Handmade Baby Gifts are the BEST!

Last week (which I was SO sure would be my last week pregnant) I received the most thoughtful surprise: a friend who I met when she came through one of my sewing classes as a student dropped off the sweetest baby gift.  A soft, snuggly blanket she stitched herself.  By the time you get to baby #4, there are no more baby showers and any gift or gesture is extra meaningful, because it really is meant just for that baby and that baby alone.  I was so touched to receive such a sweet memento, not just for our new baby, but of all the amazing people I have met these past three-plus years.  Having handmade friendships has been an unexpected and really amazingly fulfilling part of what Whipstitch has grown to be, and this gift is a joyful reminder of that for me!

This minky blanket is beautifully made (way to go, Kim!), but truly: from a mom who’s given and been given baby gifts over the past 15 (!!) years, it’s totally not about the skills.  It’s all about the love.  I have a fairly well-repeated story of making a baby blanket for a shower that I’d forgotten about–my husband was literally idling the car in the driveway as I stitched at the last possible moment before heading out to the party.  I tied the blanket up in a ribbon, added a small tag, and off we went, with seconds to spare.  We get to the shower, and the mom opens the gift, and she was so delighted that I’d made something just for her, that the colors (those of our two husbands’ college football team) were perfect, that it was one-of-a-kind.  The family–mom, dad, and new baby–had some professional photos done a few months later, and that very blanket is in nearly all of them.  It didn’t matter to any of them that I’d run short of time and stitched it up at the eleventh hour, just that they had this special gift to hand on to their children.

So maybe it’s the hormones, but I’m feeling super sappy about the power of handmade today, and the impact that something stitched for someone you care about can really have.  I’m hoping none of us forget that it’s not perfection that makes the gift, it’s the love that goes into every stitch.

(Bee Tee Dubs, things on the baby front over here seem to be progressing: I’ll keep y’all updated, and here’s hoping our little one makes an appearance in the next couple of days!)