Poppy's Quilt

My mom is a supreme quilter extraordinaire. She has been quilting for as long as I can remember, though I think she picked it up in the 80's sometime. It is truly an art and a craft in the most skillful and talented sense of the words. Her house is hung and stacked with quilts; a napper never wants for cover there. Throughout our childhood, the beds were always covered with handmade quilts. When we each married, a wedding quilt was made. Each grandchild has a totally unique custom baby quilt. And now, as many of the grandchildren are getting older, Mom is working her way down the line making "teenage" twin size quilts for each of them, carefully consulting and working with each to make exactly what they like.

Likewise, each baby quilt has had input from the parents. For Hazel's I wanted a calming aquatic theme; it is gorgeous. For Ginger's, we went with a much-appliqued NYC park scene (since that was our life when she was born.) For each, I consulted with Mom on the phone since we did not live close. However, this time around we live 30 minutes away so the collaboration was more intense.

For Poppy, we chose a pattern I found years ago in one of her quilt magazines; it's called "I Remember Aprons" and I LOVE it. Mainly because it's totally cute but also because it allows a lot of variety and doesn't tie me down to any particular color scheme; I could just pick any fabrics I liked. As you can see, I liked quite a few.
I wanted a modern-vintage meld so we chose some of Mom's authentic feedsacks and vintage prints as well as some new quarters from the local quilt shop. We sorted, narrowed down, sorted again and rearranged the fabrics, and later the blocks, on several collaborative visits over the several months before Poppy was born. Mom really wanted to finish it before she was born and was very patient as I waffled on what to use for the border and backing, finally deciding on the outrageously festive polka dots and, for the back, a rockin' Amy Butler print named, what else?, "Fresh Poppies."
Even though I had chosen the pattern and fabrics, and knew basically what the quilt would look like, I was still blown away - totally flabbergasted - by the detail Mom put into each block. Here are a few close-ups - aren't they amazing?



Poppy is currently sleeping in our room, but in the next few months as she sleeps longer stretches we will move her into her own room, and this baby will hang center stage above her crib so she can stare at it in amazement as I do. As you are doing. As we all do.