Emma's Owls

There will soon be a new baby in my family!   My niece is having a baby girl this month,  making me a great aunt (uuugh)  for the third time. I really dislike that term.  Makes me feel really old.    Great  Awesome Aunt sounds better to me.   I've even put that in writing (on a quilt label)!

I'm happy to say I've finished a quilt for our new sweetie!

 The baby shower had an owl theme, and the new mom has made lots of owl decorations for the baby's room.  So, some owl fabric had to be found for the quilt.  Brown and pink were the mom-to-be's request, and they look so cute together.  The owls are grey, and I usually don't like gray and brown together, but I think this works.

I think it makes a sweet welcome gift for baby Emma. 

A look at the back, courtesy of the wind.  Whoops.  Should've cut off the orange yarn I used to hang the quilt and then moved my scissors.  Heehee.

This little quilt went together very quickly.  The small size, simple design and large blocks certainly helped with that.   Even the quilting and binding seemed to take less time than I was anticipating.  I had planned to just quilt in the ditch along each seam, but then changed my mind.  Eyeballing the diagonal lines created by the design was quick a/nd turned out really well.  And, as a pleasant surprise, I got the "joining the binding ends together" part right on the first try!  Whoo hoo!


The actual making time of this quilt may have been quick, but it is part of a special tradition.  My mom was a quilter, and taught me to quilt.  When her grandchildren started arriving, 26 years ago, she made baby quilts for each of them.  All the quilts were the same design, but were made with different fabrics.   My youngest daughter received the last one, 10 and a half years ago.  At that time, my mom was just starting to have a lot of health issues, most related to diabetes.  She was having trouble seeing, had some sores in her feet that made getting around difficult and was having some trouble making her hands do what she wanted them to do.  She finished Emily's quilt, though, with some help from her oldest grand daughter,  who was 16 at the time.  I love that - the oldest making a quilt for the youngest.

Emma will be my mom's second great grandchild.  She isn't able to quilt anymore, and hasn't, since she made Emily's quilt.  That make us both very sad.  I would absolutely love to share sewing days with her, swap blocks and raid each others stashes.  I have hope that I will be able to do that with my own daughters, some day.

I have decided that the tradition of Grandma's quilts will live on. I will make a quilt for each of my mom's great-grandchildren, in the same pattern as the quilts she made for her grandchildren.  Colors and fabrics will change, just as in the original 6 quilts.  

I made the blocks in Emma's quilt a bit larger than the ones in my daughter's quilts.  I wanted to be sure that the owls weren't too chopped, and I really didn't feel like fussy cutting to be sure I had whole owls.  My mom hand-quilted.  I'm not sure she ever machine quilted anything.  Baby quilt, table runner, wall hanging, bed quilt...didn't matter, she spread  it out over her dining room table and quilted in the morning, when the light was best.  I am not much of a hand quilter.  I find it extremely relaxing and rewarding, but I just do not have the time.   

Even with a few differences, it's pretty clear that these quilts belong together.  It makes me really happy to see them hung together like this.

   

My mom embroidered each child's name on their quilt, but didn't include a year or a label.  I thought about adding those, but decided to stick with what she did originally.

I think my niece must have done the stitching of Emily's name.  Makes my heart smile!

I had a lot of fun taking these outdoor photos.  To the great embarrassment of my pre-teen, I lugged the quilts, camera and a bag of stuff I thought I might need around the yard, the cul de sac and (gasp!) even out of the subdivision!  "Mom!  What are you doing?! You are a crazy person!  People will see you hanging quilts in trees!!!"

That's ok.  I know my neighbors, and I am fairly certain that there are much more dangerous forms of crazy living in our neighborhood.  And, if the neighbors wondered if  I was crazy, then seeing the  lunatic grin on my face as I hung these beauties up (seriously, SO MUCH FUN) surely convinced them.  I'm OK with that!

Come on, baby Emma!  We want to meet you, and your quilt is ready!

I'm linking up here this week:

Michelle's Let's make baby quilts
Monday Making at Love, Laugh, Quilt
Fabric Tuesday on Quilt Story
Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts
Let's Bee Social at Sew. Fresh Quilts

My Quilt Infatuation's Needle and Thread Thursday

Crazy Mom Quilts Finished Friday

Be sure to stop by and check out all the lovely links!