For months my house has been taken over by bits and pieces of men's shirts.
My cousin died in March, and at his funeral, his wife asked us to make a quilt from his dress shirts.
Turns out she found 55 coloured shirts, so the project grew from one quilt to at least four.
I volunteered to take the blue shirts, as well as a few orange ones,
to make quilts for his two sons, one still a teenager, and the other in his early twenties.
This project grew even further when we realized how much fabric is really in an XL size shirt.
My mother made two quilts from the aqua and black shirts in that closet,
my aunt figured out how to make two from the grey and lilac shirts,
and my cousin made a quilt from the pink and grey shirts, and gave me her scraps.
So that got us up to seven quilts, enough to give to the extended family.
Here's a couple of shots of them laid out on a table.
I made the blue and orange one.
I still had lots of scraps, but I'm finding this project emotionally exhausting,
so I handed a pile of cut squares to my mom and she finished another top.
That's eight now.
A photo of the quilted in label in the two blue quilts I made.
Since Sunday, I've been sewing sleeve plackets and yokes with labels and shirt hems
into a string quilt. I'm about 10 long seams from being completed.
This last project seems even more personal, since I'm using bits and pieces from the inside yoke
or the shirt tails that are usually tucked in.
Yesterday I found myself thinking of losing my own loved ones,
and how hard it would be to lose my husband in mid-life
and I had to stop sewing.
There's no moral here,
except I think fabric from clothing carries more weight than yardage off the bolt.
These shirt parts have been speaking to me in a personal way.
We plan to take beauty shots of all of the quilts before we present them.
They are all very different, and all very beautiful.
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7 comments:
I look forward to seeing the "beauty shots" of these quilts. I sympathize with your feelings and thoughts about missing people who have died. After my mother died, I took her sweatshirts and made a small quilt out of the best parts of them, then gave it to my dad.
He thanked me for it, but a couple years later he gave it back to me. He said it felt like mom was giving him a hug when he put it around him, and it was too hard on him because he missed her so. By then he'd remarried, so he wasn't alone anymore.
Good Luck!
I believe quilts have magic. It’s in our touch when we make them. I can only imagine how much love and emotion is in those old shirts. They are indeed truly magical quilts now. I can also understand how much of an emotional toll it has taken to make them. But they are indeed gorgeous.
First, I am sorry for your loss. What an enormous task, but with so many helping out many beautiful quilts were made. I am sure each person that receives a quilt will treasure it. I am looking forward to the beauty shots. I could sure use some inspiration. I had big plans of making each one of my siblings a quilt using our Dad's shirts, but so far I only have one done. I need to make at least 5 more. Dad passed in 2015 so I am not doing very good.
I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope that these quilts provide years of comfort for you family, and that someday the pain of making them recedes into the distance. They are beautiful!
What a perfect post . . . I am sure that these have exhausted your emotions - they surely would mine. And your comment about losing loved ones is such a poignant reminder to enjoy every day and never miss an opportunity to share a hug or a bit of time. Whatever else we are working on will wait. Time will not. LOVELY and deeply meaningful quilts -- kudos to all of you for making these.
That would be a difficult quilt to make, but how wonderful that you have members of your family who also quit so you could share the work, and how generous of all of you to make so many quilts so that the extended family members could have their own quilt.
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