friendship baby quilt

During the 1840s in the United States a new kind of quilt appeared: the friendship quilt. This quilt was made by a group of family and friends to commemorate special events like marriage, birth ,someone moving away, or death. All the love of the community around a person created a soft, warm, beautiful quilt.

I had the privilege of helping create a friendship quilt for a baby to commemorate both his brith and death. A pregnant woman at my church learned her baby had a medical condition he would not survive. So the women at my church joined forces for a quilt...something he would sadly never be able to use in life but give his parents, who could not buy any baby items for their son, something tangible to help remember him.

Each woman made a cross-stitch and I pieced them all together and quilted petal patterns. The result was as unique as all the women taking part. While some cross-stitch pictures were beautifully done, others were a little rough but sweet, and all together they created a quilt that showed the love of each of these women for this little family and their baby. It was really an honor to be a part of the creation of this memorial for their tiny son.

Here are a few photos of the finished quilt. (I'm sorry the lighting is so bad. I kept forgetting to take photos of it until late the night before it was given to the family and then I hurridly enlisted my husband's help and got some photos of it in our bathroom.) (Oh, and I don't recommend piecing cross-stitching into a quilt. I've learned you can't wash them...or all the colors will run.)