The fabric of our lives

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.

Don't stop Friday finishes!

Don't Stop

72 inches square

pieced by my mom and  machine quilted by me

I finished this quilt a week ago and it is now in the hands of its new owner.

The name comes from the Fleetwood Mac song

and some of the lyrics are machine quilted into the darker triangles.

I did a simple motif on the dark triangles

and more intense quilting on the neutral ones.

I varied the background motifs to avoid boredom

and to give the quilt some energy and motion.

Here's a view of the quilting from the back.

it has quilt shop quality flannel on the back, 

and sale wall quilt shop fabrics on the front.

Close ups of the background quilting motifs

This quilt started as a birthday kit for my mom.

I cut four coordinating prints and background fabric into 6.5 inch HST

with the Accuquilt Go cutter.

Now my mom is an award-winning quilter who makes beautiful applique quilts,

but I wanted her to have a mindless sewing project

where she could just piece, and then put the top together.

Since all of her kids and grandkids are well supplied with quilts,

she was happy to give this to another family member dealing with a serious illness.

I bound the quilt with a zig zag print cut on the length of grain to get diagonal stripes.

I'm linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Two quilts, many hands

I've got a double finish today--

two string quilts made from one all day sew-in this winter.

I asked my friends to contribute 6 inch blocks in greens, blues, and neutrals.

We made this 60 by 80 inch donation quilt

but I still had dozens of blocks left.

So I put together this one

and added a narrow interior border, getting it up to 57 inches square.

I used some spare blocks made on the diagonal]

to get that green backing up to size.

And now I have a pair of sibling quilts waiting for a new home.

I'm linking up with other Friday finishers at

 Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF.

I'm a winner, you're a winner!

I feel like a winner because today is Louis Riel Day,

a holiday honouring the founder of the Canadian province of  Manitoba

and so I'm joining some quilty friends

in an nine-hour sew-in.

My Singer Featherweight is packed up and ready to go!

I've also chosen some winners for my seven-year blogiversary giveway.

Congrats to Diane and Scrappy Quilter.

I've sent you both a message.

 Diane said...

I read blogs on Feedly. I'm happy with it, but I can't compare it to anything else.

 Scrappy quilter said...

I use google friend connect. When I go to my dashboard, all the blogs I follow are there. I find it the best way for me to follow everyone. What a wonderful giveway. Hugs

Off the wall and ready to quilt

Three quilts basted and ready to quilt.

I may show you some more of the backs as I quilt them,

but I won't be posting the fronts until late May.

My mother and I are the featured quilters at a local show

and I want to ensure visitors have something new to see

that they haven't seen here first.

But I will leave you with a quilty pix.

Here's my son and his grandma (my mother)

with his completed donated blanket.

He sewed the entire top himself

and layered and tied it with a little help from grandma and mom.

He's doing this for a school project

and then donating the blanket to Mennonite Central Committee

to send to people in need.

The back is a pinstriped wool suiting donated by a friend.

He's proud of himself, and I'm proud of him.

He didn't complain during the sewing parts, 

and calmly rethreaded the machine when there were problems.

He learned about tension and seam allowance

and all the steps to make a top

and layer it and complete it.

He had to spend at least eight hours on this personal project

for a religion course at his school

and I estimate he spent five hours piecing

and at least three more layering and tieing it,

plus another hour for the edge finish,

where he brought the front to the back

and stitched it down with a serpentine stitch.

I'm linking to Judy's Design Wall Mondays.

Laying a quilted foundation for a marriage

My friend Yvonne (at left) invited her friends to help her hand quilt this queen-sized snowball nine-patch in time for her nephew's wedding next month. (As of Aug. 1, the quilt was completely handquilted, well ahead of the Aug. 29 deadline. I doubted it myself, but Yvonne was sure it would be ready and it is! ) Y. is a true scrap quilter, preferring to re-purpose clothing from the thrift shop rather than buy new yardage. For this quilt, she solicited bits of greens and purples and neutrals from various quilty friends and relations, including me. I even helped her make the test block of this pattern, modeled after an antique quilt found in a book. That test block, unmatched corners and all, made it into the quilt, evident in the bottom left of the photo below. She's had various reactions on this quilt, mostly from folks who aren't used to scrap quilting, but I think its perfect. It incorporates materials from a wide variety of people and is being quilted by a community of quilters who know her nephew (I think I babysat for him as an infant, and his parents live up the street from me). I like the strong geometrics, the use of values, and the bits that don't quite go but really do, because when you think about it, a good marriage has some unmatched sections in it as well. And of course, the pattern is based on the contrast of values -- you can't appreciate the light without the dark, and the dark is illuminated by the light. A week ago, the hand quilting was about one-quarter done, but Y's aunt was working on it steadily, along with a friend. Both women are in their 80s at least, and were confident they could complete it well before the wedding, since the quilt is in a frame in a basement craft room of their seniors' complex.