Rubber Ducky, you're the one!

Last year, I caught word that my cousin was having a baby! Of all people in my family, I never expected him to become a father, but life throws us surprises. What really shocked me though, happened six months later when his brother exclaimed that his fiancé is pregnant. He and I are practically the same age and I felt astounded at the fact of whoa...we are at that age of making babies and starting families! They live a couple states away and I visited them this past Thanksgiving with my parents. For the first time, I met my new baby cousins and fell in love with those little stinky diaper bundles of life.

Haley is the oldest and was already walking, with assistance from the baby walker-mobile, of course, but little Michael could only wiggle his fragile limbs and blink. He doesn't cry much, so I instantly liked him and teased my cousin that his next kid will be a screamer. He prays otherwise.

The grandma of those babies, my aunt, loves to shop, and if you took note of the time of year it happened to be--well, lets just say, my black Friday consisted of wayyyy more shopping than I ever want to endure again. Seriously, toys spoil kids today! I couldn't stop myself from playing with some of the colorful gadgets, along with my dad. Case and point (or is it point and case, I can never remember), check out the ToysRus website for 12-24 month old youngins. Specifically look at the Chatterbox Teaching Telephone because that toy looks pretty spiffy. Back to my original purpose, I spent much of my time during this shopping adventure talking to Michael's mother, (aka my cousin's fiancé), and learned first of all, that she fits in with our family, and second, that she loves duckies as much as I do. Yes, I say duckies and not ducks! Furthermore, she spastically ranted about how many ducky toys, decorations, and accessories she buys little Michael, and it sparked an idea for me...

I decided to run to Joann Fabrics as soon as possible when I drove back home. Thanksgiving time meant that winter break was soon to start, which provides me with plenty of time to start not just a ducky quilt for Michael, but a teddy bear one for Haley as well!

Here are the fabrics I chose for the two quilts:

I obviously made a few cuts before thinking about taking pictures...oops!

The ducky quilt, that I believe I'll name "Duckies in the Rain," is made from a pattern called "Broken Wheel." I recommend this quilt pattern to any quilter, novice or expert, because I enjoyed sewing the pieces together, and it turned into a fun and eye attracting quilt. Although, that could also have something to do with the bright colors. Despite its simplistic look, Lyn Brown states in her blog that this pattern "has some point matching challenges. When squaring up those corners, square in the square blocks, be sure you don’t lose your seam allowances beyond the points," and I would have to agree. Take a look at on of my finished blocks before I explain:

Notice the blue diamonds. Those corners have to match perfectly with the corners of the orange rectangles. Otherwise, the final product will fail to look crisp and neat. Moreover, while piecing two final ducky blocks together, I needed to pin the orange rectangle seams together in order for the pieces to line up perfectly. That way, the orange rectangles become squares and the yellow triangles connected to the blue diamonds also became diamonds.
I decided to add two borders, a yellow inside, and a thick, blue outside border to complete the top, and I believe it turned out freaking adorable!

After how pleased I was with the way this quilt turned out, I couldn't just sew any old patch on the back to write his name on. My solution--design my own. Drawing a ducky on the yellow material was a breeze, but the stitching part still forces questionable thoughts into my mind about whether or not I should cut out a bear for Haley's quilt. Only the curves caused me problems because the material didn't want to fold under properly. Nevertheless, if Michaels gets his duck, Haley shall see a bear on the back of her quilt.

The teddy bear quilt needs a little more work before I finish, but I will leave you with a teaser until my next blog: