Carter's quilt-A Labor of Love

 One of the things that I like to do for each grandchild is to make a quilt. So, when little Carter was going to join our family, I started to work on a quilt. I was determined to get one made and to get it to Arizona somehow.   In Africa that's two or three times the job that it is at home. You can't buy quilt fabric, batting or even quilting thread, clamps, tacks or pins, so it has to all be imported. Since mailing isn't an option, it takes a bit of work and a lot of good friends to get the supplies to make a quilt.  So, my good friend, Beth Ann, who lives in S.L.C., and I went to work looking for fabric. I wanted it to be an African quilt,so we looked for African animals. We found a cute fabric on-line with animal panels on it.We ordered it and had it sent to her house. When it arrived, BA mailed it to one of the sisters who was serving in S. Africa, who had offered to help. Then when Sister Martineau came to Kinshasa, she brought it and I went to work creating the quilt.

   

The batting for the quilt was another story.  On our first mission I carried it to Africa on the plane in a pillow case. We had our suitcases full and we were allowed a "pillow." So we wrapped a couple of bats tightly, put them in a pillow case and hand carried it to Africa.  I never found the things that I needed to make a quilt on that mission, and not having much room to take it when we went to Burundi, I left the batting in Lubumbashi. After we came to the Congo the second time, we went to mission president's seminary in S. Africa. Sister Packer, with whom I had left the batting, brought it to me in her suitcase and I hauled it back to Kinshasa.  In the Kinshasa world, it's quite a project and takes many helpers to get the things you need to make a quilt. One of the Senior Elders made quilt frames for me. I brought clamps, pins and tacks from the US. It was hard to explain to our Congolese friends why I was going to cut up material, sew it back together again, then attach it to cotton and more materiel and then sew it all together again. It did sound kind of crazy when I tried to explain it, but they liked it when it was done. With the help of many wonderful friends I got all the things I needed and made the quilt. It has real African fabric on the back that I bought on a trip to the infamous commerce street. 

 

Then came the project of getting the quilt to Arizona.  I wasn't sure how I was going to do that, but one of our dear Senior couples, the Binghams, packed it into their already stuffed suitcase, took it home to California with them and then mailed it to Stacy. 

It was worth all the effort to see the smiles on the faces of Mommy and big brothers

 when baby Carter's quilt arrived just days before his birth.

Now all the little Allen boys have their own "blankies." It was a labor of love on the part of many people who helped to get a quilt for Carter. Thanks go to all who made it possible!