Isabelle's Quilt

I have yet to put away any of Isabelle's things. Her room is just the way she left it with a few exceptions. I have unplugged the monitor, and the memory box from the hospital is in her crib. The girls have moved in a few toys and I relocated the swing from the living room to her room. The size 1 diapers are still in the top drawer of her dresser and the wipes are still in the crib. I keep it picked up, and dusted. The girls play in there from time to time, and get the sheets and bookshelves all messy. Whenever they are done with a toy, they take it to Izzy's room. I can't bring myself to ask them why. Maybe it's something as simple as they don't want to have to pick it up and that seems like a convenient place to stash it. But I wonder if they subconsciously think about passing things down to their little sister.
All of her clothes are still folded neatly in her dresser and there are a lot of things hanging in the closet. Many things still have the tags.
In the seat of the rocking chair, on top of the pink and green cushion I sewed, are two large bags of Isabelle's clothes, one for Maddy and one for Abbey. They contain clothes that Isabelle wore that I think have special meaning to each of the girls. In Maddy's bag is the blue and white checked dress with the big pink flower that she wore to visit Maddy's classroom. There is also a black and white outfit with a bumblebee that Maddy picked out and bought especially for her, and the pink and white baseball onesie that Maddy insisted she had to wear to her first KSL softball practice.
In Abbey's bag is the pink and white polka dotted outfit with the large panda face on the butt. There are several pretty pink outfits that Abbey put her in because picking out clothes for Isabelle was Abbey's very favorite part of the morning.
I have set aside these outfits with the intention of turning them into something special for the girls. A very dear friend of ours has offered repeatedly to do the work for us. I have gotten these packages together several times to send, and I can't bear to let them leave the house. So they sit in their bags on the seat of the rocking chair and wait.
I think that I should be strong enough to do this. I have lectured myself repeatedly for being so weak and foolish. They are just clothes. Just thread and fabric pieced together. They aren't her. They've been laundered and I can no longer smell her on them, so I should be able to let them go. I should.
I was looking at those clothes again the other day, and I thought that it would be great if I could put them together in a quilt for each girl, and give it to her on Isabelle's birthday. So I am starting this weekend. I am going to get out the machine and start piecing it together. I am going to do this. I can do this. I want to do this for the 3 of them.