I have a client who asked me to make 8 quilts in memory of his mother. He shared with me one of the quilts she made when his grandmother passed away. What an honor it is for me to help carry on this lovely tradition and to be entrusted with their special memories.
It took 56 emails and probably an equal number of text messages, but this is the beautiful collection I created. They were interested in the pajama/brick quilt. They sent a huge box filled with pajamas and, mostly, tops. Some of the fabrics were flannels and others, slippery-type fabrics. As you can see, they were colorful. It doesn’t seem to matter how disparate the colors and patterns are, they all seem to go together in the end.
This kind of project can be daunting to start. My client asked for 8 quilts, but I also saw jeans and t shirts in the box. So I decided I would start by cutting the bricks. It took a long time but I ended up with 400 blocks. I then calculated what I would need to make a nice throw and determined I could make five, with only one being slightly shorter than the others.
The next job was to select backings. I love the colors my client and his wife selected and also love the variety of minky backings: hide, chenille, chevron, and lattice designs.
After I finished the pj quilts, I proposed that we use all the denim for a quilt. It worked out perfectly in an 8 x 11 grid of 7.5″ blocks. It’s backed in a rich, red luxe from Joanns. It’s heavy!
Finally, I proposed memory pillows with the t shirts. I combined two shirts on each pillow. So we ended up with nine items, but my client was sure to claim both a quilt and pillow.
