Memorial Quilt: Fallen Soldier

I have been working on a memorial quilt for the daughter of a Colonel who lost his life while serving in Iraq. 

When I received the box of clothes I was more than moved at the items that I had been sent. Included in the box was his favorite shirt (a red, white & blue Ralph Lauren cotton shirt), his camouflage jacket, a blue polo shirt and his dress uniform - in which he walked his daughter down the aisle when he gave her away at her wedding (black dress jacket & blue trousers with gold ribbon stripe.)

The quilt pattern is a Lone Star - which I think can be a very majestic pattern.

 

 There are feather swags between the points of the stars.

Each star point is made from the gold ribbed ribbon that went down the side of the dress pants. 

If there were any fabric remains the family had asked for a pillow or a doll. We had enough fabric for both. The pillow has many of the patches that I took off the camouflage jacket. The doll is made from some of the camouflage jacket and shirt material. Her hat is made from a cuff from the camouflage jacket and I added some gold buttons from the black dress jacket. My girls were cuckoo over this doll and kept coming to ask where the doll was, to stare at her AND asking when they would get a doll too.

The backing is flannel and the batting is wool. Even with the dense quilting the quilt was not stiff. Here is a shot of the back of the quilt for those of us who are obsessed with seeing the back of a quilt too!

Once the quilt was folded up ready to go home it looked so regal - I felt quite overwhelmed. I do hope that the family love it.

Memorial Quilt: Firefighters Family

I was given a large amount of material for these quilts. These quilts are made for two 5 year old twin boys whose father (a firefighter) passed away.

In the basket of materials I was given were t-shirts, mens white vests, bandanas, football jerseys, sports shorts - a whole lot of materials that you would perhaps never dream would go so well together into a quilt. I mixed all the different materials together in their color groups and they look amazing.

Memorial Quilt: Men's Cotton Shirt Quilt

This is a quilt made for a family whom lost their father. Their father loved to wear bright colorful shirts.

I don't often see patchwork patterns that I immediately want to make but when I saw this pattern called Simply Woven by Jessica Kelly - I knew that it would make an amazing quilt from recycled materials. I made my quilt a little larger (it is probably around a king sized quilt) - I had so many shirts I didn't want to waste them!

I also added a border to my quilt as the family have more traditional tastes and I think formal borders always make things seem a bit more traditional in style.

Labels of Love

Often I add labels to the quilts I make - often I use the tag line 'handmade with love' those who know me well know how true this tag line is. But for the Kilt & Coat Quilts - these have a different label.

Memorial Quilt: Coats & Kilts - Quilt #4

This is the final quilt in a series of 4 quilts made for a family with deep Irish roots. The father would travel to Ireland over the years and bring back Irish kilts and traditional dresses. All these garments were kept alongside some gorgeous childhood coats.

Memorial Quilt: Coats & Kilts - Quilt #3

This is the 3rd quilt that I made for a family of three sisters and one brother from a box of childhood coats & kilts that their mother had collected. You can view the first quilt here and the second quilt here.

This is the 3rd quilt I finished - it is another Drunkards Path pattern.

But I hope I have given the traditional pattern a little twist. I quilted this quilt in straight lines using blue, red & white threads - I tried to mimic a sort of tartan pattern in terms of the lines placement & order.

Memorial Quilt: Kilt & Coat Quilt #2

This is the 2nd quilt that I made for a family from a box of childhood coats & kilts that was discovered in their mother's attic when she passed. You can view the first quilt here.

This time I'm sharing the back of the quilt first - because it is kind of fun, modern & minimal. Can you guess what the front design is?

Memorial Quilt: Kilt & Coat Quilt #1

I have been working on these quilts - four in total - for a long time. I am excited to share the results with you.

The quilts are made from kilts and coats that were in the families mothers attic. There were kilts, coats & traditional Irish dresses from their childhood. The fabrics, textures and colors were bright and beautiful - a mixture of wools, velvets, cotton (and maybe some mystery blends.) 

Memorial Quilts from Kilts & Coats

When ever a family comes to me and asks for help making some quilts from their memories I feel utterly honored. I have been asked to make 4 quilts from a collection of wool kilts & coats and various other dresses etc. This is a big big project.

These clothes are from the families mother's attic - whom sadly passed last year. She had saved these beautiful coats & clothes from the children's childhood years as well as every kilt that their father had brought back from Ireland. There are some amazing details on these clothes that I am really excited about.

Memory Pillows: 9/11 Firefighters Memorial Quilt

It has been a while now since I presented the Memorial quilt I made for the only Fire Marshal to loose his life in 9/11. It was such a great project.

When I work with families on quilts I always keep every single scrap until I know what the families want to do with them. And by every last scrap I mean EVERY label, button, seam, tiny sliver - everything is kept together until I know what the families wishes are.

On this occasion the family asked for two small cushions - one for each of the grandchild.

Memorial Quilt: Bear Paw Shirt Quilt

When I was first given the materials for this quilt I was a little scared. I had no idea how to make this pile of shirts into a beautiful quilt for the family.

Diary of a Longarm: Day 6-8

I have loaded the memorial quilt that I have been avoiding to quilt so long on Bernie. Loading on a longarm really is so easy and the lack of 505 spray & endless smoothing while on my knees made me feel like there is hope in this purchase.

