Collaboration and Copycating, etc.

My latest creative efforts have been for 1) animal applique pillows and 2) a baby mobile.

Originally, I was going to make a mobile using the animal design from the quilt fabric (turtle, zebra, and lion). It turns out my beginner sewing skills are not quite up to make three-dimensional objects. My multiple attempts resulted in really sorry-looking deformed creatures. BUT, I was able to replicate the design as flat pieces fairly well. So, I gave up the 3-D mobile idea after finding a book in a craft store showing applique pillows. I think I did a decent copycat job of the animal shape. I appliqued the animals to fabric pillow squares and then my genius-on-the-sewing-machine mom did the beautiful stitch work to hold it all together. The pillows aren't quite done yet; they still need some piping edges and then will be sewn around pillow forms. A modified mobile idea was a little slower in coming. In my opinion, all the $50 (+) mobiles in Babies R Us were not at all worth having. Most were cute to parents walking into the room, but were not made to be interesting to baby lying in a crib. Not to mention colors and patterns that didn't work with the scheme I had already worked out. So, I did some Pinterest browsing, and found this gorgeous (and CHEAP) idea. I ordered a hanging photoclip mobile and made a dozen paper pinwheels in the color scheme that I wanted. Wa-la! Lots of color, lots of interest for baby, and it can also be easily adapted or changed out. And finally, pregnant momma at 36 weeks. Will work for popsicles and cold water. Whew! The heat wave is getting old!