Today, I finally finished a quilted chenille-backed blanket for my neighbors' one-year old little boy. It's a nice size for babies as it works for napping in the crib as well as hanging out in the stroller (it's about 32"x40").
I've made several versions of this blanket already and I always enjoy putting it together because, among other things, it makes use of one of my all-time favorite children's fabric - the light blue retro fabric which depicts playground scenes. This fabric, which you can see more clearly in the photos below, is an Alexander Henry fabric and, sadly, is discontinued. "Sadly" because, for one, I barely have any left and also because, in the world of readily-available fabric, I find that great children designs are hard to come by. I wonder if the market for such designs just isn't there?... 
Interestingly enough, I've recently discovered that most of the children
prints I seem to gravitate towards in the last little while (all retro-inspired) are all
reprints of juvenile
wrapping paper, most probably manufactured in the
60's - and how did I make such a discovery?.. Well, one of the first Print & Pattern
posts I read was about this wonderful book called "All Wrapped Up!"
written by Kevin Ackers - I had to have it as soon as I saw the cover
and recognized the "rocket kids" wrapping paper as being a Michael Miller
fabric I had recently purchased. Needless to say, the book is great
fun and has led me to do more sleuthing on e-bay... Sure enough, my
favourite playground fabric was originally wrapping paper!
I decided to read your entire blog today! I might leave you a few comments ;)
First of all, I love that blanket. The colors and the fabrics are just perfect.
Posted by: Claudia | January 09, 2008 at 07:53 AM