Memory Quilt - it's all heart !!

Following on from my previous post about the story behind my first memory quilt which you can read here, this is the second quilt made with the same clothes.

Having male coloured clothes and needing to make a quilt for a little girl, and a customer who wanted a lot of pink, to make it all work I knew I needed to reduce the size of the clothes into smaller areas. I decided that various sized hearts, machine appliqued onto a pink top would work perfectly.

I set about hand drawing various sized hearts onto heat and bond lite (I like to use lite when quilting to keep the quilt soft). I then cut out all these cute little hearts, fused them onto the various shirts, jumpers and shorts, and cut them out ready for the design process.

I decided to create a large heart out of all the little heart shapes in the centre of the quilt as this quilt was for a special little girl who's uncle was no longer with us. It really was a quilt from the heart.

After fusing them on machined stitched around each heart using a blanket stitch to secure in place.

This was probably the most tedious process of the whole quilt and did take a considerable amount of time. I find that with quilts like this I often work on projects in between so as to keep enjoying each process otherwise I may go insane !!!

Once finished I quilted with straight lines approx. 1.5 inches apart. This quilt was backed in a gorgeous grey flannel for warmth and softness and the same grey was used for binding.

I was so happy with how this turned out and the very special story behind this quilt. It's not very often (due to time restrictions on current deadlines) that I take on custom quilts these days but once in a while a special person comes into your life with a story and you know the two of you were meant to work together to create a dream come true. I feel completely blessed I could be apart of this and Lisa - thank you for putting your trust in me. I hope this gives you some warmth during this difficult time.


Till next time...happy sewing
Jenny xxx

Memory Quilts - A Special Story

A while back I made some friends some quilts made from their children's baby clothes and posted them on social media and was inundated with orders. These quilts are so precious and hold wonderful memories but are very labour intensive and very fiddly. I decided after making a few custom orders that it was not my true passion and so did not take any more orders of this type of quilt until now.

Every now and again life surprises you and pulls you in a direction that you just need to go. I was recently contacted by a lovely lady who was desperate for two quilts for her niece and nephew made out of her late husbands clothes who had unfortunately left this world way too early. She had gone to a local craft fair and asked at every counter for someone to help her but no one could. Finally as she was leaving upset and devastated a women approached her after hearing her story and gave her my business card. From there I got a phone call and after I heard this sad story and heard her heartache I just had to make these for her. Her husband's name was Jack so I knew this one was meant for me!!

So in between lots of quilting deadlines I am now almost there. It was very hard for her to part with any clothes so I have had to work with the colours and styles I was given but I know she will be happy with the end result. I decided to back them with a super soft grey flannel and some extra wide binding.

The first quilt is for her nephew so I tried to keep the quilt masculine with the clothing cut rather large with a simple block design. I quilted it in a checked design to match the shirts I was working with and am really happy with the result.

The second quilt is still a work in progress. Given the clothing was quite masculine and the owner wanted a pink overall background I tried to soften it up with some applique hearts - it was a lovely idea at the time but I'm still slowly working my way through appliqueing each and every one of them.

I plan to just straight line quilt this one across the quilt and let the hearts speak for themselves.

What are you working on this week?

Till next time... happy sewing...
Jenny

Baby Clothes Memory Quilt - Work in Progress

I have had so many enquiries regarding baby clothes memory quilts that I decided I would bite the bullet and make one and see if this was something I wanted to offer my customers in the future.

Armed with a stack of baby clothes and a 6.5 inch square ruler I began feverously chopping away these cute little squares of clothes. As this is going to be quilted on a longarm I made sure there were no zips or buttons but I did include little pockets as features.

I decided to do a standard style quilt, 6.5 inch squares, 1.5 inch sashing and a 6.5 inch outer border. To help stabilise the various fabrics I also used a lightweight iron on interfacing applied to the back of each square.

These quilts are very time consuming and it take a lot of patience to be careful not to pull at the squares when sewing otherwise it becomes extremely difficult to line up the sashing - I found out the hard way!!

I am really happy with the overall result and am now offering this range to my customers. I had such an overwhelming response to this quilt that within 2 days I had secured 4 orders - wow!! I feel very humbled that I am trusted to take someone's treasured items and turn them into a beautiful quilt. To keep myself sane I decided to only take one order a month and I'm glad I did so I also have time to make some lovely quilts of my own.

I use 100% cotton batting in between and back with a super soft flannel to make them extra cuddly. This one is now off to the quilters and I'm thinking a simple all over stipple would be perfect.

Linking up at Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday! 

Till next time.....happy sewing.