I finally have a new finish to share! My sister Carisa had a new baby more than a year ago. While she was still pregnant I had the idea for this quilt, but I'm just finishing it now! Sorry, Millie!
My original idea was to make similar quilts for both Millie and her big sister, Molly. Molly received the 6th quilt I ever made, and it was time for a new one. Molly has my fellow lover of all things purple, but recently she has changed her allegiance to team teal. No worries, I'm putting my hope in Millie (thus, her quilt is mostly purple!)
Since I love Lori Holt's book, Spelling Bee, my thought was to have each girl's name front and center, with icons that represent them. When Millie was still in utero, I decided on beauty and brains to represent my prayer for her to pursue inner beauty and wisdom. Like so many girls of her age, Molly loves unicorns and mermaids. As I was looking for mermaid patterns, I found the pattern by CoopCrafts, and made Molly's Mermaid instead.
The inspiration for the crown came from Kimberly Jolly's pattern, Katherine, in her book, Fat Quarter Baby.
For the book section, I had fun looking for books that fit the brains part of the quilt.
I need I wanted a Bible storybook to reflect the wisdom of accepting and sharing God's love. I chose The Little Girls Bible Story Book for Mothers & Daughters.
When I saw the title Your Auntie Loves You, I had to included even though I haven't read the book because the title really is the point of the quilt, and part of emotional intelligence is knowing how to love and accept love.
In the same vein, I loved the sentiment of this book's title. Millie has her whole life ahead of her. Another aspect of intelligence is knowing oneself: strengths, weaknesses, and passions.
Finally, I choose two books that reflect a more traditional view of intelligence. As the mom to an aspiring rocket scientist, I laughed at these books because looking back, I think my son would have loved them. (And maybe I could use them to understand what he's talking about!!) Chris Ferrie has published a whole collection of these books, so it was hard to whittle down to just two, ABCs of Physics and Rocket Science for Babies. (Okay, fine, I picked them because the covers most closely matched my quilt colors!)
Fun fact, many moons ago, I wrote a children's book called "I Don't Wanna Go to Bed." It had a very limited print run and is so out of print it's not even available on Amazon anymore. Boo. I gifted a copy to Carisa after Molly was born.
I wrote the book in the middle of the night when D was about six months ago. It was the last bit of creative writing inspiration I ever had. A few months later I sustained my last brain injury--the one that took the last of my writing ability (as well as permanently messed up my vision and metabolism). But I am forever grateful for the gift of that night to have something written just for D.
So, no more books in my future, but quilts are more snuggly.
The label is attached and I'm almost ready to send it.
I made a slight error in judgment as I started the quilt and made the letters a little too big.
Thanks to the wisdom of the interwebs, I'm thinking I may make a bunting out of the oops letters.
***update***
I did whip up a bunting!
You can find more pictures of this quilt on Instagram at #BeautyAndBrainsQuilt. To see what I'm currently working on, follow me at deJongDreamHouse.
Linked to:
Thanks to the wisdom of the interwebs, I'm thinking I may make a bunting out of the oops letters.
***update***
I did whip up a bunting!
You can find more pictures of this quilt on Instagram at #BeautyAndBrainsQuilt. To see what I'm currently working on, follow me at deJongDreamHouse.
Linked to:
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