I am currently working on a memory quilt for a friend whose father passed away. She had unsquared pieces of his cotton and flannel work shirts. I made chose a square size and squared them up. Some were so thin...I used interfacing designed for silk fabric on the back of them. It didn't really add bulk. Decided the size we wanted the quilt to be, then chose square in a square blocks. We decided to use 4 square patches for the center of the other blocks needed to achieve the quilt size. If you have enough fabrics you can make the 4 squares from what you picked up also. We had to purchase extra complementary fabrics. We chose 2 fairly neutral colors for the outside part of the squares, one a light and one a dark. This balanced all the other colors we had going on and provided symmetry.
We used 3 borders in different widths to highlight the repeated theme colors in the quilt. We didn't purchase the border fabric til the squares were done so we could audition different ones. The different types of fabric won't hurt a thing just stabilize the stretch ones. Sorry I don't know the name of the stuff. Purchased at LQS as being designed as a stabilizer for silk fabric. We are going to use an all over quilting pattern to hop blend things together. She chose a variation on baptist fan - it reminded her of plowed rows in a field. Let each part of the quilt bring a memory to your mind.
Let us know how you decide to proceed with your memory quilt.
Last edited by Silver Needle; 06-04-2012 at 08:20 PM.