Some babies have the life. They sleep on a crib emblazoned with their name, with a pillow and quilt designed by their mom and produced by their grandma. Yep, it is pretty good to be my 4 year old's eponymous monkey doll.
It started with the crib. This used to be my daughter's nap pillow at school, but when she stopped napping, she decided it was the crib where her baby monkey slept at night. But she was worried that her baby wasn't comfy, and I cheerfully informed her that her mom could fix that.
We grabbed my stash of fabric and I let her select her favorites. Then we worked together to come up with a design. She loved the theme of strips made of polka dots.
This is probably the quickest and dirtiest sewing I've ever done. No measuring, just cut approximately and sew. It was kind of freeing not to worry about precision, though now I look at it and see so many mistakes. Knowing my daughter perceives it as a special object helps add a softening halo to those errors.
The quilt was an absolute joy to create. I was able to piece, quilt, and bind it in a day. Quilting is how I started sewing, but I haven't made one since 2012. It felt so great to get back to it and really made me want to make more There is such a tactile pleasure to handling the quilt sandwich, the meandering free motion, and slowly hand-sewing the binding. I want to make a wall-hanging based on one of the scores in Sherri Lynn Wood's The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters (check out my last post for a review!), and I bought the Thistle Quilt pattern by Elizabeth Hartman to make for my husband for his 40th birthday. That birthday was 6 months ago, so I guess I'm aiming for 41.
It's so great that my daughter is old enough to participate in my crafting, now. She has expressed a belief that 50% of my creations should be for her. I consider that a little high, but I definitely have plans for many more little FOs for her.