A WHALE of a baby quilt!

See what I did there?  
Tee Hee.
My moms friend and co-worker Shelly is having a baby boy!  She decided a week before her baby shower that she liked the theme of green and navy . . and whales.  I love it too, and [by the way] ever since I completed this quilt, I now see whales on baby clothes everywhere I go!  ;c)
Shelly still has not decided on a name, but that's okay we will add that to the quilt later, no problem.  But thankfully, I was able to at least make a quilt within her range of colors just in time for her baby shower.

I made this quilt similar to the applique baby quilts I have made previously.  I made a Monkey, an Owl, 2 Owls, and one with a puppy.  It's easy because you can take several colors or prints from the nursery, and use those throughout the quilt.  

I drew the image on fusible stabilizer, and then once the appliques were fused to the background, I used a raw-edge machine buttonhole stitch to secure.  

 I did a version of McTing for the large open background area and feathers in the two pieces areas.

 I used rick rack in two different shades of blue to give more of a "water" effect.   Also I hand sewed buttons for the whales eyes, and I used small glass beads for the birds eyes.  (I told her that she could easily remove them with a seam ripper if she feels they are too much of a hazard.)

My string blocks have arrived!

YAY! So exciting! They're all sooo beautiful. I get my mail at my mother's house because I don't have a physical address at my apt. So the strings that I stitched are in a separate photo. Check them out. . aren't they awesome????

And here are my string blocks before I sent them out:

I still have quite a few of my neutral string blocks left from my UFO'd Roll Roll Cotton Boll. I'm sorry . . . yes, I gave up on it. I hang my head in shame. =c(

So I'm planning on using the Neutral string blocks along with these Colored ones from the swap. Wouldn't that make a cool quilt? Here's my neutral strings hanging on design wall:

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Also, I just finished a little project I am quite proud of. My mother, just got a new Macintosh computer. It's so cute!! But so complicated when she's spent the last 40 years perfecting her use of PC. I couldn't imagine going from PC to Mac. . . I doubt I could go very far. I might start small, like she did. . and get an iphone.

So the Mac came in this elaborate shipping box and LOTS of padding, but NO case for it! I took it upon myself to make her a little laptop carrier. I used THIS TUTORIAL from "sew mama sew."

The tutorial is actually for a plain laptop SLEEVE. But I altered it a bit, made it a QUILTED laptop carrier, complete with strap. If anyone would like a tutorial on this I would be happy to make one. It has no pockets even though I would have liked to have added some. I found that with these bags you can EITHER do quilting, OR add pockets. One or the other NOT both.

I asked my mom what colors she would like and LUCKY FOR ME she said black/white/maybe some red. WELLL I am currently working on a Red/White/Black quilt so I already had the fabric scraps ready to go! You can see my RED/WHITE/BLACK work-in-progress quilt HERE.

I was quite torn as to what to use for the lining. I kind of wanted something soft, or fuzzy. I went through my scraps of fleece, flannel, and fuzzies, and couldn't find anything to match. But then I remembered my Michael Miller KNIT black polka dot fabric that I used to make my friend Heather's dress ;c) I was kinda scared to use a knit for the lining, but I just added some Pellon fusible stablizer and I think it worked quite nicely. Here's some photos of the finished bag:

Oh and here's the dress I made for Heather using the same knit fabric by Michael Miller ;c)