Busy Blanket

This is a Christmas gift for "Baby Jade" as Liam calls her.

It is simply a denim/flannel rag quilt with a plethora of random things on it that might catch a baby's attention for a minute. It's intended for that stage when they're curious about everything and wanting to explore, but they're not yet able to get around very well. The idea is that you'd plunk the baby right in the middle, and it would keep her busy for a while.





 A closer look.



The blue ruffly thing is the collar from a shirt that Jesse had when he was young.
The purple ribbon has a big button on it that can be tucked into the red plaid pocket.
The pink granny square is from the blanket mentioned in the "Granny Square Shoulder Bag" post. Made by Jade's Great Grandmother. It is sewn on only three sides so that it becomes a pocket.
There are three large buttons that can be pushed around inside the doily.
The brown floral patch also has buttons inside of it.
The purple embroidery beside it is a maze.

The apron strings are not fully attached, so they can be fiddled with. Also, the skirt of the apron is sewn in such a way that it cannot be smoothed out. An accident, but a fiddler none the less.

The orange ring slides back and forth on the ribbons.

The purple granny square type thing is only attached in the middle. The rest of the buttons can be undone.

The "picnic blanket" under the football is only attached at the edges of the football. And of course the football can be unzipped to reveal three buttons that are sewn down, one that is on a ribbon, and a little round "bag" of buttons.



The mouse is my favourite part of this blanket. I like it so much I might just make a whole blanket of them. The tail is a piece of t-shirt yarn, and is free to be fiddled with.

Last summer's flip flop got reused. The "sole" is corduroy.



Elias insisted on having his picture taken with the blanket.



A picture of Jade exploring her blanket. Stolen from Angie's blog.











Happy little accident.

Made for my nephew Robbie:

Free pattern here: http://bernat.com/pattern.php?PID=3999

This is one of my favourite patterns. Although I don't so much like connecting all the squares, it is well worth it for the end result.

I made this one for Elias while I was pregnant.

It is now a couple of years old, and has been well loved.

The blue one is made in the original pattern, with the suggested yarn. The orange/green one is made with Bernat Softee Baby, and just a different arrangement of the blocks. I liked the Softee Baby yarn better. It seemed a little sturdier and warmer, and less likely to stretch out of shape like the blue one has done. 

I actually didn't even notice that I'd arranged the blocks differently than the original pattern, until I started posting. I'm guessing that's why I ended up liking the orange/green one so much more than the blue one. A happy little accident.