ideas for a sewing project?

Homegrown Tomatoes · December 07, 2007, 04:37:36 PM

I am being paid to make a couple of memory quilts. They are in memory of a young man who killed himself about two years ago, just a few weeks after his girlfriend found out she was pregnant with his child. They are to be wall hanging quilts. One is for his son, who is now about 18 months old, to be given to him when he is older. The other one is to be sent to his family (mother, father and siblings) in Mexico. It is the baby's maternal grandpa who is paying me to make the quilts. They're really nice folks, and I want to do a good job. They've given me several pictures of the man both as a child and with his girlfriend and friends, and a duffel bag of his old clothes to use for the fabric. What I can't decide is how to lay the quilt out... I'd thought about making it like an old album quilt, but then the pictures are all different sizes and shapes, so I'm not sure how that'd work out in the layout, and the center pieces would have to be quite large to accomodate the photos... any ideas/recommendations that won't put me over the size limitations of a wall-hanging size quilt (could be up to the size of a crib quilt, I guess...)? I can't imagine the little boy's perspective on it when he is old enough to understand what happened... only knowing his dad through pictures...

I guess I could lay out the pictures in between a lattice-type layout, and then make the borders more decorative... I just don't want it to be boring...and I've got to get on with it! This is perfect weather for working on stuff like this.

glenn kangiser · December 07, 2007, 05:53:42 PM

Amanda is a big time quilter, but not here as much lately. Hopefully she will drop by.

December 07, 2007, 06:17:28 PM

Have you considered just doing a crazy quilt? A hodge podge collection of his clothes and photos (I assume you're printing those on fabric) overlapping each other (with photos more visible than clothes, obviously) and doing decorative stitches along seam lines.

I'm rolling around an idea for a memory quilt for an aunt who died this spring and so far that's the direction I'm going...

And a crazy quilt could easily be any size you choose.

Deana · December 07, 2007, 08:41:23 PM

I made 3 memory quilts last year and agree with Erin, the crazy quilt is the easiest way to put together a collection of un-matching fabrics, especially if they are of different weights. I enlarged the templates of these 4 blocks http://www.cfqgalaska.org/botm/botm2004.html#august (scroll down to the "August" block for the templates)
and sashed them with fabric chosen by the person ordering the quilts. For one of the quilts (the grand-daughter's) I also used a crazy heart template, alternated crazy blocks with the crazy heart block, but can't seem to find the site where I found that block pattern. It would be easy to incorporate the pictures in a similar way.
I only had 10 clothing items to work with and the colors ranged from pastel to primary colors, bottom weight to knit. I used one huge multi color package of embroidery floss(2 strands at a time) and covered every seam with simple herringbone stitch, the more the color of the floss 'clashed' with the fabric the better the overall project looked. I sashed and backed the blocks with a deep blue/white calico print fabric and used a light weight batting. Due to time constraints(less than a month for the 3) I machine quilted them, simple outline stitch on the sashing and diagonal blocks through the crazy blocks. I thought I had pictures on the web somewhere but think they are on one of my retired hard drives. I'll keep looking and see if I can come up with a picture. They turned out really nice and now that I've had a break from fabric/color overload I've raided my scrap bin and cut out the pieces to make one for myself..... Deana

Sassy · December 07, 2007, 09:17:10 PM

I've wanted to make the "rag" style - for some reason, I like the way they look - pretty simple compared to some of them, too.

Don't know if that would be good for a picture quilt, though. Thanks for the links, Deanna!

December 07, 2007, 11:24:27 PM

Sassy, I love the rag style too, but I wonder if they are a nightmare when you wash them...if the threads make this huge tangled mass that takes hours to trim off? I made a rag rug out of torn strips of sheets and it's that way. The inspiration for that disaster was a 5X7ft. sized one at a boutique in Santa Monica and I fell in love with it...until I saw the price...gasp. Unlike regular rag rugs, where the raw edges are folded to the inside of the strips before being crocheted, this one was just torn strips of fabric crocheted together into a rug. I happened upon a hotel clearance sale and bought 2 huge boxes of old white 100 % cotton sheets for something like 2 bux. I tore them into strips and then boiled the strips in various strenghts of tea and crocheted the whole mass into one huge heavy rug that resembled a cobweb disaster every time I washed it...so much for shabby chic...that rug is plain old shabby. Glad I saved the 400 and something dollars by making my own, a 2 dollar investment in a disaster is much easier to deal with.
I know they sell kits at the fabric stores to make the quilts out of polar fleece in the rag style but somehow that doesn't seem very homespun to me. Wonder what the de-fray disaster trick would be? Deana

Sassy · December 08, 2007, 01:31:07 AM

My ex-MIL sewed one for one of my granddaughters - it's beautiful & it's been washed 100's of times, I'm sure. She carried it around all the time. Made of flannels, it still looks great! There never was a problem with strings coming off or tangling. It's nice & thick, too. My ex-MIL is very meticulous - I'll have to ask her how she made it.

It looks pretty simple to make - I've been looking in catalogs for this style & they are over $100 - I think $120 from Montgomery Wards - don't want to spend that much!

tanya · December 08, 2007, 10:35:29 AM

The crazy quilt is a good option even without pictures crazy quilts of former clothes bring back a lot of memories. I have some my mother made nad she sued ond fabrics from my little sisters and my old clothes (70's fabrics) and they are very cool.

Homegrown Tomatoes · December 08, 2007, 11:12:55 AM

I think the crazy quilt is a good idea, and I hadn't thought of doing one for this project, but considering the situation, and considering that I have such a weird variety of fabrics to work with, I think it makes a lot of sense.

I made a ribbon/rag quilt for my niece several years ago and she loves it... she can find scraps of my old prom dresses and the fabric from the flower girl dress she wore in my wedding, as well as my old curtains and so forth.

December 08, 2007, 12:30:47 PM

The crazy quilt is probably my next favorite - only because it would be a lot harder to make than the rag quilt

Homegrown Tomatoes · December 08, 2007, 04:02:55 PM

OK, sat down and sketched it all out this morning... the crazy quilt is going to work. I'll have 12 blocks (12 photos) and each one will be a crazy patch made out of the clothes they gave me. Appliqued on top of the crazy quilt blocks will be hearts with the photos ironed on them. Now, getting it all done will be the trick as kids are going stir crazy today.

Homegrown Tomatoes · December 10, 2007, 03:45:43 PM

I'll have to post pictures after I finish one...

Homegrown Tomatoes · December 12, 2007, 11:02:39 AM

As I copied the pictures for the quilt the other day, it made me so sad. There were pictures of the young man as a little boy, and he was so cute. I kept thinking that he was someone's big brother, someone's little boy, someone's boyfriend... what a waste.

There were also pictures of his little boy, who looks just like him, and it is sad to think of him growing up only knowing his father through some random pictures on an old quilt.