CHRIS'S RETIREMENT

 Chris retired and his wife Gloria had me make him a quilt from his favorite shirts for work.  It's 58 x 72

backing

RECYCLED HEARTS

All of the red hearts are made from cotton shirts purchased at a Goodwill Store.  The shirts are always good cotton fabric, and lots of it for a great prices.  It's 54 x 72

 Gloria lost her sister-in-law and had me make 2 memory quilts for her niece and nephew.  I used a medium grey thread and quilted an all-over floral pattern, as she loved flower arranging.  It's 62 x 70.

The other one can be found here.

I made 9-patches and separated them with black to set them off

I used a dark grey for the border, and black for the binding

sunflower pattern used for quilting

a black graphic print for the back

Gloria's Memories 1

 Gloria is a friend who lost her sister-in-law.  

She had me make 2 memorial quilts for her niece and nephew.  

  Here is the other one.

There were a few different shirts to use,

 so I added the black/white checkerboards to make it a little bigger.

She had been a lung replacement recipient and had this t-shirt

I used a medium grey thread and quilted a floral design as she loved flowers.

I used a grey print on the border and a similar color for the binding

This graphic print was used for the backing

Memorial baby quilt

Heather was expecting her first baby when her father-in-law passed.  She wanted a quilt for the baby made from his shirts.  This is 49x58.  I used a thread that matches the solid blue fabric that I purchased to go with the shirts.  She did a great job of picking out shirts that all blend well.

I used Bonnie Hunter's free pattern - Weed Wacker.  (available here:  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/06/weed-whacker.html )  It's a great pattern to use when there are lots of different fabrics.

I had 11 different shirts to work with, plus one sweatshirt.  That is  the "Chicago" in the middle.

I quilted 2 hooks in each strip, and continuous curves in the blue triangles.

I carried the hook theme in the small border - that is a shirt I didn't use in the body:

The backing is a batik that fit with the shirt colors:

Patty's Memories

Patty lost her husband about a year ago, and she had me make 6 quilts from his clothing.  One for herself and her 2 adult children, and 3 for her grandkids.  The adults got a throw size, and the grandkids got crib sized.

I used 3 different patterns for each of the large quilts, and the same 3 patterns, but with smaller pieces, in the crib quilts.  All the pieces are 2" wide, but in the bigger quilts they are 6" long, and 4" long in the smaller quilts.  There was enough denim left that I was able to put a border on Patty's, and on 2 sides of her kids.

Patty's

Jen's

Jason's

The 3 crib size:

Ella's

Piper's

Julian's

She had the clothes sorted for each quilt.  They all have t-shirt logos from the Chicago major professional teams - Blackhawks, Bulls, Bears, and White Sox.  (sorry Cubs fans...) There are also t-shirts with the logo of the company he worked for.  There were also pockets from his jeans.  The adult quilts got the pockets with the red tag and logo, and the 3 crib quilts are plain pockets:

Patty's has the pocket and embroidered logo from his company that were on a denim shirt:

He enjoyed golf, fishing, and gambling, so she had me use those fabrics in the backing.

All 3 fabrics were used in each quilt. The large quilts have an extra strip of the clothing pieces to provide the necessary width

I quilted a simple meander in the smaller quilts, and a meander with loops in the larger ones.  I used a medium grey thread in all 6.

Girl Scouts

Gloria brought me the Girl Scout uniforms that her Mom and aunt wore in the 1940's.  There wasn't a lot of fabric, so the quilt is a small wall hanging - 28 x 32.   I quilted simple wiggly lines on the seams so as not to detract from the embroidery and embellishments.

She did the research and found the names of each badge so I could label them. 

I made pinwheels from the 2 different fabrics and used that as a border.

The sleeve of the tweed fabric had the troop number, region name, and a trefoil

I kept all the buttons and pockets and was able to incorporate them

The tweed uniform had embroidery on the collar

There is even a Girl Scout fabric that I found for the backing and binding