The Many Faces of Plaid

Over the last year or so, my grandfather, who has Alzheimer's has been rapidly declining and following some health scares, the difficult decision was made this spring to put him in a nursing home.  At the beginning of the summer, my grandmother asked if I would make four quilts from his shirts- one for each of their four sons as a keepsake of their father.

To know my grandfather (we call him PaPa) is to know that his clothing of choice for years has been a plaid western shirt, dark jeans, and boots.  So, when I went to pick out shirts, I had several closets from which to choose.

The challenge for me with these quilts was for each quilt to take on a little bit of the personality of each of the recipients.  I wanted the quilts to each have its own flair, but still look unified as a set.  Plaids are really cool that way.  They can take on so many different moods, and are used in so many different environments.

You can visit the original blog post with more photos by clicking on the links below!

I made the quilts in birth order, so as the oldest, my Dad's quilt was the first.  It's called Western Kaleidoscope, and I think the Kona Parchment and Kona Coal really help add to the western flair.  Although my Dad is really an All-American kind of guy, he does enjoy his jeans and boots from time to time.

The second quilt is for my Uncle Bryan and is called Bricks and Mortar.  The Kona Iron, chambray and red gives this quilt a blue-collar, auto mechanic feel, which suits him very well since he enjoys working on cars.

The third quilt is for my Uncle Bruce.  Going Camping has Kona Biscuit sashing which gives it a very outdoorsy look.  I could see this quilt being used around a campfire or by a lake.  My Uncle Bruce isn't super outdoorsy, but I remember as a kid, our families would go out riding four wheelers in the woods. And since I'm not outdoorsy myself, that's as close to campy as I get!

My Uncle Mike is the youngest brother, and he likes to be a sharp dresser and a jet setter.  Preppy Plaid Chevrons is for him.  I just knew that he needed a quilt with a preppy flair, and I thought that a chevron pattern with Kona Navy and Kona White would be perfect.  I think it's a great way to show off the plaids in keeping with that look.

As much as I wanted each quilt to have a different personality, I also wanted the four of them to be unified as a set.  So, I kept a few things consistent-

*Size- are all roughly 60 x 60

*Backing- all are backed with Kona Coal with a chambray stripe through the middle

*Binding- all are bound in Kona Rich Red

*Quilting- all are stippled with dark gray thread that blends into the backing

*Labels- the labels on each quilt have the same wording, with slight changes to my Dad's

Of course, keep in mind that assigning quilts with such distinct looks to each person is a bit like a caricature.  Their individual personalities and styles could never be summed up with the style of a single quilt, but I do hope they each like the one I've made for them and treasure them as a keepsake of the Daddy they knew.

Preppy Plaid Chevrons

I am finished with the fourth (and final) memory quilt- Preppy Plaid Chevrons!  And I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out.  If I could have gone to the coast to take beautiful photos near sailboats and blue water I would have, but alas, living in Tennessee that is not really an option.

The thing about a chevron quilt is that you don't need a ton of fabric variety, but you do need a decent amount of each fabric.  I only used nine of the shirts on this one, and I added the navy and white.  The chevrons took the entire back panel from each shirt (which is what was left).  Since that only gave me about 48 inches in width, I needed the navy stripes on either side to make the size more consistent with the other three memory quilts- about 60 x 60 in.

Although I wasn't sure how I would like the navy stripes, I'm really pleased with them!  I'm glad I chose to add them to the sides only though, so the dark fabric doesn't frame the chevrons too much.

As with Western Kaleidoscope, Bricks and Mortar, and Going Camping, Preppy Plaid Chevrons has a Kona Coal backing with a chambray stripe, Kona Rich Red binding, and is quilted with stippling in a coal gray thread.  I hope these little touches help the differing styles still feel like a set.

The other consistent feature of all four quilts is the wording of the labels.  My dad's is slightly different, of course, but the basic wording is the same.

I really hope these quilts will be treasured by my dad and uncles, and I hope that each son loves the mood of the plaid I've chosen for him.  I'm planning another post soon with all four quilts to wrap up this chapter in my quilting.  I think it will be really neat to see all of them together!

Going Camping!

The third of the memory quilts from my grandfather's shirts is finished, and this one has a decidedly campy feel.  I'm pretty pleased with the final result!

These photos were taken in a brief break from the rain we've had all morning.  So, even though I envisioned a photo shoot in the woods with a camp chair and sleeping bag, I had to settle for quick photos taken in my backyard.  Oh well!

The quilting, backing and binding have been the same on each quilt.  I've been trying to use details like this to keep the set unified.  It is quilted with stippling, and the backing is Kona Coal with a chambray stripe.  The binding is Kona Rich Red.  I love how the red binding just sets the whole thing off.

