From PhD to FINISHED!!

So this summer, I seem to have found myself mostly unemployed.  I've done a little bit of babysitting here and there, and I've had a few other opportunities... but I've gotten quite used to my free time.  And honestly, I think the first few weeks of summer were spent just recovering from the school year.  But last Friday, I finally got my butt in gear!  I bought a GroupOn for the Fabric Hut, and AMAZING fabric store in Norfolk, and I bought a new cutting mat, that's a whopping 43x36"!! My old 18x24" Olfa mat was ruined in the move somehow (water and sunlight warped it, apparently).  Then I finished buying fabric to make the baby blankets for C&J's babies, and even some fabric to get started on some pillows!

So... this was my goal, and finally on Monday I FINISHED the baby blankets!!

Here are two photos of the finished blankets!  They are made with the same fabric, but arranged slightly differently.  They measure about 28x26", so they are a little smaller than I wanted, but not too bad for my first attempt at baby blankets!  I wanted to take some photos of the progress, but it was slow but steady going, so I didn't want to stop and distract myself any further.  

 The basic technique was the same as for a pillow.  I stitched the edges (as seen in an example at Quilting Adventures), to make sort of a binding.

This is the back and front of one blanket.  The back is made with minky, the softest stuff around!  I want a blanket with minky! 

Here's a close up of the back and front again... sooooo soft.... 

Here they are, folded and ready to go!  I can't wait to give them the blankets!  I didn't have them ready for the shower, since we had JUST moved, but at least they are finished now!  The babies arrived early, but I still have them ready before their due date.  Maybe I can post some pictures of the babies and mom and dad with the blankets too!  

Alright, on to my next project, which is some new pillows for our new-used couches.  I tried to find some pillows that I liked that weren't too expensive or frilly, and that seemed impossible.  So I'm going to make four pillows, using THIS TUTORIAL.  So far I have planned to use a set of greens, blues, and oranges, and then I need one more.  I bought a bunch of Kona solids, so hopefully I can get started on that later today or Monday.  I can't wait to post more pictures, and more posts, since I'm actually making more stuff!  Woo hoo!