Pinwheel Memory Quilt is finished

In June, I was contacted by a young widow in Chicago about making a memory quilt for her from her husbands' dress shirts.  After some discussion, she decided to have me make two quilts, one for here and one for her 6 year old daughter.  She decided on a pinwheel design with 3 borders, for herself.  I think this is the best memory quilt!

The quilting design is called Target by Ann and the thread is Blue Mist.  The finished quilt size is 61.5 x 77.75 inches.

Her husband's favorite color was blue, so I used a lot of blue in the quilt back and the binding.  For the back I used one sleeve from 12 of the dress shirts, dissected with a blue inset.  Not only will she be wrapped in his shirts, but also in his arms.

Here are both quilts and below is a photo of all the shirts I started with.

May your bobbins always be full,

Quilt Back for the Pinwheel Memory Quilt.

This is the quilt back for the Pinwheel Memory Quilt.  I took a sleeve from all the long sleeve dress shirts to use in the center of the quilt back.  I knew that the husbands' favorite color was blue, so I used three shades of blue in the design.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.

May your bobbins always be full,

Memory Quilt Tops are finished

No idle hands, here!  I received these 22 dress shirts in late June; I'd been commissioned to make two memory quilts for a young widow and her 6 year old daughter.  It took almost a month to come up with the designs for the two quilts.  I felt these were two very important quilts and I wanted the customers to be involved.

The mom chose this pinwheel design with three borders.  Yesterday I finished putting the borders on the main body of the quilt top.  I mitered the corners, to have the borders "flow" with the pinwheels.

I was lucky that only one tennis court was being used, because I had to enter a court, in order to have the sun shine on the quilt top, not thru it.

To refresh your memory, this is the daughter's quilt top.  Now, I'm off to work on the quilt back for the pinwheel quilt.

May your bobbins always be full,

Pinwheel top is nearly finished

A couple of shots of the pinwheel portion of this quilt top.  Now, I need to work on the borders.  Wish me luck!

 My supervisor, today is Frisco.  It's blazing hot outside and he didn't take his responsibilities seriously.  He wouldn't move out of the shade!

May your bobbins always be full,

50 pinwheels

I finished the pinwheels I need for the second memory quilt.  I only need 48, but I was on a roll, and 50 will give me some design flexibility.  I did try to keep them modern by using some of the lightest shirt fabric as background fabric.  No, I'm not going to photograph all of them.  I had to stop stitchin' and clean house because our card group is meeting here tomorrow.  I almost never leave things to the last minute, so I'll only need to do some finishing touches tomorrow.  Oh, the joys of living in a small house!

While making the pinwheels, I noticed that a few of my blocks were contrary.  Instead of re-doing them, I've developed an idea for how to use them.  Stay tuned for how that works out, later in the week.

As usual Sweet Ben came outside to supervise me.  He didn't even get up to inspect the pinwheels; just laid there catching rays.  Such a good boy.

May your bobbins always be full,

11 done, 37 to go

 Back to the salt mines.

May your bobbins always be full,

Ready to make pinwheels

I seems it's taken all week to make these HST for the next Memory Quilt.  I made 200+ HSTs using the four-at-a-time method.

Got them all pressed and trued to 4.5 inches.

We've had some beautiful skies this week, so I thought I'd throw in an extra photo. When I haven't been working on HSTs, I've been busy being Bob's chauffeur. He thinks he can drive, and I don't, so I'm driving. Better safe than sorry. He had an appointment everyday this week; some took a couple of hours of my time and one took all day in San Diego.  I also did my regular volunteer gig of teaching Tai Chi, plus I've taken my 2nd Yoga class, and think I'll stick with it.

May your bobbins always be full,

A New Project, Memory Quilts

A month ago I posted about being commissioned to make two memory quilts.  It took awhile to get everything organized and some basic decisions made.  I received the about shirts and I was very happy with the quality and variety; those two factors will make for great quilts.  I took the shirts to the cleaners to be lightly starched and pressed.  Have I told you that I really dislike ironing clothing?  I'm sure I have.

One of the things that took a long time, after receiving the shirts was coming up with designs.  I wanted my customer involved; afterall these two quilts will hold many important memories, and I wanted her and her 6 year old to love the entire quilts.  I submitted many design ideas and they settled on a patchwork with a heart for the young lady and a pinwheel design with a border for the Mom, "D".  These are the design ideas that I'll put my spin on.


                       source                                                         source

I'm almost ready to start cutting into the shirts, but I want to do some more thinking/figuring on the pinwheel quilt.  I did order some solids for the backings, and maybe bindings, from Winter Creek Cloth.  Blue was "D"'s husband's favorite color.

May your bobbins always be full,