A Finish Full of Memories.

Hello there.  I finished a quilt!  Hurrah!

A cousin of mine lost her husband 5 years ago.  She requested me to make her a quilt out of his shirts.  She didn't ask too much for specifics, just wanted the back of one shirt as the center, this cross.

I don't always go into projects with an exact design or plan in mind.  She did say she wanted it to be symmetrical and that was pretty easy to abide by.  I used the light fabrics to make the center into a star around the cross.

Next I decided I didn't want to do the whole quilt on the diagonal so I added large triangles and a solid red border to bring it back to square.

Trying to give it some continuity I added another border of half square triangles in solids.  He wore western button up shirts as you may have guessed.  I had LOTS of designs and patterns to work with.  Some of the shirts just had embroidered designs on the chest sections.  I used them in several spots in the top to make corners.

At this point I changed my mind again! I cut several of the remaining shirts into squares and ended up putting it back on the diagonal!

I added another solid border to break up things.  This quilt has a lot going on with all of the different fabrics!  I also made her a number of pillowcases out of the shirt fronts.  She had a few specific shirts she wanted in her pillowcases she plans to keep for herself.  I was able to use more of those shirts to create a star block in each of the four corners.  I once again used the half square triangle border to try and keep my continuity.

More triangles! I did use my treadle as usual to do all of the piecing.  I just love using that machine!

I decided to take a picture of the top once I finished it and I sure picked the wrong day.  It was sooo  windy!

After snapping and snapping pictures I finally got one that caught an almost complete view!

I was really pleased with how it all came together.

I probably should have done another practice project with Miss Vivian but I was so anxious to get started that I just put this one on the frame and had at it!  I thought about trying something fancy but with all that is going on with patterns and colors I just did a simple loopty loop quilting pattern.

And it is done!  I was able to deliver it over Thanksgiving and was so pleased to hear she loved it!

For the back she requested I use his old jeans.  It adds a lovely weighted feel to the quilt!

I even got brave while quilting and put his name in a few times.

Thankful to have the opportunity to do this quilt for her!

Alissa
 

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