An aquaintance of ours lost her 40 year old son a few months ago. She, of course, is devastated. Several weeks ago she called to ask me whether I could make a quilt from his shirts. I haven’t made a memory quilt in such a long time, but she managed to talk me into taking on the job.
Cutting the blocks took more time than sewing them. I spent some time trying to save as much of the shirts as possible because she told me that some members of the family want to make memory bears using the cutoffs. I also had to line them with press on interfacing. Some of the shirts have tiny burn holes and stains because Michael was a welder. I could ignore all that but had to find a way to keep the batting in the quilt. A bit of press on interfacing solved that and stabilized the worn-out fabric from some of the shirts.
It wasn’t difficult, of course. Just time consuming. But isn’t everything time consuming? I should have counted the shirts that she brought. There were so many! But we needed 48 squares to make the quilt she wanted. Until we needed 96. You see, Theresa wanted two quilts. Her son was engaged to a sweet girl, and Theresa want a quilt for her, as well. Yes, she talked me into a second shirt.
I had a snafu or two as I mathed the numbers but eventually settled on 8″ squares for the shirts and 2 1/2″ sashing. I also did not have, nor could I find, the chambray that I wanted for the sashing. I found this blue cotton that works well with the blues in the plaids and gives the quilt a more grown-up feel. Plaid quilts can often feel boyish. Theresa wanted a grid of four shirt squares per block–not a difficult request.
Another way that I elevated the quilts to give them a grownup feel is through the quilting. That was shifting between circles, squares, lines, triangles, etc. I enjoyed coming up with new ideas and ways to make the quilting interesting. Some of the motifs are stunning, others are a good place to “rest the eyes.” However, I decided early on that there would be little, very little, ripping. Just go with it!
Lastly, I cut the pockets from one of the shirts to put on the back. Below it is the label. In the end, she loves both shirts!
