Thing 3 - Commentary

A friend of mine emailed me about the quilt I made for Thing 3 and asked me (with love!) why there were so many different, seemingly "random" pieces of fabric in the quilt. It occurs to me that to someone who doesn't know the story behind the quilts, it may appear that I just don't know how to match colors. Though that may be the case, actually, there is a story behind these quilts, which makes them anything but random....

When I found out I was pregnant with my first daughter at the end of 2002, I joined an online group (called a Due Date Club) at Babyzone.com with other moms who were due in August 2003. We chatted about morning sickness, weight gain, all things pregnancy related, up to labor, delivery and birth stories. After the little ones were born (about 75 of them!), many of us had grown close enough that we decided to form our own group via MSN groups to stay in touch as the babies grew.

We're spread out across the US, Mexico and Canada, and most of us have never met. (I've been lucky enough to meet 5 of the other moms!) One of the moms had an idea to make these quilts, so we could share with out little ones the story of how us crazy moms met. The idea was simple: Each mom was to pick a fabric that "represented" their baby in some way. I picked a fabric with little lambs on it (since my daughter's name means "Little Lamb" in Hebrew). The Surrendered Scribe (a fellow 5 Thinger, also from my Mommy Group) chose a fabric with angels on it, to celebrate the angels who were with her and her little girl during a near-death experience when the baby was only a few months old. The mom & baby (now preschooler) that the Thing 3 Quilt is for chose a fabric with sports balls on it, since her son loved to play ball and seemed athletic. (She has a blog, too, here.)

All the moms sent their fabric to me, I cut it into squares, and each mom/baby gets a quilt that has fabric from all the other babies in it, with a focus on the fabric they chose for their own child. So yes... the fabrics may "look" random, but each one has a story, and each one represents a very special little girl or boy. Every one looks completely different. Of course, it's been 3 years since this project started, thus my overwhelming desire to finally get them all DONE already, and the reason The Quilt Thing will keep appearing on my list, over and over again, until that time comes!