Monthly Archives: January 2021

Memory Quilt 2

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This memory quilt for my cousin was my other big project of 2020, finished in this first month of 2021. My cousin provided her mother’s clothes, which are incredibly fun and colorful. I knew I wanted to do a crazy quilt for my cousin, since she didn’t want something too big, and her mom’s clothes are truly too fun to do something simple with.

First, I inventoried all the fabric and cut off buttons and fasteners and other 3d elements I wanted to include. I chose a 3×3 layout for the back of 9 graphic t-shirts, and figured I’d do the crazy-pieced blocks to match on the front. Through the process, the front blocks ended up a bit smaller but it wasn’t a big deal.

For the piecing, I cut pieces with an uneven number of sides (a tip from the museum employee) for the center piece. Then I added on new fabric to each side, and continued until it was the right size. Since a lot of the fabric was stretchy and textured itself, I used some scrap fabric behind the block to stabilize everything.

I chose some logos to applique, just like my other memory quilt. I appliqued them on the blocks, prior to piecing the 9 blocks together. At this point I also added some lace, belts/scarves, and other ties by machine.

Black and gold belt, some lace, and appliqued logo

Then I pieced it together because I wanted to add the buttons and fasteners between some blocks. I added the buttons and such by hand, since they’re a bit fiddly on the machine.

These were the buttons of the shirt seen in the background of the picture below 🙂
These ribbon flowers were already part of a sweater, so I extracted them from the sweater and sewed them on!
Cute little fastener from the leg of pajama pants

My cousin wanted to feature her mom’s beautifully hand painted wedding dress, so I appliqued one of the main flowers on the middle block and on the back of the quilt. I did simple stitch in the ditch quilting, since the top was already very busy.

I used jean pants pockets to allow my cousin to hang up the quilt if she ever chooses.

Project completed January 2021.

Crazy Quilts at RMQM

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I knew I wanted to do a crazy quilt for my cousin’s memory quilt, and RMQM did a whole crazy quilt exhibit this past fall! Crazy quilts became popular in the late 1800s and generally include colorful scraps of cotton and silk and velvet, ribbons, buttons, other baubles, and embroidery. They vary in the level of complexity of course, and I wanted to find a style or inspiration that I was comfortable using for my crazy quilt.

I went on a Saturday morning, and if you go right when it opens, usually one of the employees will walk around with you and tell you about the quilts. I was the only one there for a while, and a very nice employee walked around with me and we talked about the quilts. As a note, this post won’t have many credits because I forgot to take pictures of most the signs.

One thing I loved was that not all the quilts had borders. I struggle with borders and knowing what fabric to choose, how to quilt it, and it’s an optional step that stands between me and finishing the quilt so I tend to skip them. So I was instantly inspired by border-less quilts.

It also made so much more sense to create crazy-pieced square blocks and then put the blocks together instead of trying to crazy-piece an entire quilt. I also went into this knowing my cousin wanted a small-ish lap quilt, so I wasn’t overly intimidated by the size and scale of most of these quilts.

I liked this one that was kind of a medallion type of quilt, and you’ll see the very typical embroidery with that fun ribbon flower in the very center.

I loved this twisting and twirling quilt. It’s pieced rhombi, where each rhombus is one of the arcs.

Star Crazy Quilt, Maker Unknown

This next quilt was my favorite of the entire exhibit. I loved the on point blocks, each with its own story. This quilt was made by Patricia and Allen Brown of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Boom, Boom! Ain’t it Great to be Crazy? by Patricia and Allen Brown
Those adorable leaf and bird buttons!!!
More ribbon flowers
Really awesome embroidered fish and leaves
Stumpwork (3d embroidery) flowers, really cool lace, and some intricate embroidery

And here are some other up-close inspirations!

Super detailed flowers
A lace fan! Plus a cute heart button, ribbon, and tiny beads
A zipper flower!
Wavy ribbons and beads, embroidery, and lace
Embroidery over a printed fabric to create a little scene
Printed fabric with flowers, ribbon flowers, and that adorable ladybug button!

I definitely walked away with a better idea of what I wanted to do with my cousin’s quilt, and so much inspiration for future projects. I don’t think I’d do a whole embroidered crazy quilt, but maybe something more like a mini art quilt. I really liked the idea of embroidering over printed fabric to enhance or create a new picture, and making little flowers with ribbon and zippers. Could be a fun mini project!

Stay tuned for the post on my second memory quilt coming up soon 🙂

Little close up of my own crazy quilt 🙂

Memory Quilt 1

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My uncle lost his wife in 2018 and I wanted to honor her with a memory quilt out of her old shirts. My uncle provided a bunch of bright polo shirts and other shirts of hers, which I made into a quilt for him. I wanted to keep it really simple and soft, so I cut out big squares from the shirts and laid them out in a grid pattern.

Layout with my friendly helper

Most of the polos had awesome logos on them, which I wanted to include in some way. I thought a bit about applique-ing them to a border, but I didn’t want there to be lumpy or hard parts throughout the quilt. I decided to put all the logos together in one corner and applique-d them onto a square that already had the Buffalo Bills logo on it. I tacked them down with my sewing machine and then hand stitched around each one to really make sure they don’t go anywhere.

I kept the quilting really simple, two sets of diagonal lines. I used rainbow thread since my aunt was so bright and colorful.

Finished quilt with my cat for scale

This was my big project of 2020 and I’m so glad I was able to deliver it to my uncle before the year’s end. 2020 has been tough on all of us and I’ve struggled to get into my sewing room as often as I’d like, but I chipped away at this project little by little and I’m really happy with the result. I sent it off to my uncle and he sent me back a picture of it with his cat 🙂

Project completed December 2020.