Last month, I spent some time working on the room that our little bundle will claim as his own once he makes his way into the world in July.  We rearranged so many rooms in the house in order to free up this room–things got switched this way and that.  Office, family room, playroom . . . everything did a do-si-do.  Swing your partner once or twice.  It was exhausting.  And we finished about 95% of it, but then we lost steam.  So there are a couple of random baskets of toys that never made their way anywhere.  The family room isn’t quite figured out yet.  And I need to hang some things up on the walls.  But–the main goal was to make the baby’s room empty so I could get working on it.  And we accomplished at least that.

So here’s a peek at parts of the room.  There’s still lots to do in there, but I’ve got a good jump start, and I think I’m all done with at least the sewing part.  I chose some fabrics from Joann’s–we had a green rocker from when Brayden was a baby, so I was forced to include that color to tie in the chair.  It wasn’t a cheap chair, so we’re stuck with it!  I chose two different shades of grey for the wall color–which are separated by a chair rail (though I didn’t include a picture of the darker grey on the bottom).  We had all of the furniture already from both the boys, so luckily we didn’t have to buy anything new.  I do have to figure out how to fix the crib where Carter went to town on it once his teeth came in, and before I put up a teething guard.  Sort of gross, I know.

I sewed almost everything myself, except the crib sheet (and the quilt below, which I will get to in a minute).  I was able to make the crib skirt, the bumper pad, the window curtains, the basket liners, the closet curtain and the little elephants for the mobile.  Sure, it was a bit time consuming, but it’s already been over a month since I’ve finished, and to be honest, it’s all in the past and I don’t even remember all the time put into it.  It was a labor of love!  Also, considering how much I would have spent if I purchased those items outright, I did save money–plus I got to customize it to my liking.  And I have loads of fabric left over, so I have to figure out what I’m going to do with it all!

I went to get my mail the other day, and in it was a package for me.  I opened it up and simultaneously jumped up and down with glee, got chills all over and teared up a little.  It was from a sweet woman, whom I have yet to meet, but who we share a tragic event.  For her, it is much deeper–and much more personal.  But our lives are now sort of intertwined in a small way because of it.  Awhile back, she asked if I, amongst all the other things I was making for the baby, would be making a quilt.  I don’t know how to quilt of course, so I said that I probably wasn’t.  She asked if it would be alright if she made one for me.  She also asked for the color scheme of the room–so I sent her a quick picture that I had taken in the store of the fabrics so she could get an idea at what colors we were using.

As it turns out, and as you can see in the images below, she had gone out and gotten the exact fabric that I was using, and some other coordinating fabric.  And then she created the most beautiful quilt I have ever seen.  I cannot imagine the amount of time she must have put into it, and the sheer thoughtfulness and generosity that she displayed by making the quilt for us.  Just out of the goodness of her heart.  Just because.  Truly, there are still generous and good and loving people in this world.

Some closer details below.  The elephant that she made out of pieces of material, to match the exact elephant in the fabric.  The quilting, which I hope you can see in the image, which is the elephant again, sort of “hidden” in the fabric.  She used different color thread on the top and the bottom to tie in different colors from the fabric.  The embroidery around the elephant and the splashing water, and the grass and flowers is just crazy.  Literally, I just kept looking and looking and finding more and more things that were so beautiful.  What a special, special gift that we will treasure for a very long time.