Baby Clothes Quilt: Making progress!

I'm making progress, pinky swear!  It's been a much slower-going project than I anticipated.  Probably for a number of reasons... here are a few of them, in no particular order:

1.  I'm finding that some things are hard to actually cut.  I could cut up onesies and pj's all day long, but those stinkin cute little dresses?  Rough.
2.  I like to work on other things, too!
3.  When I decide something is officially outgrown (which I hate to do!  and usually, things stay in the drawer a bit longer than they actually should...), it gets tossed into a bin in the closet in our master bedroom.  Lucca goes to bed at 7:30.  So anything I haven't brought downstairs early in the day is off limits for evening working-on.  Boo.
4.  I'm trying to be detail-oriented in the cutting, making sure to save the trims, patches, pockets, and other cute details.  This adds minutes to the cutting.
5.  Oh yeah, I have 2 kids to take care of and dinner and laundry and all that other housefrau stuff.

Just a peek at my work as of late:

dresses!  so hard to cut into these pretty little layers!

stack one!

stack 2!

feet! 

not sure how I'm going to incorporate these into the quilt... but just look at this face!  how could i NOT let him join the quilt party?!

I'm sure there has to be a point where I just have to start laying things out and sewing rows together.  It seems like I could let this go on forevs, since both girls will continue to keep outgrowing their clothes!!  I have to start somewhere, though... and maybe it would be nice for the set-up of the quilt squares to be sort of chronological!  I hadn't thought of that until I typed it, to be honest.  Like the rings on a tree.  Yeah, I'm getting really out there now.  But for really reals... the center would be the newborn, 3 months, 3-6 months clothes, and the squares surrounding it would be 6-12-ish... and then for Raina there would be another section around it with some big kid pieces.  I like it!

My next post on this quilt will have real actual pictures of squares completed and sewn together into rows and/or blocks.  I wrote it down, and now it's a pact (between you and me, blog readers!  Hold me to it!)

My goal is to have these done in time for them to not include t-shirts with pictures of boy bands on them!  :)

Climbing Up the Family Tree: Baby Clothes Quilt Part 2

 The Embroidered Family Tree

 

Part 2 should probably show you that I've finished cutting out squares for the front.  Or maybe that I've started sewing them together.  But instead I'm jumping to the back for a while :)  There are so many clothes to sort through and cut... my fingers needed a break from all that tiny snipping.

As soon as I saw this fabric, I had to have it.  It the Sarah Jane Studios Family Tree Design.  I stalked it for a while, on different fabric sites and on Etsy.  Finally I just bought it, even though at that time, cutting up the tiny baby clothes was a distant dream :)  This panel will be the center of the back of the quilt, surrounded by a pretty flannel border.  One of the aspects of this panel that I am in love with and that really drew me in is that while yes, it is a family tree... it's tactile.  It will be on their beds, in their rooms, able to be touched, studied, learned, loved.  We will look at it together, touch the names that Mommy embroidered on, talk about the family members (some they never knew - some I never knew even!)...  Raina and Lucca will be able to carry this with them into their youth and beyond as a real piece of them.  Phew, I know, right?  Heavy stuff.  No pressure on me to make it look awesome or anything.  :)

I've said twice before that I'm not an embroiderer, but I'm getting to the point where saying that is not entirely true.  It's true that I'm self taught, and not necessarily the best, but I've done enough embroidering now that I can no longer claim to be a novice!  Still, I've never embroidered this many small letters before, and it has certainly been a learning experience!  For the names of family members I used thin black embroidery thread.  For Raina's name I used a magenta colored thread with more strands.  I love love love the way her name came out!

I'm finding myself contemplating the issue of adding additional family members.  Sister, aunties and uncles, eventual cousins, beloved family pets...  Not sure how I will go about it, but I think I need to add them.   They are important!  But then what about future cousins?  I'm thinking that future cousins could be embroidered on to a small piece of fabric and then sewn onto the quilt even after it is complete.  I'm certainly not taking the whole thing apart after the fact, that much I know!!  I also want to stitch on (smaller, under/next to the name itself) the names of what these family members are called by the kids - mommy, daddy, yaya, nana, etc... 

