Spring babies

Now that spring is finally here we will begin to see those darling little spotted fawns with their mothers and turkeys with their flock of chicks.  In fact, all around us we will see natures birth, from the trees and flowers to the animals and birds.  As wonderful as this season is the danger of wild animals and their offspring keep me on alert.   Just outside my family room window we have a mother and her three cubs eating our bird seed.  Those cubs are darling running around and wrestling, but the bird feeder will have to come down to discourage mom's return.

I was thinking back to all the baby quilts that I made and gave to welcome a new child.  My first baby quilt I made was in 1982 while waiting for the birth of my first child - David Michael Golnick.  He was born on February 9, 1983. Not knowing if I was having a boy or girl, I sewed away using colored fabric that could go either way.

The puppy dog pattern for this quilt came in a Better Homes and Gardens magazine. That magazine always had great ideas and patterns for the do-it-yourselfer.  This was my first attempt at hand appliqué and took many months to finish before the baby was born.

This baby quilt fit perfectly on the crib

The quilt is still in good shape - no holes  or worn spots.  I'm hoping someday that David will be a father and I will hand this quilt over to his new family.

So some time went by until I made a gifted baby quilt.  In fact, over 20 years.

I was given many beautiful afghans and quilts with the birth of each of my children.  They stayed in pretty good shape because they were small and outgrown early.  When it came time for me to make a baby quilt, I decided that I wanted them to be big enough so that it could be dragged around and worn out by that child.  So begins my so called "baby quilts".  The ladies in my quilting guild laugh when they see I'm making another baby quilt - they are more like twin bed size.

As my children grew and graduated from high school and went off to college, their close friends started getting married and having babies.  Since I know their friends I decided that I would make a baby quilt for their first born.

Sarah's friend Cassie was the first to have a baby in 2013.  I bought a panel printed fabric with a tree and an owl designed by Sandy Gervais  (my mother's maiden last name is Gervais and I wonder if she is any relation).  I framed the panel with a coordinating stripe fabric and quilted it on my regular sewing machine making a leaf pattern on the tree and outlining the figures.  It came out cute.  Cassie had a boy, Hayzen Ross.  She loved the quilt so much that it was used as a wall hanging in the baby's bedroom.   She also had his first pictures taken with that quilt.   I forgot to take a photo of the quilt before I gave it to her, so here is the quilt in the photo of Hayzen.  Unfortunately, not all the quilt is in the picture, but this photo was taken of Hayden not my quilt :)

I have more baby quilts to share, but I'll include them in a future post.