Baby Quilt for Aili

 Baby Quilt for Aili,  cotton, hand pieced and hand quilted, 2016.  43 x 44 inches.

Our third grandchild,  Aili Evelyn, was born March 25, 2014.  Her dad, Jay, is our son.

I wanted the quilt to have a grid of red dots on both sides.  I think that dot grids are like safety nets and I wanted her to feel safe when covered with this quilt.  I started making it before she was born.

It's a traditional log cabin quilt made from one inch wide strips, none of the fabrics are dark.  

It holds the 2 years of time it took me to make when so much happened within our family.   

In 2015, we had a Christmas eve gathering and followed the Estonian tradition of everyone sharing a talent.  People told jokes or did magic or sang songs, it was a lot of fun.  Ned recited Twas the Night Before Christmas by heart.  My talent was quilt making and I showed Aili's quilt and talked a bit about it.   

The back of the quilt also has red dots.  I connected some of them to spell her name.  The date of her birth is embroidered on the back, as well as my name, Judith Evelyn.  Aili and I have the same middle name.

I borrowed it back in July to clean and photograph.  Those are Aili's 10 year old hands in the top of the photo.  xo

2016 

quilt number 112