Surprise in a Blanket.

All tied-up and ready for baby girl to arrive :)

As many of you know, my aunt Jeannie and I have a baby blanket business called “Just Duckie” (www.justduckieblankies.blogspot.com) (If you missed Friday’s post about the blankies, go back and look at it!)  We have been making blankies together for about 3 years now. When we started, I had just become a mommy to my son, Sam.  Three years later, I’m almost due with my third baby!  Throughout our time working on the blankies, I think that our products have gotten cuter and cuter each time.  My main job is design—I pick out the fabrics, I match up the blankies with the burp cloths, I find the embroidery and applique images online, and I put the final baskets/bags together.  But Jean is the key…she’s the one who can actually sew!  And she has an amazing embroidery machine (our second one since we started Just Duckie) that makes the most adorable things for our babies!

Anyhow, long story short…I’ve obviously been busy making blankies lately, since my baby girl is due in August and all I had were blue and green boy blankies in my closet.  But, the best thing about our blankies is that they are personalized (with names, birthdates, etc.).  And since I’m not skilled at the embroidery machine, I have to rely on Jean for that part.  But here’s the catch…my husband and I are keeping the baby’s name a secret!  So we hatched a plan…

Jean taught me the basics of the new machine, and then left me in the room with the door shut while I typed in the baby’s name and let the machine do the work.  We crossed our fingers that the thread wouldn’t break while the machine was working, because threading is my downfall, and then she would see the name!  Luckily, no thread breakage.  I was so happy that it worked!  And, although we have known our baby girl’s name for about 8 years now (no joke!), we just recently decided on her middle name, so as I looked at the blanket, it was like her name was now officially her name.  And since I’m now 7 months pregnant and very emotional, I almost cried when I saw it!

Fabric hiding the name! No peeking!

Then it was time to sew the embroidered piece to the other side of the blanket.  Now, this is something I am capable of, but it turns out much better when Jean does it.  So, I grabbed a scrap of fabric from the drawer and pinned it all around where her name is on the blanket, and got it all ready for Jean to sew.  She came in, sewed it up (without peeking!), and gave it to me.  Hence the name of today’s post:  “surprise in a blanket”.  Needless to say, this blanket now has to be hidden extremely well.  The entire family was searching for it in my things last night, and they are dying to know her name!

My due date is 7 weeks away, and the excitement is building all around. I am so glad to have a blanket with her name on it, all ready to go to the hospital with me when the time comes.  And I’m even more excited for everyone to finally see the blanket and what name appears on it!  I plan to let aunt Jeannie do the honors and open the blanket on the day that baby girl decides to arrive.  After all, she is my partner in “Just Duckie” crime, and she chose not to peek when she easily could have!

So…this post will actually have two parts.  We don’t know when the second part will be, but when baby girl comes and aunt Jeannie opens the blankie, I will be there with my camera in hand…and then I will share the happy moment with you on the blog!  Hooray for secrets, I love them!