A New Hobby Already?

As a sister missionary, I will be the first to say, that the clothes we wear are not the cutest. We wear whatever is next in the closet, knowing that it doesn't matter what we wear or when we wear it (except for Zone Conferences - where we are to look our best), as long as we look clean and neat.  

By the end of the mission, you end up with skirts and shirts that are worn, stretched out, and faded - and most of the material on the skirts are even fuzzy from wearing them so much.

But, you seem to grow attached to those clothes, that you have so many memories in. At least, I did. Not quite as many memories as you have with your name tag, but for some reason, it was hard for me to just throw all of those skirts away. 

I thought of leaving some for my companions, who are always grateful to get new clothes (it is a wonderful feeling, getting something new to wear on a mission, even if it is a hand-me-down), but I wanted to hang on to them. At the end of my mission, I decided that I wanted to make a quilt out of all of my clothes - including my one pair of jeans. I wore these jeans nearly every "P-day" and any other day we were doing service. Countless hours were spent in them playing, cleaning, hiking, painting, doing yard work, and whatever else we did. I had to include them in the quilt - they have too many memories attached to them not to.

The clothes have been sitting around for more than a year and a half now, along with my plans to put it together. Last weekend, I took them all over to my mother-in-law's house, who helped me start. She is an excellent seamstress, and she was more than willing to help. She also had some great ideas for it.

Joan (my mom-in-law) cutting out all of the squares (yes, she did all of them because she's so sweet, and better at cutting a straight linethan I am when it comes to fabric, I assure you)

This is one variation of a square that will be sewn into the quilt. 

What did I tell you - very plain, eh? But when I look at this fabric, I am reminded of members who let my companion and I go through their clothing before taking it to Goodwill (comparable to D.I.), biking in skirts everyday, trying to make it look like I hadn't worn that skirt already (sometimes twice that week already) by wearing it with a different shirt, getting excited because I got something new from Goodwill, or the skirt I had to send home because it was getting too short (riding up on my bigger hips from weight-gain).

I am very excited to see how this turns out. I will keep you updated on how it's coming... and I have to say, I have enjoyed sewing! I have only sewn a few squares together, but check out my skills! Don't I look like a professional? I'm actually thinking about getting me a beginner sewing machine. I've got some great 

ideas of skirts I'd like to try to make. We'll see... one project at a time!