Scrub Top Memory Quilt

Hello!  It is fun to be able to sit and write a blog post today (kind of a long one).  All of December I have been so busy meeting Christmas quilting deadlines for clients that blogging got knocked down to the bottom of the priority list.

​One of the projects that has kept me so busy is this quilt.  I was approached by a grandmother a couple of months ago who was looking for someone to make a memory quilt using her granddaughter's scrub tops.  Her granddaughter's young life was taken too soon in a car accident last year, and she had not been able to find a quilter to take on this project.  The granddaughter was a nurse and had many scrub tops that she loved to wear.  I don't usually take on these kinds of quilting projects, but I guess God was giving me a nudge, and I couldn't say no.  I also don't like to make t-shirt quilts at all, but this would be different in that it wouldn't need stabilizer with these shirt fabrics.

This is what I had to start with - at least 30 shirts in boxes.  The original pattern that we decided to make was a large carpenter's star design.  I had made one of these, and it went together pretty quickly, and there was a pattern for queen size which she wanted.  After looking at the wide variety of colors and prints that didn't necessarily go together, I really felt I should do a different pattern.  We decided upon this star quilt from Anka's Treasures Sizzlin' Sixties book, and I used the Creative Grids 60 Degree Double Strip Ruler.  Grandma and I went through the shirts and paired up shirts to make the stars.  Each pair of shirts made 2 stars.  I needed 46 stars in all to make a larger queen size quilt.

I had made this quilt before for my dad out of men's plaid shirts, so I was familiar with the pattern already.  I also have fabrics in my stash that are planned for making another one of these quilts because I like the design so much.  Below is a picture of my dad's quilt.

I began by cutting up the shirts.  I have to admit I even got a little sad cutting up these shirts that meant so much to this family and held so many memories of her and the colors, seasons, and Disney characters and princesses that this young lady loved so much.  It was a little hard to do at first.  But I cut up the seam lines of the sides and sleeves to cut strips from the back of the shirts.  I needed four 2-1/2" strips from each shirt to make the stars.

Next a lot of piecing happened, I mean A LOT!  I moved my sewing machine downstairs where I would have a lot of floor design space.  The grandmother found some fabric that she liked for the outside border at The Little Foot Quilt Shoppe.  The narrow border, binding, and backing fabrics were hot pink, a favorite color.  I quilted it with the edge-to-edge design "Swift" which looked good in white thread over the entire quilt.  My Mom and Aunt Brenda came to the rescue and helped me stitch the binding on.  I'm very grateful for their help!  Below are just some different pictures of the finished quilt.

You get the idea about how many different colors and prints I had to work with!  That star with the pink and black zebra print in the corner shot was my favorite, I think.  The finished quilt was beautiful, and I am glad I was able to work on this quilt and have it finished for the family for Christmas.  I am also glad it is finished and I can move on to other projects :-)

​Thanks for visiting!  I hope you stop by again soon.  I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday, even though it is Monday.  Have a great day!!