Uncle Jeff-Jeff and Memory Quilts

I actually started using recycled fabrics a few years ago when I made a series of memory quilts for some friends of mine.

Our dear friend, partner, brother, and son, Jeffrey Tarkington passed away 6 years ago this past Valentines' day.  

To commemorate his short, but very bright life, and hopefully bring a bit of comfort to his loved ones, I embarked on a series of memory quilts using Jeff's clothing.  In order to stretch the usable fabric, as well as add a bit of contrast, I added some commercial fabric to all of the quilts.  To prepare the cotton shirting fabric, I used the same method described in the previous post.

Here's the first one, which I made for Jeff's sister and her hubby.  I chose a log cabin design, and put a bright orange in the center 'hearth' position.  

It's said that at the very moment that Jeff passed over, the fire going in the room where he was gave a mighty huff of brightness.   There was no question in my mind what pattern to use for this quilt!

Here you can see all of Jeff's bright plaid shirts and even some camo pants!

Front of Theresa's quilt.

Back of Theresa's quilt.

Detail of Theresa's quilt- hearth section of block.

Detail of Theresa's quilt- hearth section of another block.

Label on Theresa's quilt.

The second quilt was for Jeff's sweet 'Daddy.'  Here you can see Mr. Tarkington with his quilt.  I used a similar design here.  Instead of the the fire in the 'hearth' section of the block, I used a starry type fabric, as Mr. Tarkington was a firm believer in the Lord and that he'd see Jeff in heaven.

Mr. Owen Tarkington with his quilt.

Front of Mr. Tarkington's quilt.

Back of Mr. Tarkington's quilt.

Detail of Mr. Tarkington's quilt.

Block of Mr. Tarkington's quilt.

Label on Mr. Tarkington's quilt.

The following quilt was made for Jeff's partner Todd.  This one uses Jeff's favorite Tshirts.  Todd has told me many, many times how much he loves this quilt.  He just told me the other day that there was one Tshirt of Jeff's that he couldn't part with at the time, and now he really wishes it was in the quilt!
(If you'd like to make a T-shirt quilt, the fabric preparation is bit different.  I'll be writing more about that in the near future.)  P.S., T-shirt make some of the comfiest quilts ever!

Todd's quilt made with Tshirts.

 Well it wasn't too long after Jeff passed that his Daddy went to be with the Lord (and Jeff. )  So I made some quilts from his shirts too.  This one was for his daughter Theresa:

Theresa's quilt from her dad's shirts.

Detail of Theresa's quilt.

Detail of Theresa's quilt- this little raccoon image was saved from a baseball hat if I'm not mistaken :)

And this one was for Mr. Tarkington's sweetheart, Ms. Georgia.  I challenged myself not to add any extra fabric in this one.

Ms. Georgia's quilt.

Detail of Ms. Georgia's quilt.

Closeup on Ms. Georgia's quilt.

Label on Ms. Georgia's quilt.

So you can probably guess by now how much I love this family.  If you want to know why, I'll just leave you with the following story about Jeff, the main character in this post:

One of the sweetest memories I have:

Went to Nashville in '04 with the kids to visit Uncle Todd Todd and Uncle Jeff Jeff. We went to a shopping center, and the Uncles wanted to take the kiddies to an arcade.

Uncle Jeff, who loved a good 'claw' machine was trying to win Liam the stuffed dinosaur that Liam (3 yrs old) had been hankering for. 

Try as he might, the claw machine just wasn't cooperating, and about $25 later(!), Uncle Jeff Jeff was out of dollar bills.

Jeff was NOT leaving without getting that dinosaur for Liam. He hunted down the manager and actually talked him into opening up that machine to get that dinosaur for Liam!

I don't think anyone has ever done anything so damn sweet for of my kids. I'll never forget that day as long as I live  :)

Mario Quilt

Good mornin'
I'm going to dedicate this post to my friend Lance, who really helped me out in a computer-related jam.
To thank Lance, I offered to make him a quilt.  He had the idea to do a pixelated quilt.  We chose Mario, since that's his favorite game.  The 'vintage' Mario game. Hmmph.  I remember that game when I was a kid. Vintage....
Anyhoo, this is what I came up with.  If you'd like to make your own, finished block size is 4.5".  There are many pixelated images online- find your favorite muse!  Just print it out, work out your block size to fit the finished size you have in mind, and go to town.  I used all Kona solids for this quilt.  The golden buttons are Clothworks wonderful Kinkame Shades in yellow to gold. (Love that stuff!)
If you make one, get prepared for requests, offers for favors, etc.  My son has offered to wash my car for a year if I make him one.  I may take him up on that  :)
So Lance, I hope you enjoy your quilt, and thank you, thank you!!

