Keep Calm and Stitch On

The Blanket my mother made

 So every now and then I get an itch to stitch something...sometimes it might be a small cross stitch, but every now and again I decide to take on a larger project.  The one that I am currently working on and feels like the end is never in sight, is one that appeared to me through something my mom had given me-a blanket. 

This blanket that my mother made me was made of material from several of my dresses and clothes as a baby and toddler. I have always loved this blanket, even though my mom was not happy with how it turned out.  Like so many of us, we often decide something should be quite easy and as we get under way with it, we realize it is much more challenging. However, I think it is always worth working through the challenge, it is so rewarding in the end.  My mom like myself, did a little research before starting this project and was steered in the wrong direction when it came to sewing the squares of fabric together (she was told to only leave a small amount of fabric, I believe it was a 1/4").  So over time, my mom has become very frustrated with this blanket, because the seems have come unraveled more than once, and I have restitched many of the squares. It was when my son was born that I realized what an amazing treasure my mother had given me, as I sat with him in those first few months and rocked him to sleep, we would always use this blanket to snuggle.  It was when he turned one, that I realized I did not want to just part with all his onesies (and since he is a boy, I knew keeping any in a hope chest or keepsake box, probably would not matter to him). So I decided I would try my hand at mimicking a t-shirt blanket and making him his own treasured blanket.

Showing the handstiched mending

Keeping in mind the troubles my mom crossed in making my son's blanket, I decided early on there were certain things I was going to do, to try and alleviate those issues.  I made my own 6" x 6" pattern and began cutting up all of the onesies and tshirts from his first year that were sentimental.  Then I had to work out some sort of pattern, as you can see in the photo below.  Now mind you, the sewing skills I have are not seamstress skills, what I have are basic/beginner skills (skills that I learned through my years in 4-H, what my mother taught me and what I learned in my one semester of home economics  in public school)...so some of you may think the way I went about this blanket is wrong, and that is okay.  What I am getting at is I am using the skills I have and creating something for my son to treasure for the rest of his life. You see my mom sees the blanket she made me and looks at all the flaws, and what I see in it is all the love she has for me.  To me the blanket shows me that even though there is a stitch that was done that pulled the fabric in one spot of the blanket, and all the pieces that have unraveled and have needed mending, those are just a reminder that our relationships are not concrete and neither is love, it is always pulling us in different directions, and often we need to make sure we take time and work on our relationships and mend them, or they can become unraveled.

Right now I feel like this blanket is a giant albatross, because I am currently working on hand stitching the quilted fabric to the onesie/t-shirt portion of the blanket. But deep down I know it is well worth it, and stitching is very calming.  And I know in the end this will not just be a blanket for my son, but a treasure.
 

Laying out the pattern

Front and Back of Blanket sewn together

The Tedious Handstitching process