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Baby Shower Gift for a Knitty Friend

I love my knitting group. Although I am the most sporadic member, and probably the worst knitter there (OK, I am the worst! :), they are a fun group of girls. All different personality types, ages, and job professions grace the tables at the South pointe Barns & Noble cafe on Wednesday nights (7PM if you're local!) to catch up, drink overpriced coffee beverages, and knit.
I especially love when one or more of the ladies are pregnant because we have a baby shower for them. Handmade knits + sewed gifts only! My kind of shower. Remember all the wonderful loot I got for Anikka? I loved it.
Last night we celebrated our knitty friend L's baby, who is due in about a month. Her theme in her boy's room is jungle so that was my inspiration. This:
turned into this! It's a quilt-sized play mat for baby. Each of those six plush toys (bird, palm tree, elephant, lion, giraffe, and gorilla) have an exact replica underneath it appliqued onto the quilt, with Velcro on each item. It becomes a 'matching puzzle' of sorts! I started this way to late in the game because although I knew of the baby shower in advance I could not make up my mind...knit or sew? Knit or sew?!
From the very beginning of picking out fabric to completion took around 6 hours....much more than I anticipated. I am a slow cutter, though, and that probably took an extra 30 minutes that may take less time for another. I got the idea a long time ago to make something like this, but when I saw a barnyard version in a new craft (toy!) book of mine, Sew Magical for Baby, I thought this would work perfectly for a jungle theme.
I am an old pro at applique, and so that plus the sewing around each form doesn't take me too long. Sewing up each plushy was a bit stressful, because I've only done it less than a handful of times...and this was 6! I am happy with how it turned out, though, and I think she liked it! She got some beautiful knitted gifts and a beautiful star blanket crocheted by my friend, Julie of Kundhi Creative.
Now that I'm done with this baby shower gift, and my HUGE project (well, the hard part of that is over) I can rest easy for the last few weeks of summer. I had a lot of fun making this gift and I love sewing projects for new babies!
What are you working on? Come on, let me see!
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Comments

Lisa said…
Love it! Thank you so much!!! It's super cute and I know the little one will love it. You are fabulous!!!!
August 5, 2010 at 2:19 PM
Mia said…
Wow. BIG project! Looks fabulous though! Well done, my crafty friend. :)
August 5, 2010 at 3:03 PM
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