For this quilt I was using ladies shirts. All sorts of different patterns & materials. The family wanted to use the quilt in their house in Vermont - so we agreed on the traditional Bear Paw pattern.

Memorial Quilt: T-shirts

This is not your typical t-shirt quilt.

If you have not had the pleasure with working with t-shirts before - they are much harder to quilt than you would imagine. The material is not conducive to any complex piecing, non bulky seams and free motion quilting. When I was given these t-shirts (from a family whose Grandmother had passed away) I wasn't sure what I would do with the huge array of colors - the t-shirts also vary in their 'stretch', weave/texture, sheen and thickness.

Quilting this quilt was a mammoth effort. I certainly enhanced my arm and shoulder muscles pushing it through Bernie.

The quilting pattern is feathers - into flowers - into leaves - into swirls and finally into curvy lines. I hope that the quilting brings some movement to an otherwise blocky design. This is the back of the quilt. This is the most complex quilting design I have taken on so far - and I do have to thank my Craftsy lesson with Angela Walters for the skills I have picked up here.

I followed the change in colors with the change of free motion quilting patterns. 

Even the binding is from a t-shirt.

After I had finished the quilt I washed the quilt on a hot wash and dried it on a hot wash too - this treatment helps the t-shirts helps to 'settle in' some what to the way I have been asking them to comply.

I'm looking forward to seeing how far I can take quilting t-shirts in the future!

Technical Info:
Batting: Quilters Dream Wool Batting 100% Wool
Backing Fabric: 110" Wide Quilt Backing Butterfly White
Top: Client provided  t-shirts
Binding: Clients provided t-shirts
Quilting Thread (Top & Bobbin): Sulky® Clear Premier Invisible Thread

9/11 Firefighters Memorial Quilt

I don't think I have posted any photos of myself on this blog apart from this one. I'm pretty camera shy. But here is a photo of me presenting the 9/11 Firefighters Memorial Quilt at the New York City Fire Museum on 9/11 this year.

9/11 Memorial Firefighters Quilt

Today I am in NYC presenting this quilt to the family of Ronald Bucca - the only Fire Marshall who lost his life in 9/11. There is so much I could say - but instead here are some photos of the finished quilt and my words for the speech which I will make before presenting the quilt in front of some 150 people.

Front

Back - which incorporates all the remaining t-shirt material - as well as arms!

"When Jessica invited me to make this quilt for her I was touched that she trusted me enough to cut up her father's t-shirts and turn them into this blanket she had dreamed for her children. A happy blanket, filled with color, love and memories - she has called it a map of memories of her father.

During the making of this quilt I have thought about Ron Bucca a tremendous amount. I never had the pleasure of meeting Ron Bucca but as far as I can work out he was a true American hero - someone who dedicated his life to his family, his country and his mission to save lives. I know his loss has left a hole in many people's hearts - but especially for the Bucca family whom surprise me each time I meet them with their kindness, generosity, warmth and continued lust for life after such a tragic event.

I am honored to have been a part of their healing process by making this quilt. I am currently filing my 501(c)3 papers to form 'Quilting A Memory' which will provide free quilting services to those service men & women who have lost their life in service of their country. I am truly passionate about recycling clothes and uniforms into beautiful quilts and I hope that I will be able to reach others with my work too.

And finally I especially want to thank Chief Fire Marshal Robert Byrnes and those at the Bureau who so kindly agreed to pay for this quilt in honor of Ron, his daughter Jessica and his granddaughters Isabel & Emmy.

Thank you for listening & bless you all."

Memorial labels on the back of the quilt.

My favorite heart from the quilt.

There was a lot of free motion quilting in this piece.

Wrapped in a ribbon and ready to go to home.

9/11 Firefighters Memorial Quilt

When I had the privilege of making the Fallen Soldier Quilt. Something changed in the way I approached my sewing. When I first started my blog it was due to my dear childhood toy Rachael Rabbit. This handmade toy meant so much to me. I loved it. It meant so much to me and still does. Making things filled with love and meaning means the world to me - and it is why I make things - I want to touch people in the same way that Rachael Rabbit touched me.

I have been working on this quilt for some time now. A family came to me and asked me to make a quilt for the granddaughters (4 & 2) from this Fire Marshall's t-shirts.

This man was an all American Hero. He was a loving husband, loving farther to two children. He ran marathons. He served as a Green Beret in the Vietnam War,  he was in the reserves as a paratrooper for the Army Special Forces and he was a NYC firefighter before being promoted to Fire Marshall. He was the only Fire Marshall to have lost his life in 9/11.

As we discussed ideas for the quilt it was clear that they wanted this to be a happy and colorful quilt. This quilt was to be a joyful celebration of his life for his granddaughters. A request for hearts on the quilt made me to come up with this design - a cascading rainbow of hearts. 

Problem was the t-shirts we had were dark colors tan, red, brown, grey, green & blue.

I made my templates for the hearts from old cereal packets & packing tape. They are surprisingly sturdy.

We agreed that the t-shirts would be cut into heart shapes, we would add some other colored fabrics to the quilt as well which would house all the t-shirt emblems etc. The remaining t-shirt material would be used on the back of the quilt.

I have nearly finished the quilt. I will post pictures soon.

I feel so honored and blessed to have been given these opportunity to make these memorial quilts. It is something that has touched my heart in such a way that I want to pursue making more of these quilts for families. Taking clothes or uniforms and turning them into something beautiful, practical, loved and full of memories.