a very special quilt

His and hers quilts:

Okay. These are not modern, but they are as precious as they come.  The one on the left was made 28 years ago and given as a gift to my pregnant momma for me.  When Will was born, he adopted it and continued loving it, and between me and Will and the mixed polyester-and-cotton fabrics and no binding, it was in serious disrepair.  The polyester thread just tore up the cotton fabrics and since the quilt had been quick-turned, there was no binding to protect the edges from the wear-and-tear of washings.   I took it away from Will when he was around 2.5 and put it on a high shelf because I wanted it to make it long enough to share with our next baby.

Well, my momma knew about all this and so for my baby shower she gifted me and Ellie with a replica!  It is quite an amazing story of how she did it, too–we were in the middle of moving, and so she asked Nic to send her an iphone picture of the blanket.  (I think she might have been forced to ask several times, but in his defense, it was in a box somewhere.)  Then my dad drew out the templates just using the iphone picture Nic snapped, and my mom and dad then whipped this thing together in record time–something like 2 weeks.  A LOT of super late nights for my mom.

I think my face when I opened up the present made it worth it, though:

Since Ellie now had a fully functioning duckie quilt, it fell to me to repair Will’s so they could have matching blankies.  Binding was a major ordeal, and it’s definitely not restored, and I can’t imagine it will make it to a third generation, but for now it’s a little sturdier and ready for love again.

And another peek at the new quilt–I still can’t get over what a great replica it is!  (And how perfect is this–the blue border fabric in the replica is a duck print!!)  (And yes, we know it’s Mother Goose, but her babies look way more like ducks than geese.)