Aunt Claudia's Quilt

I don't believe that I've ever documented the story behind this beautiful quilt of Noah's. Back when we announced to our extended family that we'd turned in adoption papers and were anxiously awaiting our first child, Mark's aunt Claudia (who is Mark's mom's sister) began a quilt for our precious awaited baby. Since we had designated on our paperwork that we had no preference on the child's race or gender, she thought it would be fun to do a culturally diverse quilt. Claudia did a bunch of research on textiles and design, and then created this fabulous work of art. Before giving the quilt to us, she entered it into a quilt show where it won 2nd place (she has made many award winning quilts). After Noah joined our family she gave him the beautiful quilt as well as the prize ribbon - what a keepsake. She insisted also that this is a quilt that is to be used, and although it's still difficult for me to put on the ground, we keep it in our front room and enjoy laying it out on the floor to look at or lay on.

When Noah was a baby he loved to lay on his belly and look at the bright colors and all the intricate detailing. Here is a picture taken toward the end of May (this year) of Claudia and Noah looking at some of that detailing on the quilt.

Since Claudia was in town (from California) for her mother's memorial we decided that we should take some pictures of the two of them together with the quilt. So, here are a few pictures of them on the quilt together in our front yard.



And a picture of the sisters (Claudia & Mary) with the quilt. These pictures truly do no justice to how beautiful this blanket is. The detail & texture on it is stunning, so if you're ever at our house feel free to pull it off our quilt rack in our front room and look at it up close! Thank you so much, Claudia - we love it!!!
As a side-note, Mary (Mark's mom) has taken a few trips to South Africa recently doing volunteer work for families of deaf children. Noah has taken a lot of interest in hearing little things about these trips. So, he loved when we told him that the beautiful women on this quilt are from Africa. Now and then when we ask Noah where something is (and he doesn't know the answer...or doesn't want to tell us) he responds "in Africa" with a big grin on his face.