The Dude Abides

Jasper's Quilt

When my mom was in town, she helped me finish the quilt I started for Jasper. I fell in love with the fabric from Les Indiennes, traditional hand-blocked fabrics using organic fabric and vegetable dye, after spotting it in a Domino magazine from a while back. It's similar to John Robshaw fabric, which apparently is all the rage, but I like the prints at Les Indiennes better. Unfortunately, it's priced way out of my range because of how much labor goes into making each bolt of fabric (fabric as art). A month before Jasper's birth, I had a rare pregnant-moment epiphany and ordered several swatch books from them and pieced them together into a simple patch work quilt top. Blythe sent me the batting from an Anthropologie quilt she cut down to a smaller size with a note that read: "now you have no more excuses!" although I somehow managed to put it off another few months. It took me forever to settle on a backing fabric but Mom helped me decide on a plain navy flannel for softness. We spent an afternoon basting the three layers together and then sewing it, a mother-daughter activity we haven't done together in 15 years. I'm pleased with the finished product and I can safely say that little Jasper is too.