I feel a deep and satisfying compulsion to make baby quilts, so many baby quilts! I wish that I could make one (or more) for every couple or young woman/baby I am connected to. It is somehow an extension of mothering; almost as though I can reach my arms around that baby in a baby quilt hug. I have been known to say ” I don’t think I will ever finish a masterpiece because I stop every few months to make a baby quilt!” I word it like a complaint but truly I think it is more fun and more satisfying to finish and give a baby quilt than any masterpiece. I cannot really make that comparison yet due to not completing any such masterpiece. When that day finally comes I will describe the comparison properly and blog it dutifully right here. For now my masterpiece is a “mommy piece” and I think that baby quilting is the perfect bridge in my efforts to transition between full time mommying and full time art/crafting. It is somehow a little of both.
This was my first “Sweet Stripes” baby quilt pulled together from random and close at hand scraps and a few carefully chosen prints and batiks from the shelf. I was completely winging it, as I like to do when making a quilt for daily use. I try to create that professional quilt look from the random fabrics I have and sometimes I like the result and sometimes I am not sure…
That spray bottle in the foreground is 505 spray to baste the 3 layers together that makes the quilting process SO MUCH EASIER!! I learned that little trick at the Ricky Tims seminar I attended and blogged about here An Open Letter to Ricky Tims. It cuts the time it takes me to make a quilt by a half to a third. It also cuts out one of the least fun parts, involving all those safety pins and pulling, taping and worrying!
I think the best best thing about making these quilts is seeing the mommies that I gift them to, wrap their little ones in them and carry them around until they fade and almost fall apart. It is kind of a funny response when so much of quilt work is quilt preservation and careful handling so that they last the longest! The sweet mommy that I gave this to carries it everywhere she goes and it simply warms my heart.
It is not perfect and as I wrote to the mommy who thanked me via Facebook the picture below, “I enjoyed making it! It isn’t perfect but that is never my goal in a baby quilt–snugly, colors that work and lots of love in the stitches!”
There’s something about a gift made from the heart that makes me think of the person who gave it to me each time I use it. Quilts are like that!! I think about the labor they put in, the love the poured in to it… the act of kindness they are doing just by making it. It puts positivity and love back in to the world and it signifies support!