Natalie & Ryan: Icky

Okay, time to embarrass myself. For the first 11 years of my life, I was a thumb sucker. Phew, it feels good to get that off my chest. My thumb and my security blanket were all I needed to be happy. I called my blankie my "icky." Another Griffinism that Ryan's picked up on. If I want him to grab me a blanket, usually I just say "Ry, can you grab me an icky?" and he knows what I mean. :P

I went through countless ickies during those 11 years. Mostly my mom would sew me new ones when I'd lose one or my current one was on the verge of being so disgusting, the health department needed to be called. As my mom tells the story, my parents were discussing weaning me off of my icky, but decided not to because of their divorce. Better to not go through parents divorcing AND having to give up what made my world go round. So I kept sucking my thumb. It wasn't until I was 11 that an intervention was held, my icky taken, and my life RUINED! Haha, I'm still somewhat attached, if you couldn't tell. It's thanks to this terrible habit that I had to get braces and I have a permanent tooth mark in my thumb, from where my teeth would rest while sucking it.

Anyway, the point of this story is to explain why today made me very happy. A few years ago, my mom and I picked out a bunch of flannel, with the intent of making a big, comfy blankie for me. Well, the fabric was tucked away, only to be discovered last year sometime. Knowing that Ryan's mom is a quilting master, I gave her the fabric in hopes that she'd just sew me a quick blanket. Life being busy, we both just kind of forgot about it...until now! Jan surprised me tonight with the finished quilt. Here I was, expecting to get just a normal blanket, but, as always, Jan went the extra mile.

She cut up the fabric and sewed them into panels (I'm not sure of the technical term), instead of just sewing the two pieces of fabric together. Then, she went out and bought PERFECT (or should I say purrrrrrfect) matching flannel for the back. It's kitty flannel!! My favorite part is the small patch in the corner, that reads "March 2013 by Jan Goodrich". Now I have our wedding quilt, Lilly's baby quilt that matches our wedding quit, and my new icky. I see so many future cozy afternoons, wrapped up on the couch. Thank you so much, Jan!! (When I can find them, I'll post pictures of me with my icky, from way back when)

Tiffany blue flannel with brown polka dots, and brown flannel with tiffany blue polka dots. I joked that this really will become a kitty quilt, seeing as the cats are likely to play with the yarn.