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Saturday, October 31, 2015

Finishing a Set of Four

Since I quit teaching to quilt full time, I have made several memory quilts from clothing, and I have been dividing my time between "work" quilting and "hobby" quilting (quilting where the design and fabrics are mostly of my own choosing).  Memory quilts are so special to their recipients and each one has its own unique qualities, but I don't usually include them on here because I feel like there are only so many men's shirt quilts I can write about (in October alone, I made eight).  

This week however, I have been working on a set of four memory quilts that are a little different.  They are the first I have made from ladies' clothing, namely pajamas and a few blouses.  Since most memory quilts I've seen are masculine, I wanted to share them.


I took the photos of these four quilts yesterday after quilting, but before binding since we had another full day of rain today (which incidentally made for an interesting trick or treat experience).  Oh, and the breeze in the air is making the seams look crooked, but they aren't.  Admittedly though, some of the stripes and plaids are not completely straight, but that's inevitable when you're working with clothing and are trying to use every bit of fabric.  Straightening the print sometimes just wastes too much.



The trickiest part was making the limited fabric stretch into four quilts.  It took quite a bit of planning to ensure that I cut the clothing wisely.  Each quilt measures 48 inches square.

Also included in the box of clothing for these quilts were four embroidered pillow cases, and when I saw them, I knew I needed to find a way to incorporate that lovely hand work into a quilt without cutting it.  I made a giant log cabin quilt, which perfectly used the long, wide strips, and also made use of shorter pieces without them looking out of place.


There are four pieces of embroidery in this quilt, and most of them are small, simple flowers, but my favorite by far is this one.  Aren't the little birds so sweet?


The backings are identical on all four quilts.  I found this large pink polkadot fabric that is almost a spot-on match for one of the pajama fabrics (can't resist a good pun!), and Kona Candy Blue is just about perfect as well.


Although the photos don't show it, the binding I chose for these quilts is a pretty shade of buttery yellow, and I finished all four this morning before all of the Halloween hoopla tonight.  I can't wait to get these delivered!


7 comments:

  1. I love these! They are a lot more fun than most shirt quilts.

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  2. You've done well to make the fabrics stretch enough to complete the projects! Well done. I didn't realise you weren't teaching anymore - what a lifestyle change huh? I'm in the middle of our end of year reports (which aren't too taxing) but there are certainly days when I wish I could get paid as much to be a quilter as what I get to be a teacher!

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  3. Four great quilts, and just as they were intended from the beginning. Some says it's madness to buy new fabric to cut into pieces.

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  4. Love them, so nice to add the embrodery!

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  5. Great use of limited amount of fabric!

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  6. I love all of them but my favorite is the first one ... That is something I'd like to do someday. Well done!

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  7. Wow! Four quilts from limited fabric. I would not be able to figure that out!! Nice job.

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