I’ve been on the road again this week. This time to teach at the AQS show in Des Moines, IA. It was a great show – over 1600 quilts and loads of great vendors! I went with my dear friend, Linda, and we had a wonderful time. Here we are in front of one of my entries entitled: Cherry Baskets.
I made this quilt with my rather large collection of cherry fabrics and it really makes me smile. Here’s a second floor overview of the show with a big finger pointing at my quilt (just for fun :-))!
Now that your up to date on my latest travels (it’s been crazy :-)), here’s this week’s topic:
A few months ago I received an email from Lynn, a neighbor who lived behind us when we lived in Dousman. This was her message:
“My mom passed away 4 months ago and the hospital gave our family a quilt. There are 4 siblings and one quilt, which is the dilemma. Can you help me or direct me to someone that could? My thought would be to have the quilt divided into 4 pieces, however I’m not experienced at all, in how to do that. Thank you in advance for your time, I truly appreciate it. I look forward to hearing from you.”
And here was the picture she attached to the email:
I called her and said I would be happy to help. We both agreed that cutting the quilt into quarters wouldn’t be the best option.
Because it was only tied, I recommended she cut the knots, un-sew the binding (it was actually the back of the quilt turned to the front), take off the borders, and then we could get together and discuss the next step. She brought the disassembled quilt over and we sat on the floor brainstorming.
Since it was made of 8″ squares of Christmas fabrics, I suggested we take the quilt apart a little further and resew the squares into 4 table runners. She liked the idea! Here are the runners pre-borders (only one white square needed to be added to the original 15):
Next, the borders were attached. There was enough fabric from the original borders to do one in the light green and two in the dark. Praise the Lord, I had the same green fabric in my stash for the border on the fourth runner:
Next they were layered with batt and backing (there was enough from the original for all 4). I decided to turn them, rather than using binding (this will be the topic of next week’s post :-)). Once they were turned, I machine quilted them 1/2″ from the edge and in the ditch around the blocks (even though I greatly dislike “ditch” quilting). Then I chose to quilt hearts in the squares. I used a heart shaped “Mix and Match Template™” and traced around it with a sliver of soap in the red and a “Frixion™” pen in the white.
I’ve been wanting to try the Frixion™ pen for awhile and was pleased with the ease of marking. These pens are made by Pilot™ and were created for use on paper. The ink disappears with heat, like the friction from erasing on paper. The quilt world discovered them because the ink disappears with the heat of ironing! I was a little concerned about the long term effect of using this tool. I did a bit of testing and will share my results in a future post.
So – on to the memorial runners:
The free-motion quilting of the hearts was a joy and the table runners were finished quite quickly.
I hope Lynn and her siblings will be pleased.
Have you created a memorial quilt? Have you received one? Have you ever needed to make one quilt into more than one? We’d love to read your story!
PS I received pictures of quilts made by quilters in the Mariner’s Compass class I taught in Janesville a few week’s ago and I thought you might like to see them. This one is from Peggy Nelson:
And this table runner is by Valerie Cook:
Laura Krasinski says
Looks like a fun time!! Great job with the table runners.
Linda says
When my Dad passed away, I was given his flannel shirts to make into a quilt for my mom. A dear friend’s husband passed away recently. She is going to give me his shirts (not t-shirts) to make a sofa quilt. I just cut squares out of the shirts. I use the pockets and the button fronts. sorry I have not pictures.
Carol Lamont says
Memorial quilt made into table runners – how wonderful, and inspiring…….and what a good friend you are to your former neighbor! Thanks so much for sharing!
Carol
Tari Hammons says
I am making 4 different quilts out of shirts,(not T-shirts) from my husband’s cousin who passed away. I am making his kids, wife and granddaughter quilts. I made a shirt template, and am tracing his wild hawaiin type shirts, then fusing them onto backing. Each quilt will have a different background. Then in the center I am putting a picture of the person with him.It has been healing for me, too!!
Pat says
Hi Chris, I loved what you did with the quilt on your latest blog. Now, everyone has a memory of Mom.
Lori M says
Hi Chris, when my mother passed away I decided to finish up the angel wallhanging I was planning to give her for Christmas. She loved angels. I had been hand quilting it with metallic thread, but finished it by machine. Then each of us siblings wrote something on the back of the quilt (the backing was plain) and the wallhanging went on top of her urn when we buried her ashes. It helped a little to ease the sadnes by burying our blessings with her. God bless!