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.)

4 Baby Quilts

So either all of my friends are PREGNANT, or just had babies. . including ME!  So, an idea popped into my head (a brilliant one I might add) - that I would make all of us a baby quilt -similar, but not totally matching.  I wanted the moms to pick out the colors, and applique the name on there.  These quilts are the perfect "tummy time" quilts too!  Soft, yet strong, and will hopefully be washed and used for years! 

I drew up this little design in paint.  (Encore wasn't named yet, but is my friends 2nd baby, her "encore" baby. . cute huh?)  I took this little design to the fabric shop to pick out fabrics.  

Lauren Grace, daughter of my friend Amy & Paul, who has yet to arrive, but we are all excited to meet her! 

Emmett Theodore, who is here, but just BRAND new.  Only a few weeks old, but I hear he is perfect and sleeping like an Angel.  When I met him, he gave me a smile, so I already like him ;c) 

Juliana Elise - I have decided that she and MY daughter are going to be BFFs!  They are only a few months apart and we live just down the street from each other!  They have already had a beautiful photo shoot together and seem to get along great! ;c) 

 (this is them)

 And then finally, my Mira's. . I started out with brand new fabrics that I LOVE, but I quilted it to death (did you know you could OVER quilt something?  yeah, me neither!)  So I made it into a rug, and started from scratch, using all scraps.  Guess what? the scrappy, quick-quilted version is 10X better!   BIG LESSON LEARNED !

 (here's the old version/rug)

 Some finished photos hanging on my dirty wet fence ;c) 

and just thought this was a cute picture.  All of my names, in different fonts, all printed in reverse, ready for the applique process!