I'm really taking my time with this quilt project.  Making 2 quilts at the same time is time-consuming... but making two sentimental and emotional quilts that I want to be SO special at the same time is even more time consuming!  I have so many plans for these quilts - can't wait to share this whole process with you all!!

The First Cut is the Deepest: Baby Clothes Memory Quilt, part 1

I get emotionally attached to clothes.  It's a fact.  Ask my mom's basement.  Actually, it's pretty well cleared out now, although that wasn't entirely my choice.  I guess a 30 year old mom and wife doesn't really need to keep clothes from high school that haven't fit in ten years though.  And if you can say to yourself, "But I love these bright pink pants!  I can fit my shoes in the pocket!" then it is REALLY time to learn to let go.  The rave pants days are over.

But I digress.

If I thought I got emotionally attached to my clothes, I could never have imagined how emotionally attached I would get to my babies' clothes.  Seriously.  Can't get rid of those memories.  So what's a girl to do?  Stash 25 bins of little pink things in the attic for the rest of my life, hoping that some day my grandaughters would wear them?  Move them from place to place, just hoping?  Hubby says no :).  So back when Raina was a baby, and I was teary eyed over putting away another stack of outgrown clothes, I decided that when the time came that I knew I was done with baby clothes, I would make memory quilts.  Lovingly stitched, filled with stories.

And now I'm doing just that.

Or, starting to anyway.  Don't expect to see the finished result next week.  :)  This is a project that I want to take my time on and really make special.  But I started.  I started CUTTING.  I thought I might get teary eyed while doing this.  I was sure of it.  Cutting into tiny baby clothes, and in doing so really acknowledging that we are probably not having more babies? (Sadface)  Tears.  But no!  No tears!  Because then I had a realization.

If I didn't cut the tiny baby clothes, I would have to give them away.  If I did cut them, I got to keep them!  FOREVER!  Husband looked at me like I was the craziest person alive when I said this out loud.  I know it.  Whatevs.

So, the cutting.  Yes, the first cut was hard.  Seriously.  Cut out the elephant?  Snip off the little jammie leg?!  But then I got into it.  Going through each piece, I got to remember them being worn.  I got to touch them all again, smell them even.  (Weird?  I don't think so.)  It was fun looking at each one and deciding what to cut, which details to save.  And I even set aside some things to give away.  Some things that were hand me downs, some things that never got worn (it happens), some things that are neutral and can be worn by baby cousin coming this July!

I started to bags, one for Lucca and one for Raina... each one has squares and some pretty bits that I plan on adding to the quilt when I start piecing it:  pretty trim, decorative feet, cute pockets.  Each square is 4.5," which is really big enough for baby clothes.  I'm going to have tons of squares by the time I'm done, plenty for 2 quilts, and maybe even a pillow for me.

Two bags of tiny cut up baby girl clothes!  Weird to see them this way!

Selection of Raina's squares

"Cutie, one of a kind" I couldn't put this one on Raina often enough.

fleecey pocket

two squares from one pair of jammies, complete with cut out animals and letters

adding trim back in, keeping buttons and patches

Using embroidery.  Raina wore this to her first pedi appointment.

EVERY TIME I put Raina in these jammies, she immediately spit up.  She wore them often, but never for very long :)

Raina's "coming home" outfit!

A little summery romper... probably the outfit I am most sad about Lucca never having the chance to wear.  (Completely wrong season!)

Selection of Lucca's squares

Berry Sweet!

Pleating detail, with bow

Neck trim added back into te square

Bunny!  I wish I had bought this one in every size.

A gift from Yaya!

Bright fleecey sleeper, with fleece dots from another sleeper

Pocket!

As I go through this process, I'll keep you updated.  I've got big plans for these quilts, and can't wait to see them finished... but I'm in no rush to get there!