Memory quilt - freaking out
02-20-2011, 06:05 PM
#52
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: tx
Posts: 843
Originally Posted by redpurselady
I too am having a hard time making a quilt for my neighbor. Her son died and I have a laundry basket full of his clothes and t shirts. My problem is cutting up the pieces. I get this awful feeling everytime I cut into a t shirt or pair of pants.
I also have the problem that most of the clothes are knits. Not much cotton to work with. I don't want to use anything in the quilt that was not his so I'm kind of stuck.
Anyone have any ideas?
I also have the problem that most of the clothes are knits. Not much cotton to work with. I don't want to use anything in the quilt that was not his so I'm kind of stuck.
Anyone have any ideas?
02-20-2011, 07:11 PM
#53
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Ottsville, PA
Posts: 469
I've made a ton of t-shirt quilts and every one of them is loved and cherished (good workmanship or not). No one will notice or care about your skills, they will just love that the shirts are now repurposed and given a new life. Carry on and know you are a good person doing a nice thing!
02-20-2011, 07:16 PM
#55
Super Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Virginia
Posts: 1,260
I had this same felling when my husbands best friend's wife dropped off all her mother night gowns for me to try and figure out how to make a queen size quilt of all that flannel. I had never worked with flannel in a quilt before and I just looked at all them for a few weeks before I could actually bring myself to even cut them into use able fabric. I have never stressed over any quilt as much as I stress out over that one, but when it was all said and done, she loved it so much that I ended up making her a lap quilt to go with it.
Check them out, I posted them here:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-66299-1.htm
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-67501-1.htm
Check them out, I posted them here:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-66299-1.htm
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-67501-1.htm
02-20-2011, 08:22 PM
#56
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Brownwood TX
Posts: 747
I made 2 memory quilts for friends out of their father's ties. I just wish you could've seen their faces. No matter what patterns you use they are going to love it. One of the friends hung the quilt on the wall on her side of the bed so she can see it first thing and last thing of each day. She hung her Dad's favorite hat on the rod that is holding the quilt. I am so honored to have been chosen to do these quilts. They hung one of the quilts at his service. They were finished before he passed. He had retired and wasn't wearing his ties any more. So he got to see the quilts. It created a another wonderful memory for the girls and their Dad.
The quilt is going to be greatly loved and you are not going to mess up. I promise.
The quilt is going to be greatly loved and you are not going to mess up. I promise.
02-20-2011, 09:53 PM
#57
Power Poster
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: West Roxbury, Ma
Posts: 10,353
Oh don't worry. If you get started now you will have less stress but it you continue to wait then you will be stressed out and not enjoy making the quilt. You are doing a wonderful thing and it will bring a lot of comfort. So do your best but start it now. :-P
02-20-2011, 11:08 PM
#58
Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Posts: 123
You're "freaking out" is normal. I recently also made a memory quilt for a friend who lost her husband to cancer. I thought it was awful.....the pictures I printed were bad, stitches were crooked, seams didn't match. But you know what...she LOVED it. They will be wrapped up in his memory, not looking at thread color. Sounds like you have already put a lot of love into it!
I can see ugly stitches on this close-up.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]127840[/ATTACH]
02-21-2011, 04:10 AM
#59
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Port Lavaca, TX
Posts: 1,276
..
Try changing your block pattern...maybe "A SQUARE WITHIN A SQUARE" and make the inner square a block of four - that would be the one set on point.
Its easy to make, after you cut it all out, because you make enough center fours to make all the centers at once, and then add the four triangles on the sides. Perhaps you would like to add these trangles in matching pairs.
It is amazingly fast to make, and it looks far more elegantly complicated than it really is to make!
Originally Posted by Butterflyblue
Okay, well, freaking out might be an exaggeration, but not by much. I am making a memory quilt for the son of a friend. His dad was killed in an accident in July. I'm making the quilt out of his dad's shirts. I have the shirts. I have the pattern. I've tested the blocks. I bought backing fabric.
Now I need to get going if I want to have the quilt done in time for his birthday in March, but the box of fabrics, templates, pattern, etc is sitting there and I am procrastinating. I've cut into a few of the shirts, and made a grand total of three blocks - two pieced, one plain, of the 108 blocks that I'll need. I get very anxious because I'm afraid I'm going to mess it up and make something that will be painful to the kid and his mom instead of comforting.
I want to do this quilt. I volunteered to do this quilt. I love the idea of this quilt, but I am having a hard time just doing the cutting.
I'm not sure what I'm asking for here. I just really need to get it out, I guess.
Now I need to get going if I want to have the quilt done in time for his birthday in March, but the box of fabrics, templates, pattern, etc is sitting there and I am procrastinating. I've cut into a few of the shirts, and made a grand total of three blocks - two pieced, one plain, of the 108 blocks that I'll need. I get very anxious because I'm afraid I'm going to mess it up and make something that will be painful to the kid and his mom instead of comforting.
I want to do this quilt. I volunteered to do this quilt. I love the idea of this quilt, but I am having a hard time just doing the cutting.
I'm not sure what I'm asking for here. I just really need to get it out, I guess.
Its easy to make, after you cut it all out, because you make enough center fours to make all the centers at once, and then add the four triangles on the sides. Perhaps you would like to add these trangles in matching pairs.
It is amazingly fast to make, and it looks far more elegantly complicated than it really is to make!
02-21-2011, 09:03 AM
#60
Super Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: eastern Oklahoma
Posts: 1,873
You have done a wonderful thing offering to do this quilt. It will bring his Dad closer to him and the love he shared will be there. Do not think of what you see as an error. He will see his Dad in the blocks. Keep up and the blocks will add up before you know it.
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