Look What My Momma Made!

I have been interested in quilts for a very long time. Some of my best memories are of snuggling under a warm quilt at the home of one relative or another.

My mother was never a quilter most probably because she had to work outside the home and what with running the house, raising children and canning in the fall when would she ever have time to quilt. I still don't know how she found time to do what she loved the most...sewing clothes. I honestly think if things had been a little different in my mother's life she might have been a fashion designer. She always said she'd rather make her own pattern than use a "store bought" one. So I smile to think how lucky I am that my mother taught me to sew.

Sewing seemed to come easily to me and I did a lot of sewing for myself and others for many years. I remember a special negligee I made for a friend that she wore on her honeymoon. Including sweet little dresses and costumes for Halloween for my darling daughter for many years.

When I was expecting my darling daughter (now 31) I wanted so much to make something special for her. So I decided to make a quilt. I asked everyone I knew how I should go about this but no one seemed to be able to help me. I asked at my local fabric shop and no one really knew a thing about it. I don't recall seeing any books or magazines about quilts either. I was completely baffled.

I did know what I wanted to do so I just proceeded to do it. I bought a coloring book, you know one with those really simple pictures of animals the ones that are easy for little hands to color and stay in the lines.

I had some left over pastel fabric I had used for some summer maternity clothes. It was 50/50 but I thought fabric is fabric... I carefully cut my fabric into pieces the size of the coloring book pages and then very painstakingly used dressmaker's carbon and with a tracing wheel traced those sweet little animals on my fabric.

Everyday I stitched the pictures and smiled as the drawings of animals came to look more than just a line drawing. To me they began to take on personalities. I wondered if my daughter and I would give them all a name. I used DMC floss the colors I felt would look the best for each animal I chose and used the very simple stem stitch to outline all those furry little creatures. A very dapper turtle in a hat with a jaunty flower in the band. A Bird's nest with little peepers with their mouths watering for the food they anticipated. A panda in a tree. A mother hen with her chicks. It was so fun to work on and I could easily imagine that she would immediately love it and keep it forever and cherish it always.

I even finished that little quilt. It had no sashing or borders or even binding. I didn't know the correct way to put those blocks together. Instead I sewed the blocks together making rows and then sewed the rows together to make the top. I layered it with pieces of an old sheet and backed it with some yellow flannel with roses on it. I stitched it inside out and left a hole for turning. I clipped the corners so I could get a good corner turned. Then I laid it flat on the floor and smoothed it until it was flat and I finger pressed all the side seems. Then at each intersection of the seems of the blocks on the top I tied it with yarn.

I can't say I worked "hard" on that little quilt I found it way too much fun to call it work and no it isn't done "correctly". But it is filled with love lots and lots of love. First by the love I put into each stitch as I awaited my darling little girl. Next by the love she put into it as she snuggled under it at night and hugged me with her chubby little arms and kissed me good night. By the love it absorbed as she shared with anyone who would listen, "See? See my quilt? My mommy made this for me when I wasn't even born yet!" Years later when we unpacked her little blanket so she could take it to her new apartmentwe shed tears as we remembered how love was added as she and our beloved Cock-a-poo Barney tore a hole in the corner while playing a game of tug-of-war. I even noticed that the embroidery stitches are missing and coming out and offered to fix it. But with tears in her eyes she said, “No, mom, it wouldn’t be the same blanket.” Even now it is still receiving love as it lays upon her bed that is so far, far away from the little bed she slept in all those years ago. That little quilt is still proudly displayed and she still snuggles under it each night. As her mother I like to think she feels warmer and more loved because she sleeps beneath it.