Hotty Owl and A Football

Have I mentioned I know I lot of pregnant women right now?  And have I mentioned that I am sewing like crazy to make just the cutest gifts for these expected babies?  I think I might have once or twice before.  I finished up another set of baby gifts and they are oh so adorable!  Check them out below:

 I was only going to make one or two things but I was having too much fun and ended up making a simple baby quilt, a crinkly football taggy, and a cute little owl softy.  This set is for a dear friend who just loves owls (way before they become the "it" think to love) and her husband is a serious sports geek. Hence the owl theme with a football thrown in for good measure. 

For the face of this baby quite which only measure 30"x30" (perfect for a tummy time mat!), I just cut up some nice square from a soft green knit and some pastel owl print I had on hand.  I pulled this polka-dotted blue print out and loved it for the backing of the quilt - however, one small problem.  There wasn't enough to do the entire back of the quilt!  So I just worked in some of the owl print into a criss-cross stripe to make the blue print stretch farther.  I lightly quilted it all together with a simple straight line pattern.  Since I purposely made the back 2 inches bigger than the top of the quilt, I was able to use the back as the binding for the quilt as well.  I just love how this quilt turned  out!

This little football was just fun to put together.  I wanted to keep it simple in appearance but still have something to it to catch a wee one's attention.  So I added in some ribbon loops to play with and a crinkly middle layer (made out of an empty cereal bag) which made it nice and noisy.

And finally, Mr. Hotty Owl was inspiried by a tutorial I stubbled upon over at Karen Gray Design.  I changed him up a bit by making him about an inch skinnier and I also added some of the blue polka-dotted print I used in the a fore mentioned quilt to the owl's wings and a little heart patch on the owl's back. 

 I home my friend and her wee one enjoy all of this as much as I enjoyed making this set for them! :)