Haptic Lab: Ezra’s Map

I have been plotting a haptic lab quilt for years. More than a few. But I knew starting one would be a labor of love, so I kept pushing it off. The arrival of my first nephew was the perfect reason to jump into just that labor of love!

Here’s how it works: HapticLab sends you a map pattern on tracing paper. You pin together your quilt (back, batting, front) and add the pattern on top. Then you get to work hand stitching every street, river and bay.

This is one of the scariest quilts I’ve made – not for difficulty or time (although those too!) – but for the trust you have to put in yourself. Each stitch is blind. When you stitch through the tracing paper, your stitch disappears. You have to hope that it’s the size you imagined, follows the line you’ve laid out, works with the fabric you’ve picked.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but what a perfect metaphor for a growing family – parenting is so much of a labor of love, so much trying to do the right thing and hoping you got it right. Paul and Emma stitch together their parenting styles beautifully – with confidence and grace, with vulnerability and humility, with instinct and thoughtfulness. They’ve been a guide as we’ve navigated our first stitches of parenting with Clark, and have been an inspiration to watch as they’ve begun to raise Ezra. Clearly their technique is working – Ezra approaches every moment comfortable in his skin and exuberant to experience the world.

Here is the experiment in progress:

When you’ve completed your stitching, you rip off the tracing paper, and pray that it looks like you hoped, trying to forgive your mis-stitches:

Then you bind it, and celebrate the subtle map and the amazing new nephew who brightens your world with sunshine!