calico quilt

i love things that have a story. i love things that have history. i love things that are refashioned.

about fifteen years ago, we came across a delightful book called calico bear. it's about a homemade teddy bear that is given to a lovely little lad. as he gets older and outgrows bedtime bears, his mummy refashions it into a quilt. years later a young lady uncovers the quilt in the attic and refashions it into a little bear for a little girl, who is actually the little-boy-grown-up's daughter.

we've read and re-read and sung this beautiful story to all the 5kiwis for years, and it's the story i think of every time i make a quilt. i'm really excited cos i've finished Mnearly6's quilt, *five* days early!!!


it has history, sleeps, and much love woven into it. it's made from something old, and something new: pieces of fabric squares from Big Brother's quilt, fabric from Bigger Brother's quilt and favourite Pooh Bear sheet that he has grown out of but cannot bear to give away, and fabric from Biggest Brother's sheet that had all but worn out too.


of course there's a *secret pocket* on the back, joined to the old sleeping bag that i slept many childhood summers in, and it has *six* buttons, one for each candle on Mnearly6's cake (his name is appliqued onto the central blue tie-dyed piece, but i've camouflaged it in case there are any weird stalkers out there in the Virtual World, so if ya wanna see it IRL, you'll have to travel to our place, k?)...


for the whole of october, Mnearly6 has been counting down the *sleeps* until his Birthday day. we're down to five: five sleeps until the long-awaited quilt will be yours, with all my love, and your brothers' love too X