Last winter, I worked on several quilts for the family of my friend, Pat, who we lost in January. You can learn more about her artwork and the impact she had on my own work in this post.

Pat’s family collected some of her signature striped and checked shirts as well as other garments for me to use.

The first one I pieced was a twin sized quilt for her husband. I began by using flannel pajamas for the backing with woven strips from shirts and blouses for fillers. The top was made up of large log cabin blocks pieced from shirts and framed with homespun woven fabrics I found in her stash. This gave a little continuity to the design and helped bring the blocks up to size.

This is the largest quilt I’ve quilted by machine and I began with a grid following the seam lines. The rest of the quilting was completed by hand, quilting around the squares with perle cotton threads.

The next quilt was a wall hanging for one of her daughters. Her request was to combine clothing with her mother’s hand dyed fabrics. Pat’s favorite color was red, so I started with some of her scraps including a few units that she had pieced. This one has a backing made up of pajama fabrics and is machine quilted with an organic grid.

A wall hanging for another daughter also featured Pat’s hand dyed fabrics. The light blue background fabric came from a beautiful linen blouse and pajamas were again used for the backing. It is machine pieced with organic straight lines.

Pat’s son requested something a little different. He went through her orphan blocks and random bits left over from improvisational work. He chose his favorites and asked that I combine them into something new.

I tried to use as many pieces as I could and ended up making two compositions. Both of them have a combination of commercial and hand dyed fabrics.

All of the quilts included a label with a quote selected for the recipient.

I am so grateful to her family for giving me the opportunity to work on these very personal projects. It was such an honor and a special way to hold memories close as I worked through my feelings of loss.