Those who sleep under a quilt, sleep under a blanket of love. ~Author Unknown
A blanket of love was exactly what I wanted to create for my daughter to sleep under when she arrived as a freshman at the University of Florida. Though it is just 90 miles from our home, it was too far for her to come home for dinner or a quick visit when feeling a little lonely.
Of course, I wanted something cheerful. Rebecca and her roommate had decided on blue and yellow as the basis for decorating their dorm room so that determined the quilt colors and fit right in with my vision.
With blue gingham as a constant, novelty prints in yellows and blues were joined into 9-patch squares on point, alternating with solid white squares appliquéd with hearts. Clusters of 5 hearts were centered on each of the 4 sides and the border and all hearts were attached with a machine feather stitch. The bindings were blue gingham.
Much of the fabric for the 9-patches had special meaning–a piece from one of my skirts, scraps from Rebecca’s dresses, squares cut from fabric she had brought me from her trip to France, a novelty fabric touting mantras of environmental friendliness.
But the feature that made it a blanket of love was the quilting. Done by machine with monofilament thread, each of the hearts was free motion quilted with the name of someone from home who loved Rebecca. It was so subtle that one had to know it was there to see it. My daughter could pick a random heart, either large or small, and see the texturized names of her immediate family, her godparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, PlayGroup Mamas and neighbors from home, all of whom were loving her and praying for her success and happiness at the university.
She used this quilt when she moved from the dorm into her sorority house, her first apartment and all her living quarters during her college years through graduate school. Now it is carefully folded and stored in her cedar chest in her home with her husband and baby. And if she ever gets lonely, or sad or just cold, she can snuggle under it, her blanket of love.
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