Baby Quilt "Friday!": Baby Essentials Pocket Quilt

Welcome back to Baby Quilt "Friday!," where we take a closer look each "week" at quilts from my "book," The Little Box of Baby Quilts. This quilt is called "Baby Essentials Pocket Quilt." Looking back, I sure do wish I had named it something a little more snappy.

From The Little Box of Baby Quilts, copyright 2007 Jenny Wilding Cardon/That Patchwork Place. Machine quilted by Cheryl Brown.

The title of the quilt says exactly what it is, at least--it's a wall quilt with pockets. Pockets for those tiny baby sundries that always seem to disappear, like nail clippers, diaper cream, cotton swabs, and the like. Hang this quilt above the diaper-changing table and fill it up with those little must-haves. (Just make sure you put the must-haves back in the pockets when you're done with them. Those must-haves so quickly turn into must-finds.)

Designing this quilt turned out to be far more difficult than I intended. Fun idea, I thought--pockets to keep baby stuff all in one place. Okay. But I wanted to make the pockets more interesting. Hmm, how could I get creative with the pockets? Oh, I know, I know! I'll make them look like little cloth diapers!

I bought diaper pins with little ducks on the pin heads. I bought a whole mess of terrycloth to mimic the look of cloth diapers. And then I started folding and folding, stitching and stitching. I lost myself--for hours--in a self-imposed fabric-origami challenge. But it just wasn't working. That night, I went to bed quite discouraged. Why couldn't I make my diapers-as-pockets idea work?

When I awoke the next morning, I went back to my kitchen table to survey the previous day's disaster. As soon as I touched the terrycloth, the problem was instantly revealed to me.

"OH," I said out loud.

And then I spoke out loud some more.

"I GET it now. It's not working because the whole idea is DISGUSTING. Who stores their stuff in a DIAPER, for hooey's sake? Geez, Jenny. You're a real dork."

Yes. Me and my fresh ideas. Creating pockets resembling something that would usually hold poo-poo and pee-pee. Fresh, indeed.

Flushed that idea right down the--well, you know. Now they're just normal 'ol pockets. But I did stick with the terrycloth. I like how the fabric puffs out from the blocks and provides a little more stability than a quilting-cotton pocket would.

And where did this quilt end up? Right after the "little box" was published I was interviewed for a weekend feature in our local newspaper, here. Soon after I received an email from a woman who was looking for donations. She was coordinating a silent auction for a baby who had a very rare disease, a disease that took almost every baby before their first birthday. So I gave her this quilt, along with a signed copy of the "little box." I've lost touch with her since then, but I'm glad this quilt found a home in that kind of way. And in a way that helped a baby and her family. Fitting. And I'm thrilled I didn't have to give them the "Poo-Poo Pee-Pee Diaper Quilt." Just the "Baby Essentials Pocket Quilt."

You can view more quilts from the "little box" here, watch a video about it here, and read more about each quilt here.

Next week is all about a quilt I designed for babies and the hippies who love them. Like my husband. Strong and straight-laced on the outside. Ooey-gooey hippie on the inside. Hope to see you back here next "Friday!"

(Oh, and I almost forgot . . . took this picture to show that a little more of that whole mess of terrycloth did get used up this Halloween:)

Little ghosts filled with a candy surprise, for Jack's Halloween party at preschool...

Don'tcha love it when you use up something from your stash that you never, never thought you would touch again? Me too.