Wednesday, April 22, 2009

A blanket of LOVE....

My dear friend Katie gave me the idea of having Abigayl's clothes made into a quilt. Once I was given the idea I knew exactly who to ask, my best friend's mom, Joyce. Joyce has always been like a second mother to me. I love her dearly and I knew that making this quilt would not be an easy task. She took it on and created a masterpiece.

While in Washington, Joyce surprised me with the completed quilt. Not wanting to be pushy, I didn't ask about it while I was there. Then, on our last night we had dinner at Ken's (Erin's dad) house and Joyce gave us the quilt.

I know that Joyce had a hard time with this project. It was very emotional for her but the love that went into this quilt is felt every time I look at it. Thank you Joyce for your love, it has been a wonderful gift to me throughout my life. I love you.

Our first look at the beautiful quilt

Remembering all the outfits

I just love her so much

Many of the beautiful, cute outfits that Abigayl wore... all made into such wonderful designs.

Hugs, hugs and more hugs

This is what it looked like (her roll up was much neater) when I opened the ribbon

This is a part of our announcement printed on fabric... so neat what she can do.

Joyce had two friends (a mother/daughter team, Barbara and Camellia) that each wanted to create a square and Camellia did the quilting. All of the stitching is hearts. Every single stitch in the blanket is a heart!! Amazing. (Camellia is a model. She has been in magazines! She took the time to help make a quilt for a stranger... how amazing is she?!)

The whole blanket

The penguin is wearing fabric from the overalls that Abigayl wore home from the hospital

A bunny and the daddy's princess tag from her pj's

A butterfly from her onsies she wore on our first outing (to the park and Lowe's)... also to the right is fabric from one of my favorite shirts she wore

The turtles body is the hat that matches the dress she was laid to rest in and the legs and head are her cute corduroy pants that I loved seeing her in. Those always made her look so big. The flowers came from a really cute dress that Rusty and I both adored.

The flower is from the shirt Abigayl wore while eating her first solids.. the night before she passed. The pink plaid is a mickey mouse dress that Rusty picked out for her and the "kiss me I'm Irish" onsie was so cute on her, especially since she had the red hair!

This is a special square because it was the only "holiday" that she was able to be with us for. Abigayl made her first trip to Grand Lake over fourth of July weekend.
The flower was made from one of the cutest, girliest outfits. Camellia made this square. She even included the tag from the outfit because she said it was too cute to waste! The picture just doesn't do it justice.. the flower is puffy and you can't see the dynamics in the picture.

This is from one of her bibs. It was always SO hard for me to find things that said "mommy loves me" or "I love mommy", so I really cherished the few things I was able to find. The birds are made from the overalls she wore home and the flower is from her shirt she wore for her rice cereal meal.

I absolutely love this butterfly! First, it's a butterfly and whenever we see butterflies we think of her. Also, The wings are made from Rusty's favorite hat. He loved seeing Abigayl in this hat. The body is made from trim from her overalls.

This is the shirt that Abigayl had her first photos in. The trim is from a dress that she wore to a family reunion and the butterfly is from a yellow dress that had tons of butterflies around the bottom.

This sheep is such a cute idea... it is made from her corduroy pants and a long sleeve shirt that was so adorable together. I LOVED this outfit on Abigayl. She wore it to the home show last year with her sparkly silver shoes! The mommy's girl patch came from her pj's I had just bought her. She was such a big girl they were 9 month pj's.

This was her OU cheerleader outfit. I love how she made it into a buggy. Rusty would put Abigayl in her cheer outfit and watch the OU games on Saturdays. It was my break to sit in the bedroom and watch tv with no responsibilities. Rusty would bring her in at commercial breaks and I would snuggle her, then it would be off to some more football!
Barbara made this square. The flower is made from Abigayl's sailor outfit and her yellow dress with the butterflies. The sailor outfit was so beautiful on her because it made her eyes even more blue than they already were. Barbara actually took the trim off and re-sewed it on to make it even! She also took the buttons off so they could be on the flower. These women are SO creative. I am thankful that they all did this for us and in Abigayl's name.
I am so thankful that Joyce did this for us. We are going to hang it in our living room so that everyone can see their beautiful work. It will be nice to walk by all of Abigayl's outfits and remember her on such happy days.
Thank you Joyce for your love and creativeness. Thank you also to Barbara and Camellia. I can never express my gratitude to you both. You all took my baby girl's darling clothes and turned them into a masterpieces of your own. I hope that one day I will be able to meet Barbara and Camellia so I can give them a hug and thank them in person.

3 comments:

AustinFamily said...

Wow! What an amazing quilt!

The Jewell Family said...

absolutely beautiful!! what a great idea and nice thing to have!!

The Andersons said...

That is probably the best quilt I have ever seen. Amazing!!!