Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Memorial Quilts

Oh I'm really getting the hang of this blog stuff now... did you notice the new background? Pretty fancy huh? It's the little things in life that amuse me!

While pulling together a few pictures tonight, I couldn't help but notice the number of memorial quilts I have done over the past few years. It started with a pile of my Dad's flannel pajamas that I didn't know what to do with. Like any true quilter, the natural thought was to cut up the material and sew it back together! I did so, therefore creating one of my first quilts.


What you can't see in this picture are the buttons that I pulled off the pajama top and sewed in between the blocks. It's comforting to lay beneath this blanket, and to feel the buttons I know my father touched every night. This is one of Olivia's favorite blankets to cuddle under. I also made a second and third similar blanket for my sister, Linda, and her son, Tommy, shown below. This is such an easy pattern, and I use a fusible grid to make the sewing go by quickly.

In another memorial quilt, I created the one below for my Aunt & Uncle's wedding anniversary. It's made out of my Mom's blouse (who was my Aunt's sister); you can see the yellow blouse material in the squares. I incorporated peach fabric with angels, and my sister Sally, who also quilts, hand quilted a few hearts here and there. Needless to say it was a show-stopper, and it brought my Aunt to tears.



I can't tell you the pleasure it brings me to make quilts that bring such comfort to those who I give them to. In the quilt below, a friend asked me to make this quilt for her husband out of his father's clothes. She gave me a shirt, a beige raincoat (of all things!), and another lightweight blue jacket, that came together to create the following quilt. It's the same pattern as the one above, which again, works well for the purpose. You will see that I included buttons from the shirt on this quilt as well.




I made another quilt for this person out of her mother's blue velvet dress, but I can't seem to find the pictures! Once I locate them, I'll be sure to post. Coincidentally, she had a baby boy the following year and I still had scraps of the blue dress which I incorporated into a baby quilt. I thought it would be nice for the baby to have something of his Grandmothers :o)

Finally, the next memorial quilt is made from pictures rather than clothing. It is for a dear family friend who turned 80, and the pictures were those collected by family throughout the years. It was the first time I incorporated pictures into a quilt, and it was certainly a lot of fun!!



What was really nice is that after she opened the gift (and finished drying her eyes), she walked it around to each table, where friends and family looked at the pictures and reminisced. When you see things like this happen, it makes all of the time and effort worth while.





Well, enough for tonight. The whole time I've been blogging my husband has been sitting on the floor next to me wrapping gifts. Time to go help! Merry Christmas all,
Christine