Sunday, May 19, 2013

Baby Party Traditions

My entry for Blogger’s Quilt Festival Spring 2013 is this Paper Pieced Baby Quilt:

PP Baby Quilt schräg 

I made it for a friend who was expecting her second baby – another girl.

I used these orphan Paper Pieced Blocks (my first ever!) that I made at Fat Quarterly Sewing Retreat in London last year…

PP Blocks

… and turned them into a simple baby quilt top by sashing the blocks in white.

I basted the quilt sandwich and drew a 2” grid with a watersoluble pen.

Baby Quilt basted with grid

Afterwards I used a free motion foot and some white thread to quilt dogwood petals all over the negative space.

Baby Quilt Detail with grid

In between and around the blocks I quilted some organic (aka: free motion) straight lines and bound it in matching stripes.

PP Baby Quilt Detail of straight line quilting

If it hadn’t been intended for my friend’s newborn girl, I would have kept if for myself. I love this little quilt best of all quilts that I made – even if it is not flawless.

PP Baby Quilt outside

The baby arrived around mid-April, I gave her the quilt two weeks ago and I am happy to report that she loves it. Why so late? you may ask, my anglophone friends. Well, in Germany we don’t celebrate a “Baby Shower”. Celebrating a Baby before its birth is superstitiously believed to bring bad luck.

Traditionally a german baby-birth-party (aka “Pinkelparty”) was thrown by the Baby’s father (while mother and baby are still at the hospital) for Dad’s (male) friends and (male) neighbours.

Nowadays, these parties are often attended by men and women alike and they are usually postponed until 10-20 days after baby’s birth so that the baby and its mother can attend, too. Nevertheless, these parties are still quite informal and casual. Beyond comparision to all those beautiful “baby showers” that pop up in blogland.

Is there a “baby-party-tradition” in your country/region/family? Please do share, it will be fun to compare superstitions and/or (silly) traditions!

Thank you very much for visiting and reading.
Have a nice festival week!
Christine

9 comments:

  1. This is such a beautiful baby quilt, I can imagine a newborn all wrapped up in it. A lovely choice for the festival.

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  2. Cute! What a great way to "rescue" those fabulous orphaned blocks!

    In Canada, we usually throw a baby shower for the mother a month or so before the baby is due to set the family up with things they need. It's almost always attended by women only, though there are more "men and women" invited parties. It's most common with a couple's first baby. After that, usually mum is too busy to attend. :-)

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  3. This is a gorgeous quilt Christine and so beautifully quilted. Baby showers are not a tradition here in Wales, people give presents but not in any organised way.

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  4. I loved watching those blocks come into being last year... :-) I am so glad they are not Orphans any longer.... I know what you mean about giving quilts away.... somehow we get attached to them.. This has made such a simple pretty quilt and you made a beautiful job of the quilting..
    No 'baby customs' here.... Showers were an American thing which - like the School Prom- are beginning to cross the pond to the UK...
    As I am an 'Expecting Grandma" perhaps I need to start a custom....!

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  5. Christine, that is an absolutely beautiful baby quilt. I love it!!

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  6. Wunderschön!!!

    PS: hattest du mich wegen der BMQG angeschrieben? sorry der Nachfrage...

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  7. Cool! Thanks for telling us a little bit about the traditions in your country. I think it's a great idea to celebrate the birth of a baby after the baby has already arrived!
    I love this quilt - the quilting is simple, but it's also perfect.

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  8. This is a beautiful quilt - and I'm really impressed by your quilting - I don't lik giving baby quilts before the birth either so I know what you mean!

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  9. In Greece, family and friends visit the mother and child in the hospital, were they are kept for 5 days, then the baby and mother are whisked home and don't come out again until the baby is 40 days old and has it's first small baptism. Not even the grandparents visit during this 35 day seclusion. A type of superstition also and the baby is not called by a name until it is baptized.

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