Benjamin's Clothes

I started working on Benjamin's Clothes quilt yesterday.

When Claire was almost three, I was pregnant and found out we would be blessed with a son and would have no need for the stacks of plastic boxes full of ready-to-hand-down girl clothes. I decided to cut them up and make a quilt.

I uploaded a picture of said quilt, but as many bloggers have noted of late, Hello is on the fritz. I'll try to include a picture in a separate post.

Claire's quilt includes some of the outfits she wore when we went to visit Daddy in Italy and Iceland, the outfit she wore when he came home from deployment, first Christmas dress, the dress she wore to Auntie Kris' wedding, a Black Dog t-shirt from Martha's Vineyard, etc etc etc. It's amazing how many memories you might associate with what you were wearing. So, it's a real treasure and she and I both really love it.

Of course, this means I'm obligated (and delighted) to make a similar quilt for Benjamin. And since he celebrated his third birthday (with no party), it's time. Besides, we Must Clean Out the Basement, which includes more stacks of plastic boxes filled with his clothes waiting to be slashed, pieced and quilted.

I began by cutting up some pieces, noting the interesting design elements like pockets, tags, buttons and firetruck appliques. Next I've got to stabalize everything since lots of it is stretchy material. Then I cut in all into squares and rectangles divisible by 2. Then piece it all. Then take Benjamin with me to the quilt shop so he can pick out the backing fabric -- probably something with frogs. Then we'll have a quilt -- and a clean basement.

Stay tuned this will take several months.