Jeremy's Storybook Quilt

Finally, I finished this quilt and then after gazing at it for a few weeks and saying to myself "well, there's no use sending it BEFORE Chistmas, because Kris won't get it in time anyway so I'll just keep it and admire it", and then "Well, now they're in BC, so there's no use sending it until they're home", I finally mailed this quilt off and today Kris received it.

Kris and I's friendship started as many of my best friendships do -- as a complete disaster. We were working together on a play, along with my good friend Jonathan, and we would all go out after the play. We were the same age, only 14 days apart. She was totally hip with everything that was going on in popular culture, while I have always been a bit of an anti-establishment, anti-whatever-is-cool-at-the-moment kind of girl. So we would be out for after-rehearsal snacks and Ricky Martin would come on. I would grumble "oh my goodness. what is WITH Ricky Martin. I am so tired of this song. I don't understand why anyone would listen to this!" and Kris would say "Really? I just caught his concert in Seattle two weeks ago." We would be talking about tatoos and I would say, "What I don't understand is women who get tatoos on their abdomens. Like, hello, ever heard of stretch marks?" and she would say, "Actually, Jill, I have a tatoo on my abdomen." And so it continued with me chronically annoying her and her chronically tripping me up.

Eventually, though, she started showing up everywhere and dating my friend Jonathan, and we discovered that we actually did like each other. In particular, we both really liked movies. I discovered that she loved old movies. And I asked a fateful question: "Have you ever seen Fred and Ginger movies?" She said no, and I said, "But you have to!" and so we decided to watch the movies together -- all of them.

From the moment we saw Ginger swank into a railway station in a cute, '30s pencil-skirt-suit and promptly get her skirt stuck in her heavy suitcase and chirp, "Porter! Porter!" we were hooked. Thus began our journey into the silly world of the 1930's dance musical extravaganza. My personal favorite is the one where Fred is a sailor, and there are several silly numbers where the crew, having nothing better to do, brushes up their large group tap dancing number skills. How can you not love that?

It is in honour of this obsession (and Kris' second son, Jeremy) that this quilt was born. All the fabrics are 1930's reproduction prints. The moment I saw the sailor print and the abc block print (Kris taught Kindergarden) featured in the same series, I knew it was going to be for her baby's quilt. I chose the pattern becuse the diamond is such an iconic art decco motif, and Kris loves art decco (and its also from the 20s and 30s).

The backing fabric was going to be just red flannel, but I thought that might be a bit overwhelming, so I found the monkey print to go with it, which is also kind of retro and cute. Kris says she loves it and that its very snuggly, so it all good. Happy birth / almost birthday Jeremy!