I was approached last October by a friend that had recently lost her father to cancer. She wondered if I would be able to make quilts from his shirts for her sons.
On every special occasion over the years she would buy him an Eddie Bauer flannel shirt.
In June she came with a bin of more than 20 shirts,. There was a great assortment of colours, solids, plaids and checks. They were all size XL tall. There is a lot of useable fabric in an XL shirt.
First up came the deconstruction of the shirts. Cuffs and collars removed, plackets torn off, leaving lots of fabric.
Then came the cutting of squares. I chose to cut 6" and 12" squares maximizing every bit of shirt. I was just going with squares randomly placed. I used the 6" squares on the front and 12" for the back. So it was like getting two quilts in one. I even used strips of shirts for the bindings.
Progress was slow over the summer with other pressing project deadlines, vacation, start of school etc. But I did manage to complete them by the middle of Sept.
 |
| back |
 |
| back |
 |
front
She is thrilled with the quilts and has saved them for the grandsons Christmas present. There is even a picture of the boys and Opa on the label. |
Ok say I said there are three finishes. Here is the third. After these two quilts were done I still had squares and shirts pieces left over. Further cutting into 4.5" squares (this time using my Accuquilt Go). I knew the squares wouldn't like up row by row, but I was ok with that. Sadly not quite squares enough for back this time. This quilt was going to be for Oma. I chose a bright cheery pink with tiny floral for the back. Kind of a'His and Hers' quilt.
More on how I finished these quilts in my next post.
I am so glad to be finished these quilts to work on some of my own projects.
Are you happy or sad to be finished a project?
Happy Stitching
