Memorial quilt patterns
 

My husband recently died and I’m going to make (hopefully) 5 or more quilts from my husbands nice cotton shirts. There are lots of plaids. Do you have any suggestions of simple patterns for quilts like this?

I am failing to find good initial links but I know I have seen more than one retirement/memorial quilt. I think the plaids and stripes lend themselves well to simple star shapes, you can play with the woven design and angles like in a Lemoyne star, or just a more simple Ohio type star. If you also have the blue chambray solids, you can make an alternating 9-patch which will make a single Irish chain around the stars.

Basic Rail Fence strips can look really good with men's shirts.

Just as a general thing, when I harvest fabric from shirts, I mostly just deal with the large solid piece from the back, but there are some other good pieces of fabric, I just cut it apart at the seams.

On the other side of things, I have seen pockets from shirts used. Either all pockets cut into consistent squares, or some pockets mixed in as a place to put some sort of note or trinket of remembrance.

Jo's Country Junction has a PDF for a 7 shirt quilt. It finishes as a throw size but you could ajust by adding borders. I hope to do this 1 with my father's shirts.

I 'm so sorry for your loss. Keeping those shirts to make quilts from seems perfect way to keep something near you and busy as well during the next few months. Plaid stars look, nice on a light background. Simple 9 patch or churn dash blocks do as well.

Here is the link to the pdf of the Seven Shirt Quilt https://www.joscountryjunction.com/w...hirt-Quilt.pdf

Here is an easy memorial quilt https://www.threadingmyway.com/2016/...nto-shirt.html

Have you done an image search for memorial quilt? https://duckduckgo.com/?q=memorial+q...ges&iax=images There are lots of ideas, some including photos and for kids clothes.

There was a quilt on one of the Facebook sites just last night that I liked and will keep it in mind. It was simply half square triangles arranged to make a zigzag going the length of the quilt. Easy enough and you can adapt this to any size blocks you want to work with to best advantage with the shirts you have. Half of the triangle will be from the shirts and the other will become the background. You may want to use yardage so the background is consistent? But that's an easy one.
I don't know how the shirts you have would go together into a Log Cabin but having the central hearth may depict the relationship you had with your husband. I had to smile at myself when I finished the quilt using my husband's shirts. With his shirts in the quilt on my bed, I'm still "sleeping with him".

I did a shirt quilt for a friend a few years ago and used the Turning Twenty pattern. It was a simple pattern and I thought it showed off the fabrics well. I used some of the pockets also. It turned out very well.

I would suggest that any block pattern that pleases you would be perfect. Bonnie Hunter has a quilt she is working on in the past few weeks with photos on her blog page. The blocks are made from men's shirts and those pieces of plaid manage too blend beautifully, so not to worry.

Illinois, I like your ideas I know more than one widow who is still "sleeping with her hubby" after his passing.

Thank you!

https://www.quiltingboard.com/vbulle...e-t254529.html

I have loved this one since the first post.