I am going to tell you more detail about these blankies I am making. They are for the Crow Creek Reservation where I will go next summer. Last year I took some to Rosebud. They aren't normal blankies, though. Because the infant mortality rate is rather high there, they need little blankies for wrapping the babies in for burial. Last summer when I took along burial blankies, they had run out... so these are a definite need. Not everyone can get into making little blankets that will be buried. It feels different. But once I got used to it, I learned to enjoy working on something that I hope will be a comfort to the moms and dads. I try to make them with a soft, flannel backing so the parents feel good about it being wrapped around their baby. I didn't go into detail about these last time I posted pictures. But I decided to tell you what they are really for. They don't have batting in them, just a soft backing fabric and a minimal amount of quilting, to hold it together. And they have to have a star somewhere on the top, important for spiritual reasons. I'll be making more over the next months until I go this summer. If you want to, you can say a prayer that these blankets will not be needed for the purpose I am making them!
These are some blocks I made for the Sunshine March lotto... green for March, of course. I had to work around my husband who was fixing my computer. I have a new hard drive, and of course an odd-ball glitch came up that took several hours to fix. So it took me all afternoon and evening to make these blocks. (Sewing machine and computer are on the same desk. Which distracts me many times. But it's fun, too. When I'm inspired either to sew or to read/jabber, I can just turn and pay attention to my Toy of Choice.)
Here is wind effect on fresh snow. Doesn't it look like a topographic map?
3 comments:
There are two things I like about winter in MN:
1) that initial "hibernation" feeling that winter brings...before cabin fever sets in, that is
2) that gorgeous time of the evening when the sun is setting and the light reflects blue off the snow with orange sinking behind the trees
Your burial blankets remind me of a project I particpated in where we sewed soft cuddly baby blanket-like bags shaped like large envelopes for families of stillborn children so they'd have a place for all the mementoes marking the existance of the child. Many went to woman who had come to the city due to a high risk pregnancy and had to return to their home communities not pregnant, but also not a mother...
Comfort while they mourn is so important.
So sad to think that blankets are needed for such a use, and that they actually run out.
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