Remember the Friendship Bracelet quilt that I finished not long ago? Well, originally I agreed to test Blair Stocker’s, AKA WiseCraft, pattern to make a memory quilt. Very quickly I realized that wasn’t going to work for that pattern.
Then she asked me to test another pattern, The Complete Quilt Design Planner Pattern. I was one, very intrigued by the name, but also knew it would work well with my memory quilt idea!
The pattern is really not a pattern at all, but step by step guide to designing your own one of a kind quilt! It has layouts for 6 different sized quilts. It was really fun! My son and I laid out all the fabric we were going to use, grabbed some colored pencils and we both started designing!
A friend of mine from way back… Like Middle School I think? I was actually best friends with her younger sister for a while… Anyway, she asked me to take her sons clothes to make into a quilt. I ended up separating the piles and using mostly wovens on the front and the knit t-shirts on the back.
I really loved this little center guy from a baby outfit! I also think it also tied together the colors from the other clothing pieces. Once I had it designed, I realized not all the pinks were the same, etc… So there was a bunch of laying out and picking up and laying out again to get it right!
And the back is a t-shirt quilt. These t-shirt quilts take a long time. I didn’t want just a bunch of regular squares, so it took a bit, I mean a lot, longer to layout than I thought it would! I also added in a few colored blocks to fill in the spaces in between.
This is a great pattern, especially for beginners. It also got me to try something new. I don’t think I’ve ever done a whole quilt out of the same size blocks before. It’s always fun to look at quilt design a little out of your design comfort zone and this is exactly was I experienced with this one.
You can see more examples of this quilt here.
AND… It’s the one thing that I actually finished this quarter! oops…
Hi.
I’ve been asked a few times to make memory quilts but I’m a bit nervous about using the knitted clothing.
Did you back the t-shirts with anything? I’m feeling that it would need to be backed in something. Maybe a calico our cotton.
Thanks in advance.
Kaye
I did use interfacing on the thinner knits. Some were pretty well worn, and those I did add interfacing to. The thicker ones, I didn’t add anything to. Just sewed them together. If you google the subject, there are some that say you have to use interfacing. Other never use it! I base it on the state of the t-shirts. And if you are sewing it with wovens, I’ll add interfacing, because it then acts more like a woven than a knit and I feel like they sew together better. Hope that helps!
Very nice! I especially love the mix of colors on the front!
Thanks! So did I! I had to play around with the placement of the colors based on how many squares I could get of each color! But happy with how it turned out!
oh yay! I get to come back and visit on behalf of the FAL hosting team – thanks so much for joining us!
Yay!! Thanks for stopping by again! 🙂
What a great idea for a memory quilt. And that backing with the tshirt logos is brilliant! Your friend must be thrilled!