Clearly, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. Clearly. While I don’t have the excuse of an adorable addition, like Ms. Marie and her little one, Mattie, I can draw on her experience to post: The threecleversisters host a baby shower! Last winter, we descended upon Marie’s Brooklyn, NY apartment for a baby shower without the standard baby games but with a little craft time – quilt making!
A few years ago, I attended a baby shower in which the guests all decorated scraps of fabric that included quotes, images, or messages for the little one and his family. The host then used those fabric scraps to create a flag decoration for the nursery. It was such a charming idea, that I promised myself that I would do that for someone. When Marie and I hosted Sara’s baby shower, I was in law school and there wasn’t any creative energy. Marie, then, was the likely recipient. I offered to do a flag or a quilt. She did the quilt.
The activity required a bit of coordination and fortunately I flew JetBlue to NYC so I could check my bags, with all the supplies, for free. I bought some stencils from Lotta Jansdotter and Martha Stewart along with Martha Stewart’s paints. We did some test squares – using my mom, aunt, cousin, and grandma as guinea pigs over Christmas. It was a great way to get some of them involved since Gami, Kate, and Aunt B weren’t able to attend the actual shower.
kclever & GG
GG’s contribution to the quilt.
I also contacted several of Marie’s college friends and some of her husband’s extended family about decorating squares. So many people were invited to the shower and so many people wanted to participate, the quilt was larger than the typical lap quilt.
The shower was held in January in Brooklyn. That means there wasn’t a lot of space for 15+ people who were invited. Fortunately, the weather was on our side, and though it was a bit chilly, we expanded the craft portion of the shower to patio. No baby games on this one — what mom really wants to do the circumference of her belly anyway? We CRAFTED!
By the time I had collected all the pieces, I had 32 squares. I planned to make a piece with the baby’s initials or name once she was announced, but 33 square does not make a normal looking quilt — 11×3? Nope.
Instead, I chose to make a square for each of her initials. I printed out MASSIVE font each letter from my handy Microsoft Word program and used that as an applique. I was thrilled by how nice it turned out.
The number was 35, 7 x 5, and with the borders and 62 x 96 in (approximately)!
The Baby Quilt!