I think the Kona Biscuit sashing really makes the quilt feel more woodsy, as well as the pattern.  It feels a little bit like a giant log cabin to me.

And, of course it has to get labeled (using my own method found HERE)!  I have just one more of these to finish, and the last one will have a preppy/nautical vibe.  I'm planning to do a plaid chevron quilt with navy and white thrown in.

Campy Memory Quilt

Well, I was determined to push through and finish up the quilt top for the 3rd memory quilt tonight.  For new readers, these four quilts are being made with my grandfather's shirts, who is in the end stages of Alzheimer's.  These quilts are for his four sons (one is my dad).  Now that we're all up to speed, check it out!

I hate that the picture is inside, but it was either use an inside pic, or miss all of the fun Friday finish parties.  I'd rather be partying, thank you very much!

My goal with these four quilts is for each to have a different feel that matches a bit of the personality of the recipient, but to also be unified as a set of four quilts.  Plaids can take on so many styles, and I'm shooting for campy/woodsy with this one.  I think the Kona Biscuit sashing and this take on a giant log cabin block lends itself to this feel.

If you missed the first two memory quilts, you can check out Western Kaleidoscope HERE and Bricks and Mortar HERE.

A couple of hours at my sewing machine was just what I needed this evening (even if this shirting fabric is tough to deal with).  Can't wait to get this one quilted this weekend!

Cutting, Cutting, Cutting...

Three hours of cutting...

This, my friends, is a pile of collars, cuffs, snaps, pockets, pleats, and seams from sixteen men's shirts.  Incidentally, this is also the reason why I don't think I'll ever make a living making memory quilts, despite the fact that there is evidently a large market for them.

There isn't really a fast, efficient way to turn shirts into useable fabric that I know of- and if there is, someone please enlighten me, because cutting with scissors for hours on end is not my idea of a great time.

Thankfully, these shirts have yielded plenty of fabric for two throw sized quilts.  There is really a lot of fabric in a shirt!  I also think there are some really nice plaids and stripes in there, so hopefully these final two memory quilts will be as special as Western Kaleidoscope and Bricks and Mortar.

For Love of The Great Outdoors

I finished my brother in law's quilt this afternoon, and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

You know, having a nine year old wild thing means that everybody is always trying to get us to put him in Boy Scouts, and my reply is always "We are not campy people; we are beachy people," which seems to placate them for a while.

And that's really the truth.  I grew up in a very girly family (love my makeup and hair dryer), and although my Dad is an Eagle Scout, we  never camped- thankfully because my Mom feels the same way I do.  Now, give me a beach chair, some sunscreen and a book, and that's the kind of outdoors I can get behind!

I can certainly appreciate the woodland environment for a couple of hours- maybe a day hike at the very most.  But when it comes right down to it, I want a nice bed, a restroom, and a shower.  That's just me, y'all.  And before you get aggravated with me and tell me that I'm depriving wild thing of something he might enjoy- trust me, I'm not.  He likes his comforts too (and he hates bugs).

Suffice it to say that making a quilt for my brother in law, who is the ultimate outdoorsman, was way out of my comfort zone.  Anytime I make a quilt that isn't really my own personal taste, I tend to second guess myself at every turn, and I'm usually not totally happy until the last stitch is in the binding.

The pattern I chose is called Four Squared by Aunt Polly's Porch for Moda Bakeshop.  I used the pattern as an inspiration for the quilt without actually following it.  I am terrible at following patterns. Luckily, I can usually look at a quilt and just know how to create it, and how to modify it to fit my fabric and size requirements.  This pattern is not too fussy, and gives the fabrics a little bit of a more modern twist.  The frame fabric is Kona Chocolate.  I just love that shade of brown.

I went with solid Mossy Oak camouflage on the back, so that this quilt could be flipped over and really used while hunting for a little extra warmth.  I chose to quilt with stippling, as I thought it would blend the best with the camouflage on the back in case it actually needs to be called into camouflage action.

Oh, who am I kidding here?  You all know it's my favorite kind of quilting and I do it almost all of the time anyway!

Rather than using Kona White for the label, I used Kona Parchment, which blended a little better.

You can see the quilting better in this picture (the obligatory rolled quilt shot), and I have to say that this is really some of the best FMQ I think I've ever done.  I've been working on spacing and keeping my curves smooth, and I'm happy with how it turned out.  Glad the quilting shows on the front, at least!

I hope my brother in law loves it, and I certainly think it's a little more fitting for him than his bunny quilt.  :)   One more Christmas gift done.  Whoop!

