The outdoors have always soothed Sophie. In the early months, late in the afternoons when I would be at a loss as to what I could do to calm her, I’d taker her outside. We’d sit together on our front porch, rocking, looking at the leaves. She seemed mesmerized by them. And as much as I love winter and its possibilities for snow, I was so sad for Sophie to lose her leaves. So my mom and I made some for her.
Much of our instruction and inspiration came from The Purl Bee.
I bought a fat quarter bundle of Amy Butler fabric from her Midwest Modern Collection.
My mom found leaf patterns online, which we printed, cut out, transferred to brown paper bags and then cut those out.
We then, with pencil, traced our leaf patterns onto the fabric.
And then we cut and cut and cut.
Sophie had one of her best days. She played with her toys on her quilt (although Nini took frequent breaks to play with her).
My mom sewed the many, many leaf and flag shapes together. Then, Friday night, Andy hung the garland in Sophie’s nursery.
I love it. I think it looks better in person, but you get the idea.
Sophie loves it, too.
“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.” —Emily Bronte