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,

Heart Memory Quilt is finished

This quilt was made for a 6 year old girl, who'd lost her Daddy.  It's made from his dress shirts.

The quilting is Heartthrob by Ann, and we used Lucerne Blue for the thread.  The finished size is 63.5 inches square.

I pieced the quilt back using the pockets from the shirt fronts.  The pockets had been close to Daddy's heart, it just made sense to me.

When we were discussing designs, this is the one the child picked.  I think my version is less childish, so she'll love her quilt for many decades.

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,

Sofie's Quilt Top is Finished

First I laid everything out, on our driveway; to see how things would work.  Then I joined all those 16-patches and laid them out again, making sure I was happy.  I tried to keep the same 4" squares from touching, but that was impossible.  It didn't happen much, and I think it looks alright.

Then down to the tennis courts for some photos.  The day started out hot, and now it's hot and humid, something we who live in SoCal are not great at dealing with.  Thank heavens for AC.

Now, I need to think about the back for this quilt.

May your bobbins always be full,

Building a quilt for Sofie

Before I got to this point, I did a lot of prep work, actual and mental.  After reaching this stage the quilt should go together really fast.

Now, I'm going out to the driveway, and layout the 16 patches I've put together for this quilt.

I leave you with a shot of this mornings' Super Moon, taken from said driveway.

May your bobbins always be full,

Memory Quilt progress

Life and quilt shows have been slowing my progress, but it really is moving right along.

These are the three main pieces I'm cutting from the dress shirts.  I did just three shirts before I threw my hands in the air and decided to de-bone all the shirts, so I would have flat pieces of fabric to work with.

I mentioned that I also stripped the buttons from all the shirts.  Each shirt had at least 11 buttons, a lot had 15, and one had 18 buttons.  This is the reward, a small jar chock full of shirt buttons.

These are the shirts I de-boned, I'm slowly working thru them, cutting the pieces I need.  The de-boning took a good chunk of time, so I might not have saved time, but I did save my sanity.

May your bobbins always be full,

Oh, nothing, just de-boning some shirts.

To say my task of preparing these 22 shirts, so I can cut them with my rotary cutter is daunting, would be an understatement.  I actually walked by the shirts for half a day before tackling this part of my project.    My friend Nancy McFall suggested Bonnie Hunter's film tutorial on de-boning a shirt.  That tip has been invaluable.  Bookmark or pin it, because you may need it.  I mentioned Nancy in a previous post.  We have a lot in common; booksellers, married to retired police officers and quilters.

So, far I have 11 shirts de-constructed; 11 more to go.  One additional step I'm taking is snipping off all the buttons.  Why?  I'm 70, my parents went thru the Great Depression, and taught me many lessons about thrift.  This one stuck, never throw away buttons, you never know when you'll need one.  Each shirt has at least 11 buttons, most have more.  High count is 15, on the long sleeve shirts.  Don't worry, I'll use them for one thing or another.

May your bobbins always be full,