I have been working on these quilts – four in total – for a long time. I am excited to share the results with you.
The quilts are made from kilts and coats that were in the families mothers attic. There were kilts, coats & traditional Irish dresses from their childhood. The fabrics, textures and colors were bright and beautiful – a mixture of wools, velvets, cotton (and maybe some mystery blends.)
I decided to add some white flannel to all the quilts – flannel because it is soft and snuggly – but also because it compliments and blends into the texture of the wool kilts and coats. All the squares were cut to 2.5″x2.5″ and are 2″x2″ finished.
I was very careful when I took the clothes apart to preserve all the details. I took the ribbon off and reattached it to strips of flannel to use as squares. I didn’t want to waste any ribbon detail so there is a button hole included in one block.
I left some trim and lace on in some places. I love how you discover something new in every square.
The center of this quilt is a panel from a blue cotton summer dress.
I used most of the rest of this blue cotton dress in the diagonals lines of the triple Irish Chain pattern. I added some matching blue flannel so that I had enough of the same color to complete the pattern.
In the center of each chain is a flower ….
… which is surrounded by tiny pebbles. Would you believe me if I told you each flower took me 1hr to complete?
The border of the quilts is taken from the blue velvet in this dress ….
… I LOVE quilting velvet. It is gorgeous to work with.
The binding is made from an old school uniform.
And I love the back. (I couldn’t decide which photo I liked the best ….)
AND just to remind you of what some of the different materials started as …
This is the first of four quilts I completed for the family.
For me there are several really exciting moments in a project like this – being given the work is such a tremendous tremendous honor – the moment you load the finished top on the machine is so exciting – then finishing the quilting is even more exciting – and finally when you hand the materials back to the family as a finished quilt – that feeling is just something else.
Quilting A Memory 