Birthdays, Bears, and Blankets

When my kids were little I tried to make every birthday special.  It all began with my daughter's 3rd birthday when I served clown ice cream cones which essentially were a scoops of ice cream for the clowns' heads and overturned sugar cones for the hats.  Embellished with chocolate chips and piped frosting, they were a delicious and creative addition to a beautiful birthday! The next year I made her a Minnie Mouse cake.  And that was just the beginning.  As the years went on the cakes became more elaborate.  The night before the birthdays I would decorate the dining room with balloons, streamers and a happy birthday sign strung across the curtain rod above the french doors. The best part were the kids' teddy bears who donned party hats for the occasion and sat amidst their presents on the dining room table.  This quickly became birthday tradition.  As I have come to learn, presentation is the key!  They probably will never remember what they got on those birthdays, but they will always remember those bears waiting to celebrate their special day with them.

My daughter, Dana, is celebrating her birthday this week.  Her bears, left behind in her old room, sit silently on her bookshelf, never again to wear party hats and enjoy their place of honor on the dining room table on that one special day of the year.  But time marches on, and the way to celebrate birthdays has definitely changed.  It's usually long distance with a card, gift card and a birthday phone call or text message.

This year, I had a request from my daughter to make a quilt out of her old t-shirts, so I decided to make the quilt for her birthday.  I have created many things in my artistic career, I have painted, sewn, drawn, but I have never made a quilt.  It was a good idea, and I had seen many examples of these quilts with the quilters' guarantee that it was super easy.  I used this tutorial as my guide to make the quilt.  Ok, I thought, how hard could this be?  So I start cutting up her old t-shirts, mesh athletic shorts, college t-shirts, and a t-shirt that I had painted for an environmental club she started in middle school called Going Green.  I soon realized why I hadn't done this before. Even this simple t-shirt quilt took on a life of its own.  I have been cutting, appliquing, basting and sewing for about 3 months.  It became easier as the days went on and my plan sort of came together the more I sat with the quilt and thought about it.  I hope it doesn't suffer the same fate as the afghan I crocheted for my son to take to college with him when he graduated from high school. He will be a senior in college next year and the afghan never left his room at home.  But that's ok. Creating it was good therapy on those long winter nights passing the time after work and dinner.  Maybe he's saving it for when he moves out of the house.

I think my daughter will appreciate the effort, since it is my first attempt at a quilt.  She is a mainly neutral tones person, not much for prints and unfortunately her high school colors were gold and brown and her college colors were blue and gold.  Then there was that "Going Green" t-shirt which, of course, was green.  I found some blue and green cotton prints with the tiniest dots on them to use and a few other small blue prints, I appliqued the printed portions of the shirts on them, zig zagged stitched around each one and then sewed all the blocks together.  I have to admit, this was the part I was most worried about and I was right to have felt that apprehension.  Novice that I was, not all the blocks lined up exactly, but it was my first attempt after all.
I basted and stitched all the layers together, leaving about 20" as directed in the tutorial to turn it.  After turning it right side out, I hand stitched the opening and then decided on the easiest way to quilt it which really isn't quilting at all, it was just tying.  I found a very good tutorial on youtube on tying a quilt and used that as my guide.  I used white embroidery floss at the corners of each block to tie the quilt together.  I pressed it a  little and admired my handiwork.  It may not be an authentic quilt. It might not be like the quilt in the tutorial.  It may not be perfect.  But I am very proud of my accomplishment!  I think it came out pretty well for a first time quilter.  I just hope my daughter feels the same way.  Happy Birthday, Dana!