Baby Blankets

I have a little over a month before our baby is here! I have been organizing the house like crazy and getting rid of tons of stuff. So, I have many craft ideas in my head, but haven't had a lot of time to make any. I have a quilt that I need to finish; it just needs the back put on. So, hopefully I can get that done before the big day! While that is still in progress, I will post some baby blankets that I made in the past. These all were gifts for family and friends.

Here is an "Around-the-World" quilt that I made for Jeff's nephew, Jacob. We didn't know if he was going to be a boy or girl, so I thought yellow and green were very gender neutral colors. I tried to arrange the colors in a way that made sort of an optical illusion. If you squint at it, it looks almost like you are looking down on a pyramid.


There is a really easy shortcut to making this pattern, that I will blog about in the future. So, don't be fooled by all the little squares. I didn't cut those out and sew those individually. :)


This is a quick fleece blanket that I made for a friend. I didn't have the time to commit to an actual quilt, so I thought just a soft cozy blanket was good enough. This blanket only took one evening to make. It was just one piece of mint green fleece with ivory fleece appliqued on top.



Then I used silky ivory blanket edging to finish it off.


This duck taggy blanket was also really quick to make. It took me about 2 hours. There are two layers of duck fleece fabric with loops of yellow polka dot ribbon on the edges. My sister just blogged about some taggies that she has been making here. This taggy is only about the size of a hand towel and is supposed to be more of a toy than a blanket.

Anatomy in Clay

Last May I went to a workshop for Life Science/Biology teachers. I admit that the main reason I went was because it sounded artistic. (In 7th grade, students don't learn a lot of Anatomy, so I wouldn't be able to apply much from the class to my actual teaching.) So, my reasons were totally selfish and I got two days off from work for it. :)

Basically, there is a whole curriculum that is all about constructing an anatomical model of the human body using clay. So, I spent two days learning a bunch of clay construction techniques....as well as refreshing my memory on Anatomy. There was a plastic skeleton that all the muscles, veins, arteries, etc. were affixed to. Maybe if I end up teaching high school Anatomy and Physiology, I'll use what I learned in the class. Until then, it was fun playing with clay and making a cool man-with-no-skin! Here was the final product!


You can see some of his internal organs in this one.


I gave him a hat and some turquoise dreadlocks with my extra arteries, veins and lymphatic system.