I made a quilt for each of my kids for the past Holiday; they loved them! I broke my husband’s digital camera but as soon as I get my old-school 35mm pics developed I will post pics of them. Each quilt is twin-sized and has a theme which uses pieces of their old clothes.

For my daughter, age 16, Iyende’s quilt I used this pink dress she used to wear all the time that says ‘New York’ and has 2 big stars on it. I cut out the New York part and the stars and used them as the centerpiece of the quilt. I used the rest of the dress scattered throughout the quilt in 4 big squares. The other squares came from a maroon sweatshirt she used to wear, 2 pairs of her old blue jeans, and a white pair of jeans. The border/backing of the quilt is a light blue, almost a blue jean color sheet. She was so surprised, she knew I was making a quilt but thought I was using different clothes. She thought I had thrown the dress out when she out-grew it last year, and had missed it.

For my son Scott, age 11, his theme was the Cleveland Browns, his favorite football team. I used his old Browns t-shirt that he used to wear for every game. It was so tattered that the wrists were all torn up. I cut out the front of the sweatshirt and used it as the centerpiece of his quilt, and got 2 other squares from the rest of the sweatshirt. I also cut up an old orange sweater of my husband’s that had a big ink stain down the front, and got 4 big squares from that. For the rest I cut up a pair of old black sweatpants of Scott’s that had a big hole in one knee, and a ripped black thermal t-shirt. He loved it, he told me it was his best present and second-favorite present he received (his most favorite being a whoopee cushion his brother Todd got him). He was really surprised, he thought that I didn’t care about how much he likes football and the Browns! For the border/backing I used a dark green and black checkered sheet with orange and yellow in it.

For my son Todd, age 8, his theme was Seseame Street. He watches the show a lot and loves Elmo and the gang. I used an old shirt of his from when he was a toddler, the front of it has Elmo, Big Bird, Ernie, and Grover. I cut that part out and used it as a the centerpiece of his quilt. The shirt was a 4t so I was only able to get one more square out of it, the back. For the rest of the quilt I used one of his old baby blankets, 3 pairs of his old jeans, and a sweatshirt he just got last year but was torn down the front. For the border/backing I used a dark green and black checkered sheet with orange and yellow in it. He was also suprised because he thought I didn’t realize how much he still likes Sesame Street.

I have made quilts for my kids before that they loved, but this year I think I made their favorites. They have been carrying them around and using them all over the house, and my boys have actually been making their beds every day just to spread their quilts out on their beds.