Thursday, January 9, 2020

Cooper's Quilt

I've made the grankids each a quilt when they were babies, for their first "big kid" bed, and another twin quilt when they were about 12-13 years old. As they grew, I promised a queen size quilt when they turned 18. Boy, does time fly...

Cooper celebrated his18th birthday in November of 2018. When he was 13-15, he traveled to quilt guilds and shops with me during spring break and summers to load and unload the car (and the quilters), help with sales of quilt patterns and precuts, and navigate for me. I also put him in charge of handling our daily food allowance to learn to budget. He saved enough eating frugally on one trip that we had a feast at Red Lobster the last night. Coop was the first grankid to really "get" what I did for a living ("Gramma makes quilts, not blankets".). He watched and listened in my workshops. When it was time for him to get a new quilt, he designed it - at 13-years-old - to look like a football field with a giant Nebraska "N" in the middle, using all NE logo fabrics. He was so proud of his quilt and his contribution to it.



Now, at over 6ft tall, his twin size quilt looks like a lap quilt and is love-worn around the edges. Last Christmas, he reminded me of my promise to make a new quilt for his 18th birthday. He also had a few requests - black flannel, red accents, simple blocks and LARGE size. I pondered over the next few months which block(s) to use to make it masculine, but simple. He wasn't interested in "normal" blocks like stars or churn dash or 9-patches. Everyone had those. So I pondered some more.

One night when I couldn't sleep, I started thinking about Cooper's quilt and how I could make it personalized & unique. Piece his name on it? Nope, too obvious. How about Morse Code??? I Googled Morse Code on my phone, started sketching, and made the 90x104 quilt over a weekend. Here's the happy recipient at Christmas this year.


I wish now I had made snowball blocks for the "dots", rounding off the corners, but it didn't occur to me until Joy quilted circles in them. She also quilted lots of straight lines to reinforce the feel of the quilt. Cooper was excited (hard to get that kind of reaction from a 19-year-old). He also loved that I used flannel as the backing and batting, too, for a super soft and cuddly quilt. He immediately swapped out the vintage quilt on the bed he was sleeping in for his new quilt. I think it was a hit!

Now, to figure out what Rowan might like in 18 months...

Do you make quilts at certain milestones in your family's lives? Do you over-promise, like me, and scramble to catch up? I'd love to hear your advice.




13 comments:

  1. That is awesome and so unique! So do we get to find out what the Morse code says?

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  2. What a GREAT quilt that you designed for Copper! Did I read correctly that you used flannel for both the batting and backing? I have not used flannel as batting. When flannel is used as the batting, does the quilt shrink up like a quilt that has 80/20 batting in it?

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    1. I love using flannel as the batting. When the quilt top/middle/backing are all the same fabric, it all washes/shrinks the same. Flannel as batting creates a warm quilt with a nice weight, but is more drapeable/huggable than batting. My kids/grankids all request their quilts this way.

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  3. I always make a baby quilt, and have given I Spy quilts to the 2 year olds, but I haven't thought out any further. Maybe as soon as all family members that I want to gift a quilt have one, I will consider more quilts for the kids. But that's still a ways into the future!

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  4. A wonderful story and a great way to start my day. Cooper sounds like a delightful young man. No doubt you have had a great influence on his life. Grandkids are the best!

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  5. Love this story. Such a great personal quilt.

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  6. Since I retired all the grands get baby quilts. The first four were born while I still worked long hours so no baby quilts but they received Christmas throw quilts the year after retirement. They all received bed size quilts in 2012. Those born since have baby quilts and receive a "big boy/girl" quilt at some point soon after they graduate from a crib. Youngest granddaughter came up to me at about 4-1/2 and said "grandma, do you remember the quilt you made for me?" "Do you mean your fairy quilt?" "Yes, well it's getting old and I'm going to need a new one ... when I'm five."
    She got one!

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    1. I love Cooper's quilt, by the way! So personal and unique to him.

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  7. I hadn't thought about giving more than one quilt per family member. It took me more than a decade to make the 10 quilts. Hopefully I don't have to start over again!

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  8. I love this story and the quilt is perfect!!! What a great idea.

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  9. What a fun idea using morse code!

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  10. I made my son quilts all his life, at 18 he got a freedom quilt. I knew the young lady in my home one chilly day with this quilt over her arms mignt be his wife and a bit of time later they married, still using that freedom quilt, now after 20 yrs of use this is back at my home for me to repair...they also will be getting a new anniversary quilt for 10 yrs of life together...of the joy of quilt and luv shaed, thanks Lynn!

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