When my FIL passed away in late January, I asked my DH to save his shirts. I designed a quilt pattern to make 6 quilts from them - one for my DH and 5 for his siblings as Christmas gifts. I determined how much yardage I could get from each shirt - some long sleeved and some short sleeved. When we went to Hatteras in November, I cut all the squares and cut off all the buttons for use in tote bags for the family as well. The shirt colors were in a variety of patterns in blues, blacks and reds. The borders are all of a fishing theme (Dad's most favorite activity was fishing) and each quilt has sashing of navy blue and burgandy in different configurations. I was able to get a bolt of 25 yards of a solid color that would match the quilts at Joanne's and was lucky enough to have a 40% off coupon to use on the bolt. Each block placement is varied among the 6 quilts as well. It was like trying to do 6 sodoku quilts! The quilting pattern I used is called "calm waters" and is a perfect match for the quilt theme. I have a great quilter who can really match the pattern to the quilt. My husband knew it would take a bit of time to get 6 quilts done in time for Christmas so he said he could wait for his until after the holidays. When we were in Hatteras, we had a trerrible nor'easter storm and lost power for 2 days so I lost two sewing days which set me back a little. Little does he know he will find his under the tree as well!
His is a bit different from the others. He was the closest to his Dad and was his fishing buddy til the end. Dad would generally pop in unexpectedly on the weekends for coffee. He would stay for 30 minutes or so and then off he'd go! He would call my DH almost every night to give him a fishing report so his quilt is called "Poppy's Fishing Report". I had made a quilt for my FIL two years ago for Christmas and had some fabric left over. My DH's quilt has the same blocks as his siblings but his sashing is black (his favorite color) and the borders and backing are two of the fabrics that are in his Dad's quilt, which was returned to me by the family after his passing. Those fabrics have black in them so the black sashing is perfect. I had a different quilt pattern on his as well. It is stunning! I just picked it up from the quilter today. He thinks I picked up the fifth of the five sibling quilts today!
Now to binding and labeling them all! I will post pix after the holidays but I am so pleased how they turned out and so is my DH. Wait til he sees his!
Alice in NJ