While I was waiting for my friend to call me and tell me she was in labor, I had to do something with all my nervous energy. So, when I came upon this piece of fabric two days ago, I was inspired to make a baby blanket for Ebenezer at the last minute.

I have had this fabric for years and years, since before my kids were even born. I can't remember what I intended to do with it in the first place, if anything specific. I may have just bought it because it was so cute. (Don't laugh. I know a lot of seamstresses who have a hard time not buying adorable fabric, even if they have no idea when or how they will ever use it.)

Knowing my friend and her husband, it struck me as the perfect pattern for their little one. As I was making the blanket, I thought the only thing that might improve the print for them would be shotguns in the mix of outdoor gear. (My friend's husband is a NRA Instructor). And, that was really funny, because when my friend's husband studied the pattern after I gave them the blanket, he said the exact same thing in jest!

I had almost everything I needed for this project at the outset. I happened to have a piece of dark green flannel left over from a previous quilting project. It was large enough and a perfect color match for the back of the blanket. I also already had matching thread. The only thing I ended up needing to purchase was satin binding for the edges.

I washed the fabrics, dried them and ironed them out straight again. I used an old baby blanket of Norah's as a "pattern." I laid it out on top of the two fabrics and cut around the edges. Then, I put the two backsides together and stitched a zig zag stitch about half an inch in. Below, you can see the front side of the blanket, the soft, stretchy cotton and you can see the backside of the blanket, the softest side of the flannel piece.

Next, I laid the blanket into the binding and pinned and pinned and then pinned some more.

I watched this video to learn how to miter the corners. It was a really tedious process at times, especially with slippery satin.

Next, I got the idea of adding a few ribbon tags to the backside of the blanket. Babies love to suck on ribbon tags, don't they? But, I had already been to the fabric store for the satin binding and the clock was ticking, this baby was going to be born any minute! So, instead of going out again to buy ribbon, I went around the house, looking frantically for things that would work as tags in place of ribbon.

I did have some red and green stripped ribbon left over from our Christmas crafts this year. Remember our snow man ornament? I slipped two pieces of that under the unfinished seams and pinned them into place. Next, I found an old, red robe I can't fit into anymore. I used a section of that robe's straps as two more tags. Finally, I found a toy-sized canvas purse in Norah's dress up collection. It had red straps, so I used one of the straps for tags as well. Once everything was pinned in place, I used a zig zag stitch to finish and hold the binding (and the tags) onto the blanket.

And, while I thought I was making a gift for him, this photo of newborn Ebenezer sleeping under my handiwork ended up being a gift to my heart.