Sad: Bee Square Fabrics closing

We're sad to be saying good-bye to Bee Square Fabrics. Another retail victim of the economy. As she's closing down the store, you can get 50% off of everything, including a few cute prints like the cute paper bunnies here - also comes in red and white backgrounds. The paper bears are in the more boy-like colors of blue, white and green.

Use the code "goodbye50off" in checkout to get the discount. More about why she's closing and the terms of the sale are on the Bee Square blog.

Baby quilt using felted sweaters!

I've been running across all kinds of holiday projects that use sweaters and felted wool - everything from Christmas trees to tree skirts. Is it just that time of year where people pull out winter clothing and decide they hate it all and repurpose it into a craft? Funny!

So here's our requisite felted wool sweater project to make a baby quilt. It just looks incredibly warm and snuggly. You'll need all wool sweaters to do this and she has some great tips for picking the best ones for the project. (Instructions on how to felt the wool are available as well.)

Robert Kaufman is giving a bag of strips away every day until the end of the year! (I love scraps, especially if someone else has already cut them into strips for me. :-) Just sign up for the newsletter and you'll be entered in the daily drawing. You can enter once a day. Good luck!!

Quick round up of patterns and projects

Just a quick round up of some patterns I found that would be great for baby quilts. Some would be simple, some a little more complex.

Butterfly pattern (pictured)
From one of my favorite blogs, twiddletails. Combines foundation piecing and machine applique. (So let me know how it goes because those are two things I avoid when possible!!)

Wonky log cabin tutorial
From Tall Prairie Grass Studio. Fairly simple, really forgiving and I love the off-kilter look.

Heartstrings
From Annie's Quilting blog - simple quilt using novelty fabrics. She does these as charity quilts and it's really just precious. Like the teddy she made to go with the quilt too!!

Taffy Batiks
Not a pattern with this one, but it seems fairly simple and straightforward. She says the blocks are 5.5", so I'm thinking it would just involve a couple of 2.5" strips and a 1" strip. Hardest part would be working with that tiny 1" piece!

Sunstreaks
This one is pretty dramatic, but for a baby quilt, I see it with white instead of black and using novelty fabrics for the solids. Nice!!

Baby quilt patterns - Another barnyard option

Since the farm animal baby quilt ideas still seem to be popular, I thought I'd just post this pony up. It's a free pattern from over at Quiltmaker magazine. The large horse pattern in the picture is actually an extra from a pattern called Barnyard Dance, which is the small quilt in the picture. It involves a lot of dancing chickens, rabbits and dogs, as well as what looks like sheep doing ballet. All appliqued and quite cute!