Appalachian Week: Reading Quilts

In the Five in a Row lessons for The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills, Jane Claire Lambert mentions that one special thing you can add to your kids' life is a reading quilt. When I read that two years ago, it totally inspired me. We were already planning to make Gilead his baby quilt (six months late) for Christmas. So I got this big idea that we should make all the children reading quilts. These wouldn't be big enough to fit their bed, but would be just perfect for cuddling under while reading books. The fabrics would feature some of their favorite book characters and alphabet fabrics.

Yes, I was completely overambitious to think that, but my husband jumped in and saved the day because he's awesome, and because he can sew three or four quilts and bake 1000s of Latvian gingerbread cookies if you don't require him to go to work for a week.

So because of my wonderful husband, we ended up with lovely quilts for each kid. They loved them, and they continue to use them on their beds or in the reading nook or as fort-making supplies all the time.

First, we have Gilead's quilt. He was just an infant at the time, so he didn't have any particular reading interests, but the quilt ended up including several of his absolute favorite things now: trucks and "cowzas."
 
The backing might be my favorite fabric ever. It's called "Pooches and Pickups." Though I do wish I had bought the blue version since he loves The Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle so much.
 

Ella's quilt has a mix of old-fashioned characters and fabrics since she loved Little House on the Prairie, Fancy Nancy squares, and space and state fabrics because she loves non-fiction books.


The back has these cute Japanese girls in flannel.
 
Mabel's quilt features pigs! She has been obsessed with pigs since she was two and it's still going strong. The three little pigs appear several times as well as other favorite fairy tale characters like The Three Bears. Angelina Ballerina is also in there because Mabel loves to dance and the Muppets, especially Miss Piggy.

 
The back has this awesome pig flannel that we couldn't pass up!
 
 Beatrix's quilt features the love of her life: Kermit the Frog, Beatrix Potter fabric, toile Nursery rhyme fabric, and Snow White.
 
 And the back is more of the Kermit the Frog flannel.

These blankets are very well-loved now. If you ever consider giving your kids a special non-toy present for Christmas, these are wonderful and useful for those cold, January read-alouds. Word to the Wise: you might want to start making them in August.