An Outdoorsman's Quilt

A lesson on stereotyping-

My brother in law is such an outdoorsman.  He hunts and fishes all the time.  Funny how two brothers from the same parents can be so wildly different, as Mr. MQI doesn't really do either.

I'm making a quilt for him that fits with his outdoorsy personality.

It's so surprising sometimes to learn what is meaningful for certain people.  By that, I mean that you might not necessarily think that a big, burly manly-man would really care whether or not his sister in law made a quilt for him.  Y'all, I hereby stand corrected.

My brother in law has made a couple of comments in the past along the lines of "Hey, where's my quilt?" and I just thought he was joking.  Recently, he made sure that I realized that he was not joking at all, and that he really would like one.  He let me know that he didn't care what kind of quilt it was, and just to illustrate his point, he said he still uses an old quilt he's had since childhood.  That quilt apparently has bunnies on it- so let that be a lesson to all you stereotypers out there.  Outdoorsy, manly-men can use and love bunny quilts.

Well, I hope that this one will be a little more fitting for him, and I hope he loves it.  I'm planning to back it in a solid piece of Mossy Oak camouflage so that if he wants to actually use it while hunting, he can flip it over and go incognito under it.

Also, the Plum and June New Blogger Blog Hop is still going strong!  Here's the list of awesome bloggers that are on the schedule this week!  Be sure to stop by an check out their fantastic projects!

Karen @ Karen, {Novice} Quilter

Anne @ PlayCrafts

Rachel @ Let's Begin Sewing...

Jan @ Sew And Sow Farm

Anna @ Quilting Along The Grain

Cath @ Wombat Quilts

Sarah @ {no} hats in the house
Christen @ Love by Hand
Julie @ 627handworks

Bricks and Mortar

Memory Quilt number two is finished!  Just for the record, that's only half as many as I actually have to make.  To get the whole story of these (eventually) four memory quilts, check out my previous posts here, here, here, and here.  This quilt needs a manly name to go with the manly fabrics and feel, so I'm calling it Bricks and Mortar, and I think it fits perfectly.

When I compare this quilt to the Western Kaleidoscope, I've noticed how even though the same fabrics were used in both quilts, the feel is completely different.  I think this one has more of a "cars and tools" or "mechanic" vibe, rather than western.  Maybe it's because the other one had so much more tan and this one has more gray.

Now that I really think about it, plaids are remarkable that way, in that they can take on several different moods- western, cars/tools, campy, nautical, preppy.  There might be more, but none are popping into my head right now, and I'm pretty sure I'm way over thinking this anyway.

I backed this with Kona Iron, and added a chambray stripe through the middle, just to break it up.  The binding is Kona Rich Red, which I'll probably do on all four memory quilts, just to give a little continuity between all of them.

As much as my eyes are tired of looking at the manly plaids, I am extremely pleased with how my stippling came out on this one.  I've really been working on more even spacing, and though it isn't perfect, I'm continually improving.  Also- not a single, solitary pucker on the back.  woo hoo!!  :)

I'm all done with plaids for awhile!  My sewing cabinet is getting a makeover this week, then I get to dive into the delicious Marmalade bundle that just came in the mail yesterday.  I swear, I was so giddy when I opened it that my husband thought I had cracked.

I'm linking up to some awesome link parties.  Click HERE for all of the buttons!

Memory Quilt #2

Last night I worked into the wee hours of the morning to finish the top for the second memory quilt.  I was inspired by the Colorbrick quilt at Stitched in Color, but I had to adjust the measurements to maximize the oddly shaped shirt fabric.

I'm planning to baste it today (the bane of my quilty existence) and start quilting on it this evening or tomorrow after church.  

I'm not as enamored with this quilt as I was with the first memory quilt, the Western Kaleidoscope, (although it is growing on me) and I've been looking at it trying to figure out why.  I think it's because overall, it's a much darker quilt.   The kaleidoscope had the tan background, and was just more interesting to look at in general.  This definitely has everything to do with the fabrics though, and not the pattern.

After this, I still have two more of these memory quilts to complete, but as I mentioned in my initial post about this topic, I only took 12 shirts to begin.  Since those shirts actually made two quilts (I only expected them to make one), I feel like I'm ahead of the game.  Thankfully, I won't be able to get more shirts until I go back to Baton Rouge, and that will be at the end of July.  Although I feel a little bit guilty for saying this because I know these are special quilts, I am tired of looking at manly plaids.

One thing's for sure- I'm expecting a fat eighth bundle of Marmalade fabric by Bonnie and Camille in the mail today and I am certainly ready to get back to some girly, summery, fun fabrics!

