Hi. My name is Little White Dove, and I am a quilt addict. Well, more correctly, a blanket addict. As nice and snuggly as doonas are, I just can’t feel warm without the weight of four or five blankets. Growing up, we always had a couple of wool blankets, and a quilt made by my mum, so maybe that is where it comes from. Maybe it’s ingrained from my (increasingly far-distant) childhood. I remember in our first home, there were tall poplars across the street, and even on a sweltering January evening, I would insist on being covered by at least a sheet. In case the trees fell down, you see. Because we all know that if a tree falls on your house, a thin cotton sheet will be the difference between life and death.
Or maybe it’s something even more basic than that. My two eldest children are wildly divergent in their bedding tastes. Bear, at 5, so much more like me in his general personality, is much more like his father, and will kick the blankets off, even as the July frost grows thick on the ground. And in the same way, Bubba Boy, like his daddy in so many ways, and yet, at bed time, his mama’s influence shows through, and on the hottest of evenings, where even pyjamas seem too much, he will insist on at least one blanket, and if he can get away with it, a doona as well.
And so, when it came time to redecorate the children’s room after the renovation, I immediately began planning quilts, plural. One per boy, possibly two. And yet husband insisted that doonas would be much better. In the end, we compromised, and each boy now has a quilt cover and a bed topper quilt. The quilt cover is made from backing-width flannelette, with a feature segment of orange corduroy, and a small amount of patchwork, and the quilts are a basic D9P, with the green flannelette as the backing. So lovely and snuggly.
Though a tad warm when a certain little three year old softly calls out, and strokes my face as he gently asks, “Lie wif me, pwease, mama?”
(and yes, I am aware the binding hasn’t been stitched down. I’m kinda lazy like that!).
