Baby gift, my crafty friend

It appears there must be something in the water around my neck of the woods, a good handful of my friends are currently expecting (a baby, that is...) As a crafter this presents a challenge: what to give as a gift?

I perused a few idea's courtesy of saint Google, here's a website with a few ideas, and another, not bad... but I wanted to build on what I've seen. ('build on' - geddit? har har har... never mind). Here's my idea:

I decided to go for some soft blocks in a handmade box. I'm using felt to make the blocks, stuffing to fill them and sewing them together with wool. The box is made from a sheet of foam. 

My materials - felt, wool and foam. I also used toy stuffing.

Here come the numbers: I made 6 blocks using 3 colours of felt (2 of each colour in each block) = 8 squares of each colour (24 squares in total). My squares are 3x3 inches. Phew!

The number of shapes are the same deal as with the squares. I chose simple shapes...

and one number for each square

I plotted and pinned out each block (I found this stage a bit bamboozling!)

then sewed each shape on and the sides together, leaving one side open for stuffing

Stuffed and sewn block

The final product, with a little instagram magic

As you can see, I decided against using the foam (I was going to make a box for the blocks) but they're made to be seen, not tidied away.

Quick tip, use a cushion for the stuffing, waaaaaay cheaper than the stuffing you buy for toys. You can even recycle old cushions for this.
Just as a final note - I also found this online - cute! I must do this.