Baby Blanket Take Two

As I mentioned before I made a second taggie blanket for my very good friend from high school J.  I felt much more confident starting this one.  I again started by going to JoAnns (I have realized that I HAVE to go in there with a very specific list of items or I want to buy everything cute in sight!) and picking out two different complimenting fabrics and fun ribbons.

I knew that I wanted to embroider the baby's name on the blanket so I cut the fabrics to size and prepped the "busier" fabric on the hoop. After finishing up the name I realized how plain the solid green side was going to look. That's when the idea of embroidering a frog took shape. I have to say I wish I would have planned the stitching better but he is still cute. And you can't have a frog without flies so some lazy buzzing flying flies were added.

Ribbon cutting was next and it was much easier to space them this time because I only used two different ribbons.

Placing the wrong sides together I placed and pinned the ribbons between the fabrics. One sewing trip around the blanket (remembering to leave a turning hole) and it was almost complete! Several hand stitches later and I could admire the blanket in all of its embroidered and ribboned glory!

The best part about all of this was that my friend has absolutely no idea I was planning to attend the shower. You see she lives a good 8 to 9 hours away from me. I show up at J's house and see her mom outside on the porch. She was so surprised to see me. As I was giving her a hug I asked if my friend knew I was coming. Her mom said that by the shocked look on her daughters face she didn't think that she had any idea.

Surprising my friend J by showing up was almost as good as when she opened my gifts.