Comforting My Babies (Wrapped In Love)

I’m so grateful that I come from a family of sewers. Sewing has brought to me immeasurable amounts of joy, therapy, and much needed self-expression since I was a tiny kid threading needles back through my mom’s quilts stretched on quilt frames. Because I love sewing “sew” {so} much I try all sorts of projects but the most satisfying by far is making quilts for my kids. I say “quilts” in the lightest of terms. Don’t picture some elaborate pieced out masterpiece, instead picture something sturdy with color done in large blocks. I love that every bed in my house is covered in a quilt that I made myself. I love that to prepare for big occasions such as a baby being born, or milestone ages reached that I have made a quilt for my kids for that. It’s a journal of sorts. Something that is so special to me that I hope translates into that fabric and batting and binding and when they lay down to sleep or be comforted or warmed that they know their mama’s hands have been there to help make that happen.

Most recently I finished Charles turning 8 quilt because my accidental but then firmly abided by tradition has been to make a baby blanket, then a blanket when my kid turns 3 years old, then a blanket when they turn 8. I suppose I’ll carry it through to ages 12, 16, and then when they live on their own perhaps - - - we’ll see but for now we have those first three quilt ages established.

When I look at the quilts I remember what I thought about when I made them. I remember what was going on in our family and I love that seeing the fabric is what makes the memories come to me.

So far the two eight year old quilts that I have made have been special because turning 8 in our family means that you’re making the decision to follow Jesus Christ and get baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. The 8 year old quilts are made from clothes that my kids wore throughout the years leading up to their 8^th birthday. I want them to remember what they wore as they first learned about making choices and fixing mistakes and learned of their Savior Jesus Christ.

As I was just last month making Charles 8 year old quilt I thought about 5 years ago when I was making him his three year old quilt. I remember being so worried that I would not finish the quilt on time for Charles 3^rd birthday because Orson was so sick and I was not able to work on it as much as I wanted. The quilt meant a lot to Charles and he reminded me often of how excited he was to get it from me on his birthday.

When I realized that I definitely would not make my deadline because Orson had ended up being admitted to the hospital I remember being a wreck and tearfully asking my Mom if she would finish it for me because I knew how disappointed Charles would be if he didn’t get it as he was hoping. So that particular quilt is especially special because it has the hands of Charles grandmother and his mother in it. It was given to Charles on the morning of his 3^rd birthday in a house decorated by Dad and without his baby brother or Mom there to sing a birthday song. But thanks to my Mom, he DID get it and the legacy of fabric and thread continues over another generation of woman in my family.

I love the analogy of a quilt being like the Holy Ghost (AKA the Comforter, especially applicable in this case). “He is the Comforter (John 14:26). As the soothing voice of a loving parent can quiet a crying child, the whisperings of the Spirit can calm our fears, hush the nagging worries of our life, and comfort us when we grieve. The Holy Ghost can fill us "with hope and perfect love" and "teach [us] the peaceable things of the kingdom" (Moroni 8:26; D&C 36:2).” (link to quote and more info here).

To get to my point, I cannot sing. I cannot dance. But darn it I can sew a quilt under pressure.

I searched high and low amongst my 11,000 jpegs

but couldn't find the quilt pictures I wanted. This

one is adorable though so I'll post it. Picture

a really sweet picture of all three kids wrapped in their

3 year old quilts on Orson's 3rd birthday. Its adorable.

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My Fabric Journal. 

Maelee’s baby blanket (2007): Done in Mary Engelbreit (another obsession of mine) flower style. She being my first baby and my coming off working a full time job we had a little money to buy furniture and fix up her room which was all done from the colors in her quilt.

Charles baby blanket (2009): Lots of fish hand appliqued covered Charles baby blanket. It matched the theme I enforced for our 2^nd CF Great Strides Walk. We couldn’t afford to have more shirts made for our walk team so I made fish for us all to pin on our shirts from the year before. They matched Charles quilt.

Maelee’s 3 year old quilt (2010): My older sister who lived close by would pick Maelee up and take her to preschool for me so that I could finish Maelee’s three year old quilt. It was such a kind service that she did for me, simple and kind and needed. I was getting big with child as they say with baby Orson at the time and had a two year old and I remember how difficult it was to spread out my squares on the floor and get up and down like I needed to. I got that one done because of her.

Orson’s baby blanket (2011): Orson’s birth hit me like a fleet of semi trucks so it took a while to get his quilt done. My Mom actually picked the adorable cowboy fabric and the green satin on the back was the same fabric I had used to make the wedding neck ties for my brothers wedding. His quilt didn’t get done until at least 6 months after he was born, but it did make it to the hospital with him when he was admitted at 7 months for his first CF exacerbation.

Charles 3 year old quilt (2012): We were so devastated to be in the hospital with Orson on Charles birthday. We try to be very sensitive to him not getting the short end of the stick due to being the only one with CF and this felt like breaking that rule majorly. But as I said, my Mom rescued me and got it finished on time.

Orson’s 3 year old quilt (2014): This one looks as much like Charles as I could make it despite a different color scheme because those boys were and are inspirable. They have become such special friends to each other and I loved to be able to carry on that continuity. For my own selfish reasons I’ve always hoped that orange would be Orson’s favorite color so that is what I made his quilt with. You know, “O”range for “O”rson I thought would be cool.

Ruby’s baby blanket (2015): she had so many truly beautiful real deal quilts given to her that I felt my large blocked colorful sturdy ones would be inadequate in comparison, but I made her one just the same. It is from one of my favorite items at IKEA, the precut fabric block bundles they sell tucked away in a little corner of their textile section. The prints are all totally whacked and don’t match at all which is absolutely how I felt when she was born and I was sewing it, but it turned out beautiful despite my crazy fabric choices, perhaps even because of them.

Maelee’s 8 year old quilt (2015): This project was due 7 days after my 4^th child was born and I was definitely late turning it in. Maelee was old enough that I could talk her off the cliff of “mom doesn’t love me because my quilt isn’t done on my birthday” routine, but it was touch and go for a while. All of that summer was a big hot mess, but the quilt was finished before school started in August made with the dresses Maelee had worn all of her growing up to 8 years.

Charles 8 year old quilt (2017): This was a really fun sew. I was feeling happy that summer was near and that baseball and play season was almost over. I enjoyed making the blocks out of Charles t-shirts and remembering how I got most of them on various black Friday clothing hunts into the wee hours of the morning with my black Friday shopping posse.