Baby blanket

One of my best friends from high school had a baby who just turned a year old! Just before she was born, I sent this to the mom-to-be. Turns out, she had it waiting for her when she got back from the hospital last June. I asked her cousin, another best friend from high school and my favorite blogger (NavyGirl), and her mom to get me the inside scoop on how the new mom was decorating her baby room. The new parents wanted the sex of the baby to be a surprise, so they picked a cute animal theme with blues, yellows, greens, and browns.



I went to Joann Fabrics and found the exact match to the animals she had in her theme. This is the monkey, elephant, giraffe, frog print you see here. I then built the rest of the blanket around that print. I grabbed some plaid baby-blue, solid yellow, yellow stripes, and green all in a soft flannel texture. I grabbed a relatively thin batting and yellow yarn. My blanky from childhood (and, embarrassingly, my favorite stuffed animal that still sleeps in my bed, a yellow bunny) had/has this same soft yellow look to it. I thought basing the blanket around the mainly yellow color would also keep the quilt from becoming irrelevant, should the baby be a girl. It was! I should tell you that I am awful at planning and really just went to Joann and put things together in my head on the spot. Sometimes this works, sometimes it leads to a waste of money and unused fabric.



Two weeks ago I took a trip to WI for a wedding where I got to see my good friend and her one-year old girl, who is practically a teenager when it comes to flip phones. Here she is playing with NavyGirl while I chatted with her mom.



I also got a chance to see my cousin Katie, who is due in a few months! She just finished painting her nursery and guess what the theme is? Luckily for me, I have leftovers in each of these colors. Hopefully I have the time to follow through and make her a similar, but unique blanket for her new baby, especially if she sees this!