Hi everyone, I come to each of you for some advice. My mother-in-law passed away in September of Alzheimer's and I would like to make a very special gift for my husband and his 2 sisters. I would like to make each one of them a different quilt out of these gowns. Does anyone have any pattern ideas that I may use? I want to make great memory quilts for my husband and sister-in-laws because they all helped in caring for her while she was ill. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

What fabric(s) are you using? If the gowns are cotton, any quilt block will do. If flannel, stick to a simple block. If various fabrics, you might want to sort by fabric type to make the quilt easier to sew.
Another possibility is to put her photo onto fabric as the center, with blocks of nightgown fabric around it.

if flannel you can pratically make any block....regualar cotton as well but if a stretchy cotten like t shirt material..I prefer to bond it with another fabric so when you cut it apart it has substance and doesnt stretch in every direction. I cut the clothing apart and decide a pattern from the amount of fabric I have to work with ..Usually with most memory quilts you have to add some accompanying fabric to make a design or to make it big enough...which only enhances the quilt but its still a memory quilt...you can add embellishments or photos too

Thinner or stretchy fabric, I would back with a light weight fusible interfacing first. Most fabric stores carry this, and it is pretty reasonably priced. It will help stabilize the fabric, and it makes thin, well worn fabric more hearty too.

I am working on one now for my neighbor. It is all single knit. I used lightweight iron on pellon on the back and am doing a dp9. It is working out quite well.

I made some memory quilts out of material (poly) that my sister in law had when she passed away for her friends. I just did strips at an angle. You could to strips in a quilt as you go so if the fabric is thin, stretchy, whatever, you are securing it as you go.

I made 16x20 wall-hangings out of FIL's shirts and pajama pants. Keeping the polyester and blend fabrics from stretching was slightly tricky. I used 3" (finished) squares on point.

I would use a heavy starch solution instead of fusible to stabilize the fabric. I'd cut the nightgowns apart in order to have flat pieces of fabric to work with, paint on a 1:1 solution of Sta-Flo liquid laundry starch and water with a large wallpainting brush, toss in the dryer, and then iron with steam -- all before cutting the fabric.

The pattern may depend a lot on the nightgown fabrics themselves. If they are all pastels with small printed flowers, you may need to add some white fabric to set off a pattern with lattice or sashing. I think a simple 4-patch would look nice this way, either straight or on-point. I wouldn't necessarily make each quilt in a different pattern; even with the same pattern, fabric color placement will be different.

I personally don't like putting a photo on a quilt. I would put a label on the quilt, though, with the name of the person being remembered.

I just made 3 quilts out of nighties my Mom made for her grandchildren (last one hasn't received yet so I have not posted). I made one pinwheel, one rail fence, and a New Wave (from Oh! Fransson! blog). I found that I had a lot of disparate fabrics, so I added sashing to the first and last to make them "play nice" together, and built the same sashing color into one end of the rails in my railfence. All 3 patterns worked exceptionally well for a group of very different fabrics all plunked together.

What a thoughtful idea!