The brief

My job was to repair and use as a background an 80 year old quilt and transform it into a memory quilt for a young boy. The original quilt had been made by my client’s grandmother. It required a new backing and replacement of several blocks, especially a the top and bottom edges. Together, my client and I worked to incorporate over 40 of pieces of clothing and meaningful fabrics that belonged to her godson and which he personally selected. The pieces represented his First Nations ancestry, members of his family, his special interests and the places which have important meaning to him.

Designing the memory quilt

Because of the sheer number of clothing elements that needed to be incorporated, I felt it important to have a cohesive visual story. For this reason, I decided to photograph each piece and upload them to photoshop. This proved an ideal solution and in a matter of a few hours, I had a working visual proposal of the quilt design.

As mentioned, this young man is Indigenous so there are many cultural elements throughout the quilt. The very first piece he selected was a t-shirt with a print of grand-mother moon. The graphic is so beautiful and culturally meaningful that we decided to make it the centre piece. Around the moon, each moon ray represents a member of his family. His Godparents also suggested that we represent the medicine wheel colours of white, yellow, red and black as part of the redesign.

I came up with an effective way to incorporate many t-shirts together at the top and bottom of the quilt by replicating the design of the dresden quilt pattern using two t-shirts. I used one of the t-shirts for the centre star shape and one for the outer edges. Because t-shirt jersey doesn’t fray, I sewed each square and triangle piece with a topstitch and left the sides raw edge. I then used a green t-shirt to create a border between each block. Although not quite the same colour as the sashing on the original quilt, the green t-shirt border does create a bright and more modern addition to the pattern.

Finally, I added the smaller pieces which represented his many current interests to the centre of the remaining quilted blocks around the moon. We agreed to leave a few blocks empty so that over the next few years, he can add other pieces representing new interests.

Value of a memory quilt

This restored quilt was completed just before lock-down two years ago. A while back, my client messaged me to express how important this piece had become for her godson during COVID. “He loves it and it is a wonderful reminder of all the people who love him.” He has already shared it with some extended family as a story quilt of himself. We are guessing he might be holding onto it for many years.

Working on this quilt made me appreciate how so many clothing pieces can have a meaning and a story attached to them. Turning these into a memory quilt, or perhaps something smaller like a framed work, a cushion or bag can become a practical and long lasting tool to share our life stories.

The post A Memory Quilt Becomes A Comfort Piece During COVID appeared first on Modern Mending.

The brief

This beautiful quilt was commissioned by the owner’s mother for his birth. It was hand stitched about 50 years ago by Mennonite women from Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada. The quilt in question is a Dresden Block quilt, which needed quite a bit of repair. Practically all of the blue binding sewn between each block and the Dresden plates themselves had disintegrated. As a result, many of the blocks were coming undone and barely holding on. Because the backing was also worn down and torn in a few areas, the first priority was to add a new backing and secure the blocks.

Because I’m a big fan or re-purposing fabric, I asked my client to find pieces of clothing from the members of her family in order to repair the quilt. Luckily, she not only had an assortment of her kid’s old clothes that she had kept, but also a stash of fabric remnants she had purchased over the years, that she loved but had never been used. Among the fabric collection, there was a large fitted bed-sheet that I used as backing and turquoise fabric that was perfect replace the tattered binding.

The Repair

My first step was to prepare the backing. Because it was a fitted bed-sheet, once I removed the elastic band and unpicked the corners, each corner has a missing square of fabric. I used the extra fabric from the width of the sheet fill those missing squares.

I then proceeded to baste the loose blocks using a running stitch and secured them back in place with pins.

To repair the binding that linked the blocks together, I tore the turquoise fabric into strips and applied them over the tattered binding. I used a navy mercerized cotton thread for the topstitching to add contrast and white for the bottom to match the new backing. For more information on why I prefer to use cotton thread instead of polyester thread, check out my blog post on circularity.

Designing for budget and thinking ahead

Replacing the backing and repairing the binding between each plate was the biggest priority. That said, I did have a bit of time left from the allotted budget to replace two flowers. Taking into account that my client does know how to sew, I planned out a design that she could continue to work on over time.

Among her textile collection was a series of black flowers that she had designed and screen printed. I felt they would fit beautifully as a center of the flower. Since she only had four of these screen prints, I used two for the flowers I made and placed them in the center of the quilt. She can choose in the future to add the other two vertically, or horizontally so they are centered and then use the same turquoise fabric of the binding for the center of the other flowers to replicate the original design.

I really like the contrast of old and new on a restored quilt. What was worn to tatters over time has now been renewed into a beautifully shabby chic quilt. Now this family heirloom, which was created 50 years ago, can live on and be infused with new memories from a second generation.

If you’re curious to see the first quilt I mended, check out the post I wrote here.

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Happy Mending!

The post From Tattered To Shabby Chic: The Restoration Of A Vintage Quilt appeared first on Modern Mending.