The Birthday Quilt

When I was quite young, my Mom began learning to quilt. I can remember one large quilt that moved with us from house to house and was never finished.

You think maybe having 5 kids had something to do with that particular project falling to the wayside?

Anyway, in recent years, she has resumed her quilting and is even involved in a local quilter's guild. She's done lots of great projects, including wall hangings, quilted tree skirts and blankets.

When Tommy turned 7, she presented him with a beautiful quilt for his birthday!

Little did she know then, just how many birthday quilts were in her future!

Colin had joined our family just 2 months before Tommy's birthday, so she got to work on one for his 15th birthday.

These are handmade quilts and take hours upon hours of tedious work to put together, so she made this one for Colin and presented it to him at his first US Birthday party in August, 2012.

While she was creating that beautiful masterpiece, well, you guessed it. We returned to China to bring home our now middle son, Cameron. 

Cameron's quilt was a bright blend with reds, purples, blues and browns.

It was only a few months after Cameron came home that we felt called back to bring Cooper into our family. 

Half way through the work on Cooper's quilt, Tom announces to Granny that we might just need a 5th one!

Yep, that was his way of announcing that we were bringing home Connor AND Cooper.

The boys came home in March of 2013 and Cooper received his quilt on his birthday in May.

This was his best "vampire" impression!

One year later, we were able to present Connor with his birthday quilt. He waited the longest for his, but now all 5 Rylands boys have their very own keepsake quilt from Granny. 

Happy 15th birthday, Connor!

They all love them and think they look great, but something tells me that it will be many, many years from now when they really appreciate the value of these gifts.