Wedding Quilt

Congratulations Luisito and Josefina!
This quilt is a wedding gift for our (OK, Santiago's) cousins in Buenos Aires.  They are the cutest couple ever!

This quilt is inspired by one I saw on the Material Obsession website.  The pattern was published in the Australian Better Homes and Gardens, but try as I might, I couldn't locate the pattern.  So I improvised.  This is a queen sized quilt.  The quilt is on it's way with some other VERY nice cousins who offered to cart it to Argentina in their suitcase...

I hope they like it!

Another quilt from grandma's fabrics

Here's another quilt made from Red Grandma's dresses.  The four-patch rectangles are from gram's tropical print dresses:

The four-patch rectangles are from gram's tropical print dresses.  The secondary design that the blocks create is interesting, I think.  Always something to look out for when designing a quilt...:

  The colorful border inset is Kaffe:

Red Gram Quilts Quilts de 'Abuela Roja'

Hi all!
Lately I've been working on a series of memory quilts made with the fabric from the dresses of my late grandmother, Geraldine Stark  (Red Gram).  Red Gram was always dressed to the nines- often in red, and always with red lipstick.  So when I was a kid, I nicknamed her 'Red Grandma' to set her apart from all of the other grandmas out there, and it just stuck!
It took me a whole year to cut up the dresses, but when I found this pattern by Elizabeth Hartman of 'oh fransson,' I knew I had to get started.  Not only is this a great pattern for feature fabrics, but it reminds me of lava lamps, which Red Gram always kept on her back porch.  What a hip grandma, right?

Hola!
Estos dias estoy haciendo un serie de quilts hecho con telas de los vestidos de mi abuela que fallecio, Geraldine Stark (Abuela Roja).  Mi abuela siempre era muy bien vestido, muchas veces en el color rojo, y siempre con rouge rojo.  Entonces, cuando era chiquita, la di el apodo "Abuela Roja'  para destinguirla de todas las otras abuelas en el mundo.  Se quedo asi!


Me costo un ano en cortar los vestidos para usar, pero cuando encontre este patron de Elizabeth Hartman de 'oh fransson,'  sabia que tenia que arrancar.  No solo es este patron genial para telas que quieres destacar, pero las formas parecen a 'lava lamps' ( ), cosa que mi abuela siempre tenia prendida en su porch.  Que abuela canchera, no?

End of the Year quilts for Teachers

Whew!  The school year here in Orlando has come to a close.  The kids and I decided to make quilts for their teachers for 'end of the year' gifts.  Both kids had very special teachers that deserved very special gifts.

The first quilt was made for Liam's teacher, Mrs. Cheves,  queen of the 'Fantastic Frogs'.  I asked each child to cut out a frog from a fabric that they picked out.  They got fused and satin stitched on a background (cut from an Ikea duvet cover).  I used the new bamboo batting that's out there, which was nice, but i found to be a bit stiff.  Quilting was done in a meandering stitch in the 'water', an a flower design in the border, outlining all those crazy handpainted blooms.

Olivia and I then put together a quilt for Mrs. Krupoff, her fifth grade teacher, whose favorite color is purple.  This is the zigzag quilt again, this time with straight borders.

There are those handpainted flowers again in the top row! I liked how they look like little sunrises againsts the purple zigzag below...

Family Squares Blanky

Who is this blonde cutie-patootie??  It's cousin Simon from Argentina!!   He's relaxing in the back yard with his 'mantita' (blanky in Spanish.)  This blanky was made from squares donated by members of our family.  Even the white strips are from old linen sheets!

Here is the finished quilt.  I like how the white really showcases the colored squares.  Each square is 3.5 inches, which I think is just big enough to show the character of each fabric sample, and small enough to blend in to the composition.  The finished quilt is 56" square.

Simon's mom Cecilia tells me that it helps her talk to Simon about family members that live far away or are no longer with us.  I wanted to show Simon that we are all connected, even if we don't see each other as often as we'd like!

Here is my daughter Olivia with her cousin in Argentina. Can you tell that we love Simon???