Very Special Memorial Quilts

I have started a new memorial quilt project.  This time I have been asked to make three quilts for a family that has lost their husband and daddy.  This project has really grabbed my heart as these quilts are primarily for a little girl that lost her father at the age of 2 to brain cancer.  This is a special little girl, now 7 years old,  that is trying to help make a difference by selling her artwork to raise money for the American Cancer Society.  Here is a link to her story on TV.  She also has a website Mauri's World  where you can learn more about her and her artwork.  I received 24 t-shirts, 25 pairs of fun boxer shorts and numerous button down shirts, polo shirts and a couple of pairs of shorts.  The first quilt is this t-shirt quilt, now on to the boxer shorts quilt and finally a queen size "big girl" quilt to be made with the rest of the clothes.  I just love this type of project, it really fills my heart up.

The label

The stack of 25 pairs of boxer shorts.

Kitty T-Shirt Quilt

I had a very sweet customer come to me with just a handful of t-shirts that her father had given to her.    She wanted to preserve them and to cherish the memory of her father in a quilt.  I stayed with the kitty theme and pieced a few cats with fat quarters from a new Moda fat quarter bundle called Ticklish that I got from the  Fat Quarter Shop.

We have enjoyed a fantastic spring this year.  We picked about 2 pounds of carrots and a few of the beets yesterday.

Lots of hammock and book days, so that is where I am when I have time in between quilt projects. 

Dog Silhouette Wall hanging Project

I was cruising Pinterest the other day and I saw some cool framed silhouette art that some folks had made by cutting out pictures of their dogs.  I decided to try the same technique with fabric.  The hardest part was finding the right photo.  I chose and printed out this one.  

I decided to make the print out a little bit bigger...  then I cut Ruby out of the picture

I pinned the cut out to some black Kona cotton and carefully cut out my pattern.  I played with sewing her to a few different backgrounds and finally decided on white.  In retrospect, I kinda wish I had put her on the red African fabric or the orange and purple polka dots for a much more exciting finished piece... maybe next time.

I accidentally flipped the cut out which didn't matter and did a blanket stitch all the way around.

She looked "naked" so I gave her a collar and a tag.

I blanket stitched around that and put and "R" for Ruby on the tag.

I drew some lines coming out from the center with disappearing fabric marker.

I stitched these lines with different colors of thread.  My idea was to give it a 70's psychedelic 3d look. It probably would have been a good idea to quilt it before I appliqued the dog on but  the quilting style was a last minute idea.  I had first planned to echo the dog and then decided not to.

Here is the finished product!  A little bland but all in all not too bad.