Favorite nursery bedding

Bring on spring! These vibrant colors make it feel like spring around here, even though they are forecasting temperatures in the 30s this week! Set includes bumper pads (green chevron with blue ties on the exterior, plush blue minky on the inside, and a pop of bright orange piping to trim the top edge), crib skirt (green chevron, blue trim and grey geometric squares), pillows in blue, green and orange, a changing pad cover (not shown, but grey geometric squares with blue minky down the middle where baby will lay), and a lag bunting, whichever perhaps my favoritE piece! This would be fun on the wall, over baby's crib, or across a window seat area.

This set will be traveling to a friend from my high school days all the way in San Antonio. Some of the extra fabric will be made into floor cushions for the reading nook at the home of another high school classmate, and will still have some extra of the green chevron and grey squares if anyone wants anything!

I also like to package it up nicely to protect it during shipping and so it looks professional when customers open their box from MandiMoo Designs!

What is it?

What will this beautiful fabric become?

It is a vintage brocade in shades of green, blue and gold. Stay tuned for the final product before the end of the week.

Clue...it will cover these

and coordinate with these.

Weekend projects

We got RAIN here this weekend...and lots of it! Good thing I bought vinyl on one of my frequent trips to the fabric store. Why have an umbrella when you can hold a roll of vinyl over your head while ushering your two small children, each with their own full- sized umbrella, through pouring rain? Ha! Let's just say we were quite a sight!

So I bought vinyl because I couldn't find an over-the-door shoe organizer at my first stop and didn't want to play out the above scenario at too many other stops, so I decided to buy vinyl and make my own! Pretty quick, used up some fabric and bias tape I had around, and much heavier duty than a purchased one!

Previously we had used muffin tins and magnets in the bottom of plastic cups to organize the ridiculous numbers of pens, pencils, crayons, glue sticks, etc. The cups were always falling over, I worried about someone swallowing one too many magnets, etc. I had found this idea somewhere and decided to give it a whirl! I think we may have finally found a solution that works!

The other project was blackout curtains for the kiddos room. We have been doing bedtime about 7 to accommodate an early school day, so needed something s bit more sleep-friendly. Will probably end up with a second panel on each window, but we will see! Sorry if the pics aren't in order...my preview isn't working so I can't see what order they are in!

Another crib quilt

Love, love the fabric used for this crib quilt. Just one piece of fabric on the front and one on the back, but quilted together so technically a quilt! There were also valances that went with this, the same fabric as on the back (the fabric with more white space). Now that I think of it, the purple in this fabric would match the walls in the kids room...hmmmm, an update may be in order!

Updated nursery, personalized quilt

Do you remember the crib set I did for a dear friend of mine and her little girl, O?

Well, O is now a sweet almost 2 1/2 year old and was ready to move out of a crib and into a daybed. So I got the pleasure of updating her bedroom! They wanted to keep the same style but needed a quilt big enough for a daybed and a new bed skirt (which is in the same fabric as the crib skirt, so no pictures of it).

Fortunately we were able to find the same fabric--on clearance!--and then I was ready to go. From start to finish, this quilt was FUN! I considered sending it off to get it quilted, but then decided that I have a fabulous embroidery machine, why not hoop each square and quilt it myself? And that I did. And I couldn't have been more pleased with the way it turned out! What a precious keepsake!

The full quilt

I appliqued her name on the quilt as I had done on her crib quilt

A close-up of the quilting--I designed circles for the circle fabric and a stripe quilting stitch on the stripe fabric

And best of all...in each pink square I quilted her name! In my spare time (haha) I would LOVE to make one for each of my kids with their names embroidered in them!

School time!

I am testing out my new toy. An iPad! I am so excited to take pictures and blog all in one step! And It has this great dictation feature so I can tell it what to write. There are so many possibilities for my sewing business, such as credit cards at craft fairs, showing customers my work on the go, and taking photos and blogging without plugging in a camera or memory card and waiting on an upload. I have been saving up and it is so worth the wait! So please excuse mistakes as I go through this learning process.

Anyway, on to the blog. School is just around the corner, and for those of us with kindergarteners (shedding a tear here), that includes a nap mat. Who wants a boring, used nap mat that my sweaty little boy will stick to?

So of course I had to make our own. First a comfy cotton cover.



And of course a coordinating personalized blanket.



Elastic straps keep it secure to the mat and double as a carrying handle.