Baby Quilt Finish - It's the little things!

I have been busy working on several quilts the last few weeks and have several finishes and a couple of almost finishes. This one is one I can share with you now, but more will be coming in a few weeks.

One of my co-workers had a baby the first of this month and I wanted to make him and his wife a baby quilt. I quizzed him for several weeks on what colors they used for the nursery, as to baby gender and every thing in between. He was totally clueless as to where all of these conversations were going.

This is the top of the baby quilt I made for him and his wife. I ran out of  time to send it off to the long arm quilter, so I just straight line quilted it myself. It was far from perfect and this was the first time I pre-washed the quilt before giving it to the couple. It dried up all soft and crinkly, and helped hide the imperfections but most of all they loved their quilt. 

This is the back, my husband said he liked the back better than the front, I just laughed, as I totally expected him to say that! The picture below is the basting and using these neat plastic thingies on the end of straight pins. I ran out and still had to use safety pins to baste the quilt together.

My place of employment never does anything in regards to employee relations and I asked if I could do something for him after he came back from the birth of his son. I got the approval, and took up a collection from the other employees and put a little something together for him and he was totally surprised. I made a three layer diaper cake that included a gift card from everyone along with cute little baby things as decorations. We served muffins, donuts, cinnamon pretzels, cupcakes and we had a fruit tray. Baby boy napkins and the gifts served as the decorations. It was well received and he was really surprised and appreciated everything we did.

Everyone who knows how I do things would not believe how scaled down this event was, but it was not my choice, I knew if I over did things, (the way I would have wanted to do) it very well could have been the last special anything I would be allowed to do at work. It was most difficult to do it on a low level!

However, his expression and gratitude made me feel that I had done the right thing in organizing this to mark such a special occasion. His words spoke volumes to me, he said, "When someone does something for you and you absolutely expected nothing, it means the world and touches your heart so much." 

So for my finishes for 2013, I can add this not so perfect baby quilt, which was perfectly loved and appreciated so very much. It is the little things that have the most impact!