to welcome a new baby into our lives.  My son, Bryan, and his wife, Jessica, are expecting a boy.  I don't know of anybody in our perimeter who isn't excited!

I hinted at a few projects involved with getting ready for baby in a recent post, Projects, Projects, Projects!  I had seen Suzanne's tutorial Ric-Rac Receiving Blankets over at Just Another Hangup.  So, I decided to give it a try.

Armed with a gift card, I trekked out to JoAnn's, Etc.  I also ducked into Hobby Lobby and another local fabric store.  Then, I was off for home to begin assembly.  Here is a sampling of my selections:

My son is a hunter and I thought this print was quite appropriate.  

It works well with this soft, grey flannel print with deer and turkey tracks all over it.

Since we grew up on a farm, had sheep and cows and now have chickens, 

I got this sweet little farm print and a nice, soft plaid flannel that coordinates.

I fell in love with this cute truck print which features a black dog in the back 

and got a black gingham to coordinate with it.

I started out by completing a practice piece using a sweet cowgirl print flannel fabric and some seersucker.  I zig-zagged an initial L on one side for sweet Lydia to use as a doll blanket.  I also stitched up a little blanket for Lillie and appliqued a bit of leather string on in the shape of an L for that little cowgirl.

I decided to personalize the receiving blankets for the baby, too.  So, the first one I worked with was the truck and dog print and the gingham.  I decided I would do a bit of cross-stitch using the gingham as a canvas.

First, I taped a piece of the truck print fabric to the window.  Then, with a piece of card stock, I traced the outline.  I took a photo of the outline with my iPad.  Then, I used a drawing app with graph paper and created a pattern.  Finally, I cross-stitched the pattern onto the fabric.

I think it turned out to look pretty close to the original print on the fabric, don't you?

I used red rick-rack  sandwiched between the two prints and top-stitched the edge.  I love the finished look.

For the others, I worked out a deal with Bridgette to embroider them with her fancy-smancy machine like she does for her Goody Stuff customers.  Here is a look at them:

Grey rick-rack sandwiched between the grey flannel and buck and turkey print.

Blue rick-rack sandwiched between the blue plaid flannel and the Old McDonald print.

I think this little boy is going to be swaddled up in several cute ways.  I can hardly wait to snuggle him up in one!