Snail Spirals

One of Emma's Christmas presents was a little doll cradle I found at a garage sale, that came with just a foam mattress. All dolls, of course, also need a pillow and a blanket, but a headcold and work prevented me from making those before Christmas. So I made the pillow on Christmas day, and the 26th, I made a little quilt.



This was sort of a bittersweet project. Dad was here for Christmas, and he brought me boxes and boxes and boxes, containing Mom's fabric and craft stash. When Emma and I were in Maine last March, I spent several days sorting fabric and sewing supplies and scrapbooking stash, deciding what I wanted to keep. Basically, I cleaned out her craft room for him. It was hard enough for me to do this, but Dad had trouble even being in the room.

When I was in Maine in August 2004, the summer before Mom died, we started planning a quilt for Emma that we would make together the following summer. That quilt was never made, but when I was cleaning her craft room this year, I found the stack of fabric that we had tentatively pulled together as an idea for the quilt. Purples, blues, and greens were the colors, but we never got as far as deciding on a block pattern.

Back to the present. Emma chose all the fabrics for her doll quilt herself (with supervision), from one of the boxes I brought in for her to rummage through. Three of the fabrics that she chose were from that stack of fabric for the quilt-that-never-was. I'd like to think that Mom would approve.