Too many choices!!

My younger sister is expecting her first child in January, an event which has caused a great deal of excitement in my family. Mainly in my mother, who has been subtly hinting that she would like to become a grandmother for at least fifteen years, not so subtly hinting for ten, and outright begging for the last five. She is beside herself with excitement, and I credit my sister’s pregnancy for helping my mom get past her recent bout with colon cancer. Not that the baby gave her “something to live for” or anything dramatic like that; my mother has plenty to live for, and knows it. But it did give her something to look forward to, and to focus on, while she was dealing with her disease.

For myself, I’m not quite as ecstatic as Mom, but I’m excited. My sister’s wanted children for a few years, and seeing her joy makes me really happy. I’m looking forward to being Auntie Hannah, and let’s face it, shopping for baby clothes and baby toys is just fun!

To that end, I’m getting ready to give my first gift to my nephew – a baby quilt. No, I’m not making it myself. My craftiness runs to counted cross stitch and mending the occasional hem; quilting is beyond my ken. But I have a co-worker, Bonnie, who is an avid quilter. Bonnie has made quilts for a lot of the folks around the office, so she’s putting one together for me. I’m charged with picking out the fabric and the pattern, and she’ll do the rest. Sounds like a cake walk, right? Wrong.

First, I had to pick the pattern. Bonnie had shown me a few of the finished baby quilts she’d done, and I picked a circle pattern that I thought was great because it was a departure from the traditional square pattern you usually see. Then I gave her some direction on the fabric, which I wanted to match my sister’s nursery colors of chocolate brown and Tiffany blue. We picked out some fabrics, and I figured I was done.

Nope. Bonnie put the pieces together and brought it to me for approval. I hated it – the colors that looked so great in the swatches were hideous put together in the pattern, and lucky for me Bonnie agreed. So back to the drawing board. And in the meantime, my sister changed her nursery decorating plans, so the brown and blue went out the window. Now there is a world of colors and patterns for me to choose from….and it’s too much!

Do I go with pastels? Primary colors? What fabric pattern? Should I stick with the circles or go with squares? An animal theme, or maybe cowboy? Aliens or spacemen? Prints or solids? I'm not kidding when I say my head spins with all the possibilities and the decisions I have to make.

I might just buy the kid a drum kit instead.