See this quilt? Right there? Well, it’s mine! Yup! And, out of a spirit of decorum I will not whoop, too loudly, so as not to make you all feel bad.
But, I want to say…it’s gorgeous, beautiful and wonderful. You see, I won this quilt through the silent auction hosted by JC Marie for the Kololo School through the Tesfa Foundation. I had little hope of winning, after seeing how beautiful the quilt was…and yet, with the help of a good proxy bidder and friend, I did and now it is already well used in my room.
The artist is an adoptive mom herself, Andrea Fox, and let me say, this quilt is just lovely. It’s fabrics were carefully selected and designed (by another adoptive mom of a Haitian child), it is colorful and charming, it is beautifully crafted, and the back is soft as butter in sky blue. Even the note she sent with it was made from handmade paper…loveliness abounding.
The quilt is wrapable art and it is just what the best quilts are all about: connections and community. And that is just why I’m so smitten by it. This quilt is a soft touchable connection for me and my kids to other families like ours, across the continent and even across the ocean. We are sort of stitched together, even in this quilt, by our love for our kids and their home country and our love of books and yearning to get access to more books and schools for kids.
Some might scoff and say I make too much of this. I disagree. Those connections, those stitches, are so important for us moms, our families, and especially for our kids from afar. All those stitches sew hearts and minds together in support of things that are bigger than our doddering, pottering or crashing days. And when my cherished little Ethiopian boy pads into my room, snuffling and sleepy-eyed, I can wrap him up in this quilt and know that he is embraced not only by me, but, in a way, by so many other hearts….connected by stitches of caring for these, our children of the world.
Another Espresso, Please 