My Baby Quilt- Complete.
Another Memory Quilt, but the most important one I will ever make.
January will be 21 years of Motherhood for me… That seems un-real. How has the time slipped by so fast? How am I now a Mama to adult children?? Weren’t they just in diapers, toddling around dressed up in my clothes, faces smeared in chocolate and bed head all day long?? Wasn’t that first belly laugh just yesterday?
This is how we are. Moms looking back through glass memories in overflowing hearts.
I don’t know why I started my “Baby Box”- I was so young when I had Madi, but I can remember exactly how it felt to be completely in Love with that first babe. Maybe its just part of that natural instinct to hold onto that first Hospital Cap, that first blanket, threadbare and ragged. Maybe its a tradition knitted into our souls we are un-aware of- A practice to save perfect little trinkets of our babes, just as our Mothers, Grandmothers, Ancestors did. The keepsakes telling a Story, unique to that child.
With four children, I tried to keep it to just one bin. My kids shared many ‘hand-me-downs’ over the years, so I was very intentional with what made it into the baby box. That same outfit they all came home from the Hospital in- a little yellow cord onesie… A Tinkerbell costume the 3 girls wore daily, covered in patched marks. T-shirts and cloth toys they shared… A knit hat Rye didn’t ever take off as a toddler. Mama-made dresses, Dad selected tops from his travels. That Lace trimmed Lovie I made Story, in which she dragged around for months… A few blankets- Snuggles and Milk stains and threads held together for dear life with Love. That Navy Footie we had embroidered for Tea just before moving overseas- I can remember Andrew’s face the first time we put her in it.
I tried to use a piece of each, but some I couldn’t bare to cut (they remain a personal keepsake)… These little squares each hold a moment of our Tale, a block to flood back memories of them in those most precious first years.
This Quilt was an emotional one to make. I took my time. I cut each block with care, framed them all in organic white linen, hand stitched the children’s names and my favorite Walt Whitman Quote- “We were together, I forget the rest…” (I have this tattooed on my right hip, across where I carried each of them.)
The backing is made of walnut dyed organic linen… Its just so soft to hold.
The finished product is so close to how I pictured it- The Sashiko hand stitching making the blanket just so squishy, large enough to toss at the foot of our bed, or for Friday night cuddles on the couch- The younger girls are already hiding under it with the new kitten, curling into it to read Harry Potter…. like its been adopted into the Family, now a piece of our Home.
After so much time of adding to the bin in the back of the closet, to the months of sewing this keepsake together, to now my “Baby Quilt” completed, it feels so good. This blanket represents all those little embraces from the last 2 decades, the ones I will never get back, but cherish above anything else…. And although its isn’t perfect by any means, its made by me, making it even more special for them….
I wonder what you will do with your Baby Box?? Till next time- xoxo