untraditional baby showers

I went to my first German baby shower. Showers aren't done in this country. No wedding showers, no baby showers. But some friends of mine, inspired, I think, by the American baby shower, decided to throw a shower for a pregnant friend. Or rather, a Baby Party, as they called it. It was kind of funny. Fun, but funny.

It was a surprise party. We worked out a time with her husband when she would be home and we all showed up, one by one, surprising her just up from a nap and about to get into a bath. One of us brought a cake and we all brought a gift. And, because I was the only American who had ever been to baby shower, and because I described that one of the traditional things about a shower are the stupid games, I was assigned to bring the games. The good thing about this is that none of these girls had ever been to a shower before, so I could do the old stand-by baby shower games and it would all be fresh. So we ate baby foods, guessing what the flavor was. We guessed how much toilet paper would fit around the mom-to-be's growing waist. And we drew pictures of babies on paper plates on our heads. And I think everyone had fun. The whole thing only lasted an hour and then we got out of her hair so she could get in her bath.

I also participated in another untraditional baby shower recently. This one was a virtual Etsy Baby Shower. It's something that ficklefaerie sponsors every quarter for all the new moms on Etsy. Shops volunteer to send something to a mom or two and each mom receives 5 gifts total. And the best part is that there were no stupid games.

I sent my gift to MichellesCharmWorld. I decided to create a smaller quilt than my crib sized ones, usually around 40 x 50 inches, and made one about 30 x 30 inches, calling it a "tummy time" quilt...something smaller and more portable. I like the size and I'm thinking about started a line of them for my shop. For the top I used blue, yellow, and green scraps. I used a back of blue numbers that I had on hand from another quilt. It's a fairly simple design and all the fabrics I already had on hand, but I love how it turned out! (And word on the street is, MichellesCharmWorld likes it, too!)