Bona-fide Baby Shower - Part 1 "The Memory Quilt"



“There is a history in all men’s lives.”
~ William Shakespeare

Chris and Gennina Bona's pregnancy portrait

L-R Shannon Morris Plunk, Gennina Tan Bona, Glenda Bona and (me) Lydia Plunk

 My cold weather readers, forgive my rubbing in just how beautiful the weather was Sunday at the beach. Take solace that as I write, we are back to running the heater. 

Nothing says baby shower quite like beer. I should have known when Shannon's husband Kenny (aka my younger son) walked in with a couple 6 packs that the guys had calculated  Women chit-chatting while playing shower games equals a nice afternoon to cruise the harbor.

Glenda comes from a family filled with teachers.

 Grandma-to-be Glenda did an awesome job with the shower games. I would say that even if I didn't win the first game. Probably the only baby shower game I could win):- It was a contest to match baby names of species with adults. Example: a squab is a baby pigeon before it becomes a menu item on an expensive French menu.

Glenda ( and her husband Paul)  have done lots of nice things for "the kids" who are now having their own kids. But nothing touched my hear like what Glenda did with quilts.

Passed from 1 generation to the next

The first quilt was her son's baby quilt. When Joseph is born, thanks to Grandmother Glenda, he will feel the same softness against his daddy's skin as Chris did when he was less than 2 foot tall. 



Even the black and white slashing holds significance. It was cut from childhood curtains



It was all "oohs and awes" when Glenda undraped the memory quilt she made for her son's growing family. She saved her son's personal history in the form of t-shirts from growing up.

Schools, bands, first jobs are all memorialized Then she took a class at a local quilt shop.



Quilts are applied geometry - only better

The shirts were placed under a template to get an exact cut. Then a Wonder-Under  fusible web was ironed to the underside to stabilize the knit fabrics.

Finding a space large enough open floor space to lay-out the squares so Glenda could get a preview of how she wanted the individual squares laid out were an issue for the former writer/editor.

Once she had clear which arrangement of the pieces was most visually pleasing came the part that would have put my friend in glasses if she didn't already need them.  It was iron, measure, pin, measure again until the front side was finished. Any slight deviation from square risked the entire project. 

In 1989 in Diamond Bar, Alta Ski and Sport Sponsored a Charity Race

Once the perfectionist in Glenda was satisfied, the red backing was affixed to the back. The edges double turned to seal in the backside of her craftsmanship.

Glenda recommends that anyone trying this project should consider not just quilting along expected seams. Sometimes highlighting a particular design is a nice touch.    

If I were to pick a motto that rings true for Glenda it might be

“The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson


Connecting to Show and Tell Friday