Rock a bye baby

I am the proud mother of a almost 2 year old and a not quite 4 month old. My older son has yet to figure out how to crawl out of his crib, and that fact makes me stubbornly refuse to give up that sweet sweet savior of my sanity and sleep. My younger son is growing fast. Height and weight, he's packing it on as quickly as I can get it into his mouth. And the little Moses basket I had bought with my first pregnancy was beginning to look littler and littler. So, in come the parents for the save...once again.

This is the cradle that was cut out for me but put together for my brother. My younger three siblings got to use it. I got the cool retro buggy. And you might think that that is sarcasm, but I assure you it is not. I like to be different and to have my own things, even as a baby. But as you can see it is a beautiful cradle, complete with a fantastic foot pedal. But no mattress. I could have done it retro-retro style and acquire some straw for the bed. I was raised on a farm after all. But I decided a mattress of sorts would be best. Less scratchy. 

The cradle is a but smaller then a standard pillow case. Lucky me I had some spare pillowcases laying around- I use pillowcases for my changing table. Amazing how the stores try to "pull one over on you" when babies are involved.Yah, I'm having a baby, I need to SAVE money, not spend it! 

Taking my handy dandy tape measure I measured the inside of the cradle, then sewed the side to match the width. Add a bit extra to the width, Mine ended up a bit small. I also had some batting from an earlier project that bit the dust. Cutting that to fit inside the trimmed down pillowcase. I found that using a yard stick  made getting the batting in much easier. Lay the yard stick over the batting, fold the batting in half and insert into the pillowcase. 

Once you have the batting in and "situated" fold the opening in and sew along the edge. I then began the "quilting" process. I was going to do this really cute cross over pattern just below the pillow of the mattress. Then a diamond pattern.... But my sewing machine had other ideas. It apparently wanted a break. So it sabotaged me by allow the needle to break. My last needle. I had just written "sewing machine needles" on my grocery list. This is as far as I got....

Once I get my needles replaced (in spades) then I will finish this project in proper style. But I figured a four month old does not notice, does not care. They just wanna be cozy and comfy. The mattress accomplishes that fine regardless of the quilting. 

**I'll post the actual finished project when I get it finished!