Saturday, October 25, 2008

And now for the Babies





This past week has been a busy one for me, and one of the things that happened, was that my school staff had a baby shower for one of our colleagues. The baby is a handsome young lad named Cole. He is a big baby- about 15 lbs and he just turned 3 months old. He reminded me of my son, K who was also a big baby. K. is now a football player sized man even though he much prefers to play hockey. You think that it takes them forever to grow up but it feels like it was just yesterday when my boy was the same size as Cole.

The photos are two pictures of the more recent versions of the baby wraps that I have made. I first made this baby wrap around 1982 and have made it for two generations of babies- my son's and the next ones. I think I have probably made over 50 of them since I first made one for a cousin's baby. The pattern came from a McCall's book that had items to make for babies. Originally, I tied the quilts and the inside layer of the quilt was flannelette. I now make them with minkee or fleece and I meander them together. Some friends' children would drag them around until they were tattered and worn- a sign of a well loved quilt. The design is quite useful as it fits nicely in a car seat to wrap around the baby. I have used eyelet and lace as trim and it takes about 4 yards to go around the perimeter of the quilt.

Every now and then I think I should retire the pattern and make something different but then another baby arrives and I go back to the same reliable pattern. Do you go back to the same pattern over and over again or only make a design once because there are so many wonderful patterns to try and make?

The star fabric quilt with lace is Cole's and the other one belongs to Pam's http://pamcave.blogspot.com/ grandson Hunter. Hunter's was the first one that I had ever bound like a standard quilt. Pam posted him wrapped in it earlier in the spring (the beginning of May) on her blog.

The bears in the middle are a photo of the bears on my filing cabinet at school. I took the picture because Meggie http://lifesfreetreats.blogspot.com/ asked to see them so here are my collection of ceramic bears. Many of them came from my students and friends over a large number of years.

Today the wind blew and created havoc where ever it went. It brought with it some snow flurries and the temperature is quite cool tonight. We have been fortunate to have a very pleasant autumn but the drop in temperature makes me wish for my own baby wrap to curl under... How about you, what do want to do when the weather is inclement? I go looking for a good book, a warm shawl and a cup of....

Until next time - keep warm ...
Happy quilting,
Anna

4 comments:

Ozjane said...

My Moggie girl sends her love to that beautical comfortable cat gracing those quilts so beautifully.

I love the baby wrap. Is it a scalloped circle or is it a bit more complex than that?

I seem to have friends grandies coming out my ears and need to do some fast catch ups.

Happy days.

meggie said...

Hi Anna, Thanks for showing us your baby wraps, they look lovely.
And thanks for the bears, they are lovely.
We have had rain all day today, & it has been quite cool. My brother is staying here, from New Zealand, & he had been enjoying the hot days.
I guess it will warm up again before he goes.

Perry said...

Those small quilts are really neat. I would keep on making this quilt. It looks like it would work well. When the weather gets bad I like to read or quilt, or sleep.

Pam said...

The baby wrap was such a great gift for Hunter! The bright and colourful balloons - and the sunshine yellow minky. It is a well loved quilt!

Loved seeing all the Teddy Bears - it is quite the collection :))