i wanted to make something really special for the kids this christmas..and when my dear friend
jeanie invited me to a stitch/crafting night at her place in november, i thought, "sweet! i know what i'll do!!"
rewind 10 years or so..we were living in the philippines and to stay in touch with the western world i received martha stewart's weekly emails..one in particular caught my attention -
memory quilts. you use old clothes of your babies/kids instead of keeping TONS of those really cute clothes of theirs. so that is when i started cutting squares from caleb's old clothes.
when we moved to canada,
i trucked the stack of squares. when rosie was born, i started keeping clothes of hers that i would one day "square". after years of clothes i finally "squared" them.
then we moved to burnaby almost 2 years ago and
i trucked the squares of both kids here..thinking, "one day i'll get these quilts done for the kids." and there they sat in a box in my closet.
forward to jeanie's invite to her stitch night...exactly...i was going to pull
those squares out and do them for the kids for christmas this year. huge undertaking.
and may i remind you i dont really sew..at all. i am a photographer..not a seamstress. but i thought, "how hard could it be? you sew squares together..you put batting in between..you sew a trim..can't be TOO difficult can it?"
chuckle..
well after several treks downtown to jeanie's place to use her surger and sewing machine, and then staying up late last night - til 130 actually - only had to rip the trim apart on rosie's blanket once. :) they are definitely not a quilter's dream-of-a-quilt; the fabric of some of the squares aren't ideal so they made for some unaligned lines.. and the great soft backing fabric was a bugger to sew - so thick. but ooooooo so soft!!
but they are wonderful..and i put them on the kids' beds before i went to sleep so they could wake up to them today.. :)
"mom where'd this blanket come from!?"..so i told them, and then we sat and looked at all familiar squares of their past..thanks for the great idea martha stewart. :)
and i am totally ok with the fact that i am a photographer who doesn't "do" sewing so good.. i will keep my day job.. :) and i will commission the REALS sewers next time!!
here's the process of the quilt making...
sorting squares to pin and then sew lines of squares
sorting rosie's squares at jeanie's, with the help of alex the cat.. :)
there are some in between photos here of me sewing away at jeanies, which i will get from her and repost this post when i get them.. :)
yesterday...starting to piece it all together..
the finished products - caleb's...
i took a lot of photos of the squares, cuz then you can see closeups of some of the old clothes.. :) bring back the memories!!
and rosie's bundle of warmness...
and here are the kiddies all snuggly warm in their blankets.. :)
