"tiny and new"

Hello friends! It’s official, happy spring! (At least here in the northern hemisphere.) The brave little snowdrops are blooming, the pussy willows are fluffing up and we leave our bedroom window open a crack to listen for the spring peepers to begin singing (not quite yet.)

And I continue to sew away my anxiety about the world! My sewing studio provides sanctuary and I remain grateful for its shelter.

The other day I popped into our local-ish quilt store to buy a spool of thread and some quilt batting for my next collaborative quilt (more on that later this month.) As I stood at the counter to pay, a mini charm pack began to call to me. For those of you who may not know what a charm pack is, let me explain. Many fabric manufacturers put together bundles of pre-cut fabric squares. They include bits of a complete line of fabric from a given designer, often in the entire color range. The one that was calling to me was a packet of 2.5” squares, in the sweetest range of colors. The line of fabric was called tiny and new. It’s as if that little packet of fabric knew I was the grandma of a tiny and new baby boy.

I don’t usually fall for the tricks of fabric marketers, preferring to use fabric from my stash, or old clothes or vintage linens. But I fell for it. I bought that little charm pack. I brought it home and sewed those little squares together lickety split. Then I pulled a linen/cotton blend out of my stash and stitched it together with the squares to create a “tummy time quilt”, for little Theo to hang out on.

I used a grey and white checkered gingham for the backing. I had bought it for a summer top that never got made. The binding was sewn with some leftover fabric from a project I made from Umbrella Prints, a now defunct fabric company in Australia.

This little quilt came together in just a few days and Theo has already found it in his mailbox. :-)

As many of my long time readers know, I have deep connections to my alma mater, Earlham College. There are so many stories I could tell of how this special liberal arts college tucked in a small town in Indiana has touched my life over the years. Here is one of the sweetest stories of all…

When our son Stewart was born, one of my dearest college friends, Martha, sent him a bunny. “Bunbun” was cherished for years, tucked under Stewart’s arm on car trips, snuggled into bed with him and packed into Stewart’s footlocker when he went off to summer camp. True confessions? “Bunbun” even went off to college with Stewart. I took a picture of him sitting in his dorm room at the beginning of New Student Week (at that very same college that brought Martha and I together), holding up the bun for documentation! For the sake of privacy, I will not post that here. :-)

Imagine how my heart melted when Stewart sent this photo of Theo with Stewart’s bunny by his side.

No matter what, friends, there is still strong love and hope alive and well in this world. We may need to look for it sometimes, but when we find it, it’s worth talking about and sharing. xoxoxoxoxoxox

PS Ann (another Earlham friend) had asked for info on how to care for amaryllis plants in the comments on my last blog post. Look here for lots of good stuff about amaryllis.