An offer to quilt something for the family of a deceased loved one, Jonna, taken too early by cancer, turned into a request to make four quilts from clothing of their beloved wife and mother of three girls.
A tree had symbolic meaning to the family and was a permament memory, so I took that as my inspiration and drafted this design concept. Originally desired at about 60" square, they ended up 54" square based on fabric limitations.
From that, and the two bins of clothing that they gave me, most which was knit fabric and heavy jeans, I chose items that might have special memories to them because they had unique qualities (vs. white t-shirts with no writing, etc.) i.e. unique textures --fleece, corderoy, etc; pajamas; logo'd items.
Since there were four to be made, spreading out the unique items across all four, and grouping for individuals also was taken into consideration. i.e. the college shirts were from the couple's graduate school days but the high school shirts were more about the girls recent varsity experiences.
Warm & Natural batting was used on all four. The border fabric on each quilt was also used for the binding and backing on each respective quilt.
Here are the results.
For Monty:
For each daughter:
With the quilting, I tried to emphasize the bark of a tree on the trunk, extending out into the 'sky'(blue) blocks, flowers in the pink/red/lavender/purple blocks, water behind the tree, grass or rocks to the sides of the tree trunk at the bottom.
Bits of fabric from each of their individual border/backs are incorporated into the center of each quilt.
In each border, on the left and right, is written her favorite scripture. "I will still be joyful and glad, because the Lord God is my Savior." Hab. 3:18
I was given permission by the husband to create something for his mother-in-law. Inspired by a design by Ann Kelly (a fellow trip-mate to Ireland last year), I created this baby size quilt to give to Jonna's mother. I love how it turned out. Thank you Ann for the inspiration! I pieced together a set of plaid knit pajama bottoms for the backing and added the sashing and binding fabrics from my own stash. Jonna's mother explained that she always felt Jonna wanted everything white, and the daughter's would say that Jonna's favorite color was red. So, incorporated those two colors predominently with the jeans and enjoyed setting them to look like light is hitting the wall with lighter jeans to the upper left shading to the darkest jeans in the lower right. I've named this "God's My Foundation". White & warm batting and the Popcorn pantograph was used for the quilting.
In the midst of this, I had a commission due by July 3, for a 19th wedding anniversary. Due to getting sick, I didn't quite make the early pickup requested on June 28, but he was sick too, and it was still well received. Always a fun process to work with people who are not quilters or design artists, but they still want to convey a message of love to their loved one. After finding the right line of fabric, I adapted the design provided by the fabric company to work for the client's desired outcome. The center portions will sit on top of the bed and the borders hang around the visible sides of the bed. Although photos in the blocks were originally requested, the client ultimately liked the idea of a collage of photos incorporated into the label. This quilt is 96"x121". Wool batting was used and it is quilted using the 'Wild at Heart' pantograph. I don't have a computerized machine, so I follow the panto with a laserlight.
So...that makes 6 finishes in July (all started in June!), and 13 finishes so far in 2013!
LOVE that tree!
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