Western Kaleidoscope

I finished the first of the memory quilts made from my grandfather's western shirts this afternoon.   This quilt will go to my Dad, and I could not be happier with the way it turned out.  When my mom first mentioned that my grandmother wanted me to make quilts out of western shirts, my immediate thought was "how am I going to make it cute??"  Although I'm not a typical girly-girl, western plaids are certainly not fabrics I've ever attempted.  That being said, I knew it was important to her, and that my Dad and uncles would really appreciate these mementos of their father.

Like I said, I am so pleased with the way it turned out, that I couldn't resist a little bit of cheesiness in the photos, and pulled out my extremely old cowboy boots for the photo-op.  They look right at home next to this quilt, and I'm totally embracing the cheese.

I backed the quilt with Kona Coal and put a wide stripe of chambray through the middle.  I stippled the quilt with tan thread to blend with the sashing (Kona Parchment) on the front, but gave a nice contrast on the back.  I have to say that this wasn't the easiest to quilt.  Although these look like all flannels, they aren't.  They are men's dress shirt fabric.  Some of these shirts were very soft and thin, so it made it tougher to quilt (and now that we're on the subject, a real pain to piece too).  I chose Kona Rich Red for the binding, and I think it just sets the whole thing off.

*by the way, I opted not to use any of the shirt pockets on this quilt.  When I laid them out, it just took too much away from the kaleidoscope illusion.

It was difficult to find the right wording for the label of this quilt, and I'm still not sure I succeeded.  It was tricky because even though I made the quilt, it is a gift to my Dad from my grandmother, and made from his Daddy's shirts.  That's three people on one quilt label!  Here's what I came up with-

For Wes-

a gift from your Mother

handmade with love from

your Daddy's shirts

by your daughter, Kelly

June 2013

(when I made the label, I didn't think I'd get it finished before June.  May 30th is close enough, ha!)

Frankly, it's all stitched down and quilted through, so at this point, it is what it is.  I played around with lots of different ways to word it, and I honestly don't think there is a less wordy way to get all of that on there.

I love that I've had the opportunity to make this quilt for my Dad (and by proxy, my grandmother), and I hope he really loves the manliness of it.  I know he'll appreciate the memento of his father for years to come.  And, although I won't pretend that my grandfather was the greatest communicator, I'd like to think that if he were himself, he would approve of what I've done and be proud.

I'm calling this quilt Western Kaleidoscope.

I'm entering this in Quilting Gallery's weekly Quilter's Show and Tell.  The theme this week is Memory Quilts, so I thought it would fit right in!  Starting tomorrow (5/31), swing by and vote for my quilt.  At the time I entered the quilt, I had not yet decided on a name, so it is titled "PaPa's Western Shirts" in the Show and Tell.

Here's the link-  Quilter's Show and Tell.  My quilt is titled "PaPa's Western Shirts" there, since I hadn't decided on the name yet.  :)

                                                   

A Manly-Man's Quilt

As I mentioned in my last post, at my grandmother's request, I am making four memory quilts from my grandfather's western shirts for each of their sons.  He is in the end stages of Alzheimer's and I know it will mean a lot to my Dad and uncles to have a special keepsake that reminds them of the father they knew that is technically still here in body, even as he isn't in mind.  I just finished the first one and it will be my Dad's.

Here is the top all finished.  It measures 60 x 60 inches.  It is appropriately manly, don't you think?  Made from manly shirts, and paired with manly colors (Kona Parchment and Kona Coal).  And, just in case you were wondering- I hereby decree that kaleidoscope quilts can be manly as well!

Manly?...yes.  Quick and simple?...absolutely not.  Cutting and piecing this kaleidoscope quilt was by far one of the least simple patterns I've done.  I'm not saying it was incredibly difficult, but it just required more careful attention than many other patterns.

One thing that helped immensely was my wise purchase of a kaleidoscope ruler-

I don't know if the picture shows it well, but it creates a template for the main triangle pieces, as well as the corner pieces, and it's adjustable for different block sizes.  It really helped with the cutting, but the nature of the cuts still meant that it was a bit time consuming.

The ruler also came with a set of instructions for piecing the block, and they were really helpful.  Apparently it's important to piece the triangles and corners in a particular order, because I accidentally got out of order once with unfortunate results.  Again, not a pattern you can throw together mindlessly (sometimes we all need those!).

All that said, I really am happy with the resulting quilt top, and I hope my Dad loves it too.  I'm planning to back it in the same Kona Coal in the border, and I may play around with appliqueing some of the western pockets somewhere on the quilt.

I'm entering this in Quilting Gallery's weekly Quilter's Show and Tell.  The theme this week is Memory Quilts, so I thought it would fit right in!  Starting on Friday, swing by and vote for my quilt!