And sometimes you gotta hang on.

I'm a purger. There's nothing I love more than tossing, donating and purging some STUFF.
Well, there are a few things I love more, but you get what I mean?
When I put on my battle armor and went into Emily's room last summer to see what I could do with the mess in there, we got rid of some major STUFF. And I'm proud to report that she has managed to keep it pretty tidy.
There was a shirt that didn't fit her anymore that she insisted on keeping.
Why?
Because her Grandma gave it to her.
How could I argue with that? Grandma's gone now and all we have are a million memories and a few tangible items to hold on to.
I remember the day Marsha bought this sweater.
She was here, from West Virginia, from January thru March so she could be at Amber's and Crystal's weddings.
She needed some prescriptions refilled so I drove her to Rite Aid. I waited in the car with Jaxon. He was just 6 months old and sleeping in his car seat so I waited in the car for her while she ran inside to pick up the prescriptions.
When she came out she had a devilish little half smile and a twinkle in her eye like she's just done something a lot more fun than picking up prescriptions.
It turned out that she had to kill a few minutes so she did some shopping.
That lady liked to shop! During this same visit I had to stop her from buying every light blue baby clothing item she could find in Jaxon's size at Sears. I mean, how many blue onesies does one baby boy need? LOL
As soon as she got in the car she pulled this sweater out of a bag and said she HAD to buy it for Emily. It was only $2!!

You know, I didn't even realize that the fabric is upside down on the front of this shirt until I started cutting it apart. Funny.

For $2 I wasn't gonna deny her the joy I saw in her eyes at buying this shirt for Emily. And Emily loved it. I just fit her then. By now it's WAY too small.

But the thought of getting rid of it literally brought Emily to tears last summer. So I promised her we would make it into a pillow that would make more sense to keep around.

Then months passed. And then my sewing machine took some kind of freakish "break". I coaxed it back to life yesterday so Emily and I finally got around to this project.

 

Emily did about half the sewing and she did a really great job. Much more confident than last time we worked on a sewing project.
And here's her new pillow!

We used some old lace ruffle I had stashed in the sewing room. I asked her if she wanted to wait till we could find something a little less old fashioned looking. But she said she thought Grandma would have liked the lace.

I think she's right. Grandma would have loved it. :)