A Fun Tradition to Celebrate Grandbabies

I didn't quilt when our first grandchild, Caiden was born. When I started quilting, I began a tradition - one quilt for each grandbaby God blessed us with. Caiden's has retro cowboys with navys and blacks and deep reds and tans. Grayson's ended up being Noah's Ark with the same colors. When Addie came along I pulled out the pink / girly stash I'd purchased for 'our first granddaughter', whoever that might be. It has dragonflies and purses and shoes in pink and black and other fun colors with a soft, luxurious backing.

I'm tickled to say each grandchild is very attached to the quilt their Grammy made. (I'm convinced that backing is what endeared Addie to hers.)

Until recently Landon's quilt (the most recent grandchild til 6 days ago) was in the 'good intentions' pile. I'd purchased the perfect fabrics for him but somewhere in the past two years I lost my love of quilting and gotten too busy selling and buying and moving out of and into houses that there just wasn't time for such things. But I kept the fabric with me, at the condo, just in case I got the urge to get going with it, not really expecting it to happen.

Then Sarah started sewing. And taught herself to quilt. She took such a fun approach to it - learning enough of the rules to keep her honest but not enough to stifle her creative juices. She actually made quilting look fun again. Then Leslie asked me to teach basic sewing to a group of her friends, and I fell in love with sewing all over again. Then Santa brought me a new sewing machine. And God gave us another grandbaby, this time another little girl. So I needed to make another quilt.

But Landon's wasn't done. Three days ago I pulled out the fabrics for his quilt. I can stand to be one quilt behind, but not two! Baby Jae is next in line for her quilt, traditionally to be given at the one year birthday. Right now I have 359 days to finish hers (I'm thinking pink and chocolate brown toile), so I decided to take this week of being home and jump in.

First I cut up the themed panel I'd purchased over two years ago. Rustic is the way to go with Landon since he's bound to spend hours in the woods with his Dad when he grows up.

I already had plenty of good companion fabrics, some of them with trees or pinecones or rocks or sky.

I love the way all the earthy colors look together.

Closeups of the pinecone and tree fabric - aren't they great?
I chose Alex Anderson's Rail Fence pattern - it's nice and simple, easy to finish fast, and I won't be wasting time making stars or such that would never show up anyway in such a busy quilt. It was a good pattern to jump back into quilting with - not too intimidating.

I went with a pieced border too, using the fabrics I'd already cut for the blocks to save me more time. It ended up being a nice size to snuggle up with on the sofa, or an afternoon nap or car ride. All that's left is to back it, quilt it and bind it! I'm confident now I can get it done in January. Another quilt to give to a loved grandchild will be finished :-) I'm thinking this quilt will stay with him all the way through college. Not so sure his wife will let him leave it out in the living room someday, but hopefully by then it'll be worn out enough to have earned a spot at the hunting cabin at least!

So how about you - mamas or grammys - any traditional gifts you make or receive on the birth of a child?