I grew up going to a small school where everyone pretty much knew everyone. And being the youngest in my family, most families had known each other for a long time. So while Nana Sanchez was the actual grandma to one family, she kind of felt like the school grandma. She was a sweet old lady who was always at school functions and everyone knew who she was. I can still remember her smile to this day. So this summer when I was asked if I could take one of her old quilts and turn it into two baby blankets for her twin great great granddaughters, I was very excited. I have actually done orders in the past for Nana Sanchez’s granddaughter (who is close to my own age) and knew that she was expecting twins. As a twin mom myself, I get very excited for other moms who are being blessed with them as well. But it was the mom’s aunt who commissioned me for this job!
I had her send me a photo of the quilt to make sure I would be able to do it and based on the photo I knew I could. Here is what she sent me.
My plan was to take the fabric that had the print on it and use that as my main fabric paired with a solid minky for the back. It tuned out that the original quilt was large enough to make two baby blankets and then a regular sized blanket. I also thought that I would be able to cut around the binding of the original quilt to separate the fabrics then just take what I wanted for my new blankets. I had not thought about the fact that the blue yarn went through the front fabric, center batting and the back fabric :/ So once it came time to deconstructing the original quilt, it was a lot more involved than I had expected. And I couldn’t cut the blue yarn because it would leave holes in the fabric, in addition to the fact that I didn’t want to alter the original quilt pattern.
The blanket was so old and used that the batting inside came out very easily when I pulled on it. What I did with the back layer was cut a little circle around it so that there was a small amount of that fabric left, which would’t be seen since I’d be using the minky for the back of my blankets. The first blanket took about an hour to deconstruct but the second one went much quicker.
When doing an order for twins (including my own), I often like to have things coordinate rather than completely match. I knew the main fabric would both come from the original quilt which had blues, pinks and greens. I thought about doing pink and green but feel like people either love or hate green and with this being a surprise for the mom I couldn’t ask her. I decided against green. I landed on a light mint minky for one blanket and a soft pink minky for the second. I also decided to do a binding around the blankets even though that isn’t something I usually do. Sewing the blankets took a minimal amount of time compared to taking them apart, and they both turned out beautiful! I recently got a photo of one of the girls on their blanket and it was such a blessing.
I always love special orders but when it is something I have never done before there is an added element of fun. It gives me an opportunity to try something new and learn new things. I am always transparent about the process and any challenges I think I may encounter. For the regular size blanket I gave them the option of having me fully deconstruct it and add a minky for the back (which would be more expensive) or adding a new binding around the existing blanket; which is what they chose to do. It was such an honor to revive an old blanket with so many memories for this family.
Blessings,
Ellen
