Help needed on designing a memory quilt!!
 

When my FIL died this past Spring, I suggested to my stepMIL that I make a memory quilt. She had already donated all his clothing (this was even before the funeral) but when she was at the lake house this summer she found a few items and now wants that memory quilt. So I have 1 t-shirt that I'm thinking could be a center medallion, 1 cotton Hawaii shirt (browns,black, beige); 1 cadet blue loose weave "silk" sports coat; a red/black tie; a red striped knit shirt; a black knit shirt; a fushia/blue/white knit shirt--and his swim trunks(which actually feel more cottony and are also Hawaii print browns/blue/beige--and a well worn fleece jacket. Since he was extremely large, there is lots of fabric--but what to do??!! I think with stabilizer I can use the knit shirts, obviously the t-shirt, tie, and even the swim trunks are useable (ditto the cotton shirt). I might be able to use the fleece jacket on the back, but since she wants any unused clothing back, I am not sure even with stabilizer, that the sports coat would work without lots of fraying, etc. But a design help would be GREATLY appreciated. OH--and despite the colors on all these, his favorite color was always purple.

I've made a few memorial quilts. One was made with the pattern "Glad All Over", and I used a sweatshirt my dad had for the flowers. I made another two more with simple 5" squares from the clothes. Sorry, but I won't post pictures. Since you have so much fabric, I would also consider making memorial quilts for any of his children, his siblings (and yourself!) with the leftover fabric. I've made 4 so far for my family with my mom and dad's clothes - one each for mom's 2 sisters, one each for a brother and sister, and one each left for me to make for another sister and myself. Take your time making this quilt - it's hard to do, so much emotion while making it - but well worth the effort. It will be loved and cuddled under forever.....

With the exception of the logo on the Tshirt (which you could incorporate into the backing) You could do a floating blocks quilt. If you really wanted to get into the theme, you could use a light & dark purple for the background. It's a very quick quilt to make and the consistent sashing ties all the different fabrics together.
http://www.dickwightman.com/bulletin...adowquilt.html

I would stabilize all the questionable fabrics & toss them in the wash to see how they do. If something doesn't make it thru a gentle cycle, you can show your MIL and explain why that garment was not used.

I am very slowly working on a memory quilt out of my dad's clothes. I have a wide variety of fabrics like you - I'm doing mine as a foundation-pieced crazy quilt. I'm stitching all the fabric down to squares of the thinnest muslin I could find.

thank you all for the ideas! I don't think this will be a particularly emotional quilt for me as these were all clothes he kept at the "lake house" and don't really remind me of him at all--with the exception of the fleece jacket I don't think I ever saw my FIL in any of them and they aren't even his "colors"--just what she hadn't donated yet.

I will do the stablizing and then toss into a gentle cycle on washer--hadn't thought about that at all. And the crazy quilt idea--with the exception of the T-shirt it could be workable too. One thing I'm thinking I will have to do at this point is to supplement the fabrics I have with some actual cotton--in his favorite color of purple. while the shirts are a size 3x or 4x so lots of fabric--there is just not enough contrast to actually make blocks. Do think this will be a project to work on next month while I'm recovering from knee replacement and then do the sewing after the first of the year. Thanks again--you guys are great!