The Green and Yellow Quilts

 Two things...

I really don't like pro-football, except for the Colts and maybe the Saints (because I like Drew Brees - Boiler Up!).  

I don't make quilts for anyone other than family or extremely close friends (like Brandy for her first baby and Courtney for Ryan).  

But when Lindsey shared the news that she was pregnant, during one hair appointment when she was mixing up the color for my touch up and highlights, and when we were talking about how she wanted to decorate with a Packers theme....both of those things flew out the window.

For one---Rodger instilled in his family the love of the Green Bay Packers.   The green and yellow.  Cheeseheads.  He was a super assistant principal.  He loved his daughters with a passion.  And he left this earth too soon.  The legacy he left with her is totally understandable.  And sweet.

For two--while I didn't know Lindsey well when she was growing up and since I left WC before she became old enough for my classes, I don't have that connection with her.  I started to visit her salon after Donna died (and she died after I needed to find someone closer than north of Medaryville to cut my hair) and after the disastrous experiences with a stylist in Logansport. I always admired Lindsey for being a young entrepreneur, a girl who wanted to own her own business and was working hard to do just that.  She had a good head on her shoulders, she thought things through, and she tried to make sensible business decisions.  Plus I liked the way she interacted with her customers,  including me!

In our discussion that day, while she was working on coloring and highlighting my hair, a plan was made for me to make a quilt for her expected baby in Green Bay colors with hopefully Packers print fabric.

Do you know how difficult it was to find that particular fabric?  Well, let me fill you in.  Betty, my quilting lady, said all of her team fabrics had been snatched up in her Etsy shop soon after the pandemic quarantine began.  People were sewing.... and sewing things with team fabrics!  I checked online stores, I went to JoAnns, and there was nothing.  Enter Bonnie. 

Bonnie is a friend from Dotti's.  She lives outside of Madison, Wisconsin.  At one point in our chat group she mentioned having a coupon from JoAnns that she wanted to us.  A quick text to her asking for some help with this elusive fabric resulted in several texts, pictures being sent to my phone, and a couple of phone conversations, and finally a package arriving with two yards of Packers print plus some solid yellow and a few fat quarters of solid green.

The first quilt was underway, the top finished, and off it went to Betty for quilting.

Then....another text.  My phone was pinging one afternoon while I was stirring a dressing to put on top of sliced cucumbers and onions (that great summer salad).  When I finally checked my phone, it was Lindsey asking if I had the time, and the fabric, for ANOTHER Packers quilt. Why?  Because the ultrasound the day before indicated that there was not just one baby---but two!  Twins!

Off to JoAnns I went for more green and yellow fabric, for Bonnie had bought two yards of the Packers print and I had plenty of that to use!

Fast forward to the past week or so.  Both quilts had been quilted by Betty with a unique sports design---footballs, helmets, and stars. Hand stitching of bindings had been completed.  Labels cut, written, and zigzagged onto the bottom corners.  Ready to deliver.

Today Lindsey was feeling not the greatest.  She feels big (what does one expect when carrying twins?).  She can't sleep because of the breathing issues and her asthma.  She is tired and has difficulty cutting hair.  She can sit on a stool to work on the back, but she has to stand to cut the top and sides.  It is exhausting.

So the bright spot today was her first look at the quilts.  

I think she loved them.

She is ready for the bedroom to be ready for the twins, and the quilts will be the finishing touch.

When I left the shop today, Lindsey was sitting on a stool behind the counter, tired, worn out, and waiting for her next client.  But she looked at me and smiled, then thanked me again, and she told me how much it meant to her that I had made quilts for her babies.  

When I walked out of the shop, my eyes were just a little bit wet.