The first blanket was a project started by his mom nearly two years ago. It was a project specifically designed to pour all the love for this little person that had yet to be created into one place. The project came along quickly at first, then was on hold for a pretty long time as she was grumpy that things were not happening on her timeline, and finally got finished at Christmas time this year in a whirlwind of energy as his arrival grew closer (and she has to admit, his timing is perfect, even if she wasn't patient enough to see that for a while).
This will be his outside blanket to keep him snuggly in the stroller or carseat - it's two layers of fleece so it should do the trick even in a Latvian winter (which finally arrived in the form of a white blanket of snow today in Mezaparks).
Here is a close-up of the stitching, a Latvian sun cross-stitch pattern designed by the little boy's great-grandmother. A mother's welcome-to-the-world present for the little boy...
The second blanket is a project made by two people - the little boy's grandmother and great-grandfather. It's a nice thick quilt with sunflowers in the material (my favorites). It will keep the little boy cozy as he explores his world, learns to roll over, sit up, go for some toys at the edge of the quilt and begin crawling...
If you look carefully at the next photo, you'll see there are tan bits of yarn that have been tied up, holding together the layers of the quilt. These were carefully tied together by the little boy's great-grandfather who is 97 years old and spends some of his time in the nursing home helping his daughter (the boy's grandmother) work on craft projects. What a moment that will be when the little boy learns to use his fingers to start untying all the little knots his great-grandfather so carefully tied... :)
The third quilt involves the most stitches and love from the most people. It was part of a round-robin quilt project completed by six women in the little boy's family. That means each woman added the next section of the quilt (not planned ahead of time - you get what the others have worked on and let your creativity flow to design the next bit) until the quilt was complete. Since the boy's mom is not a quilter and lives halfway around the world from the other women, it was a real honor to be included in this project. Her role was to dye some linen fabric from Latvia for each quilt and to sew a little cross-stitch design for each quilt (from an archive of Latvian designs created by the little boy's great-grandmother). In any case, the amount of love, creativity and family tradition in this blanket is incredible.
The little boy's parents are convinced he was waiting for the arrival of this quilt in Latvia before officially signing up for his journey here on earth. His aunt hand-delivered the blanket last spring and just a couple of short weeks later, as a true surprise, here he was. This blanket will hang in his room (our room) on the wall, reminding him and all of us that he is a ray of sunshine in this house. The photo does not do this blanket justice, it is warm and beautiful and somehow truly radiates the love from every stitch.
A close-up of the Latvian sun cross-stitch design in the center.
All of these blankets contain an element of the sun theme - warmth, energy, brightness and love. Such a fitting way to welcome a little boy to the world.
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