A quilt story
Monday, November 21, 2005 at 07:58AM The year I was pregnant with our youngest, Sam, I was still doing classroom teaching. My best friend, Robin, and I were co-teaching a morning Pre-K class, and one day, while we were taking the kids across to the playground, I whispered to Robin that I had had an ultrasound the day before and my OB/GYN had told us that he was 99% sure we were going to have a girl this time. I hadn't planned on broadcasting the news, but one of my students, a little girl named Morgan, had overheard us and made it her mission in life to tell every 5 year old on the playground that "Mrs. S is going to have a baby girl!"
The whole class had so much fun with the whole "having a baby scenario" that year. It was a constant source of anticipation and excitement for the children, and for us as teachers.
When at last the day drew near for Sam to be born, the mothers of the preschoolers organized a baby shower for me. It was so much fun to see what those 5 year olds picked out as presents for the baby girl. That could be a post in itself, but this post is about quilts, so I'll get back to the subject at hand.
After I had opened all the children's presents, one of the mothers brought in a big present from the hallway. I can still remember the kids sitting on the circle with these happy, excited, expectant faces. They knew what was in the box.
When I opened it, there was a beautiful handmade baby quilt with ruffles and lace. It was so sweet, so pink, so girly! I promised the children that I would be bringing my baby home from the hospital wrapped in the pink quilt and we'd take lots of pictures.
Imagine our surprise when our little Paige Aileen was born and he wasn't a girl! We scrambled for a boy's name (Sam is named after my maternal grandfather) and thoroughly enjoyed the surprise. Sam left the hospital wrapped in a beautiful pink baby quilt and of course, pictures were taken.
But once we got Sam home, I began to wonder. What should we do about the pink quilt? It was a handmade gift of love from one of my sweet preschool moms. But dare I keep it? Could I return it to her without offending her? Should I just tuck it away and keep it for a future granddaughter? I struggled with it for a couple of days and asked advice from friends and family.
In the end, I wrote a letter to the quilt's maker, telling the story of the quilt (because all quilts have stories, you know) in the form of a children's story and then returned the quilt with the story and the hope that the next time there was a little girl born into their family, she would give the quilt along with a copy of the story to the new little baby.
Every quilt has a story. Do you have any quilt stories you would like to share?
Reader Comments (2)
That is so sweet! I am sure the recipient of the quilt loved it and even enjoyed a laugh over it!
I cannot imagine Sam ever being "Paige"- he was a wonderful surprise, and God always knows what He is doing.