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A Playtime Project: The Memory Quilt
A friend recently suggested a use for my daughter's first
wardrobe, which I've dutifully saved in the back of the closet,
and lugged on two long distance relocations. Turns out she's done
the same thing with her daughter's first clothes, and we've
decided to make memory quilts. This playtime project preserves my
little girl's everyday playclothes for no other reason than that
they are hers.
Having been raised in a somewhat non-sentimental household, I
jumped at the chance to engage in something that could possibly
boost child emotional development at the same time that it
provided a way for my daughter to feel connected to happy
childhood events. I suppose it's my way of compensating for
something I always wished I had. By the time I was born, the
fascination with baby girls was past, and whatever I used and
wore was handed off to Goodwill when I was finished with it.
The project lets you conserve storage space by cutting those
favorite 0-3 month outfits into workable squares-or if you're an
experienced quilter, you may feel confident experimenting with
different shapes. I've never tried this before, so I don't want
to complicate it with my perfectionist tendencies. I want to turn
this into something we can do with our daughters-it always
surprises me how young children can take to things that we assume
are beyond them.
I went through the clothes to separate them according to
"cuttability." Fearful of violating airline luggage allowances,
and mindful of movers' square footage guidelines, I've
unwittingly reduced the cherished collection little by little;
this last relocation I was so desperate to conform to the rules
that I left behind many of the pieces I had faithfully saved. Our
having been in the Caribbean this past hurricane season further
persuaded me to fork over even more of the little wardrobe to
children whose homes (and wardrobes) had been destroyed. The
pieces that remain are so few in number that I find I cannot bear
to take the scissors to any of them.
And so the playtime project will consist less of quilting, and
more of time spent sitting on the floor, arranging tiny
high-tops, Mary Janes and workboots into shadow boxes. There's
also the first jean jacket, overalls and the dress Little One
wore to "school" when she was four months old. All of these are
small enough to pass for doll clothes, and therein lies their
preciousness. The rest are tiny crew neck sweaters, a little rain
slicker, and the pajamas she wore in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care
Unit. These, with selected Boston Globe front pages will go into
a trunk alongside the baby book (volumes I and II), the photo
albums of the first years, and The Scrapbook; to be opened with
great fanfare on some birthday after "we" have reached the Age of
Appreciability.
Tricia Wellington
 MORE RESOURCES updated Fri. September / 29 / 2023
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