It seems like only months ago that our nephew, L, came into our lives, and like that I found myself trying to decide what to do for his second birthday!

Our brother and sister-in-law had just bought their first house - a fixer-upper that, in time, will be a beautiful craftsman style farmhouse, including the classic four bedrooms upstairs. Of course this means no more nursery style room for L, but an actual big-kid room! I asked my sister-in-law what colors or themes they'd decided on, and she said she was thinking of camouflage green and grey with red accents. And also maybe dinosaurs. Very appropriate for a high-energy, curious little boy. I stumbled upon this fabric while out shopping, and I knew I had to do something with it. 

Two factors made up my mind for me - the impending deadline of L's birthday, and the fact that I didn't really want to make anything too precious. A simple square patch tied quilt was it!

To break up the busy dinosaur pattern, I grabbed some leftover off-white and green cotton fabric from my own supplies. L is in a toddler bed, so I decided on a quilt size somewhere between oversize crib and small twin. If it survives long enough, it can be a foot blanket for a standard twin or full size later.

After basting the top and a thin layer of batting to a plain off-white backing fabric using giant stitches and quilting thread, I used a variegated cotton yarn and an upholstery needle to tie knotted bows at the corners of each patch. The edges of the quilt are finished using wide bias tape.  There was also enough left-over fabric that I made a pillowcase to match.

My sister-in-law later texted to say that L loved his "dino-rawr" blanket. I hope the little quilt will shelter many good dreams in the years to come!

It's time for another installment of:
IT CAME FROM PINTEREST...

​This time I neeeeeeeded a creative project to take my mind off of the fact that Ryan and I had just adopted a baby. From out of state. It was two solid weeks of running on adrenaline and living out a very weird reality. Add to that missing nearly a month of our D&D group and I was itching for a project. My new character wasn't fully fleshed out yet, so I didn't want to make anything related to her.

I kind of? had time? A new baby means no regular sleeping at night, but as adults Ryan and I were trying to keep a daylight = awake and nighttime = sleepy routine. And we were both home on maternity leave/summer vacation. I found a link for a little dice bag in the shape of a D20 that promised a kit to start from!

Well, like most pinterest links, that was outdated information. The kits were no longer available, but luckily for me the website also offered the pattern for free if you wanted to make it yourself. I had the materials from scraps and I have sewn stuffed animals before so another 3D shape shouldn't be too difficult, right?

Well, call it baby exhaustion or not fully understanding the instructions before I dove in, but this little bag took EFFORT. It was worth it, but when Ryan asked why I didn't make and sell these on Etsy, I just laughed hysterically. Here's my finished product:

The original kit had you iron on felt numbers. I traced the numbers directly on the fabric and filled it in with magic marker. The inside is blue cotton, I think. It was thin, cheap fabric of unknown fiber content I couldn't make myself get rid of because I liked the color. I'm glad I found a project to use it on!

​It holds the 10 sets of dice I own (so far) very comfortably and hasn't fallen apart yet. At this point I'm thinking maaaaaybe I'll make another for a Christmas present for someone. Although successful, I'm not repeating this again soon. ;)