Shirting Quilts

I have a few quilt tops from various flea markets that some day I intend to quilt. That day seems to be getting further away each passing year! I loved that these men's shirting fabrics. All those lovely stripes! So 1970s. The menswear shirt designers were getting pretty bold and exploring new colors like pink and tangerine. They were not 100% cotton, and some were even all polyester, the new wonder fabric.

The next quilt is made of leftover fabrics from a factory. There are stamped numbers on the edges of the pieces. It is a 'summer quilt' with a pieced top and backing but no batting or quilting. It was another cheap eBay find. Our son uses it for his summer quilt now.

The second quilt I ever made was a memory quilt using Mom's painting smocks. Mom was an oil painter, starting painting in an adult ed class when I was a little girl. She favored polyester blends and red tartan plaids.

I used some of her daily blue and beige shirts for a lap quilt for my grandmother.

And more found their way in a quilts I made for my Aunt, mom's sister. Looking at a book my mother-in-law had from her local library I found and traced a pattern called Dobbin's Fan, which I used for these quilts. The fan base was one of mom's shirts, as were some fabrics in the fans.

After my father-in-law passed, I was asked if I was going to do a memory quilt with his shirts. I have the blocks made, but need to set them together. I want a dark  blue print for sashing but have not shopped for it yet. Here are blocks made of Herman's shirts. They were newly bought and rarely worn. Herman was  96 when he passed, and preferred the same old shirts he had worn for many years. Several in his closet had been made by his wife, Laura, who used to sew all their clothes. Herman had  saved the new ones for 'special'. An they will now make a very special quilt.

Memory Quilts

This month my father-in-law passed away. He was 96 and had Macular degeneration. We all knew his life had lost it's meaning after the death of his wife in January four years ago.

I brought home Herman's shirts to make a memory quilt. I made my first memory quilt after my mother died in 1990. Mom was 57 years old when she learned she had cancer, and died two weeks later. Mom was a painter and had a collection of plaid shirts which she wore when painting. I turned these shirts into quilts for my grandmother, my aunt, and myself.

I found an fan block called Dobbin's Fan which I used to make two quilts for Mom's sister.An adaptation of this pattern was accepted to appeared in Quiltmaker Magazine. That was an exciting day!  I also had a Christmas tree pattern accepted after that.

A simple four-patch with an appliqued heart used two plaid fabrics from Mom's shirts. This was the second quilt I ever made. I was still doing everything WRONG when I started. Then a quilter taught me the basics. You can see my progress in this quilt as my applique and quilting stitches improved.

I made a lap quilt for my grandmother using blue and beige shirts.This was also made withing my first year of quilting. I used the Sho-Fly block.

I made this Flying Geese quilt for my dad using some of Mom's shirting fabrics but mostly new fabrics. I choose the feather print first and coordinated the scraps. After I finished, I was told it was an ambitious pattern for a new quilter to tackle. At this time, I was using templates and not rotary cutting and easier techniques that developed shortly afterwards!

After her death, I used my mother-in-law's hand work to make memory pillows for the family. Laura did amazing work, and embellished every shirt and sweatshirt she owned, as well as finger tip towels. I used the shirt fabrics,  Laura's handkerchiefs, and rick-rack and buttons from Laura's craft room.

Making a quilt from men's shirting fabric has been around for centuries. I have several  in my collection. This one was made from factory remnants and printed markings appear along the edges of some blocks. It is a summer quilt and is reversible.

A quilter friend uses men's shirts to make amazing one-patch quilts for charity. She buys the shirts at the end of rummage sales and likes stripes with bright  background colors, like yellow, pink and green.

Herman's shirts were to be donated to charity, along with most of his few possessions. Living in a small apartment in assisted living, and being blind, he left behind little. His real legacy lives on in his three sons and  grandchildren. But it is nice to have something tangible as a constant reminder of those who have shaped our lives and made us who we are today.