Our Ten Memory Quilts

Last September our brother-in-law passed away.  Many many of you shared your hearts and prayers with us and we were so grateful.  Our sister and her husband have 10 children.  In the weeks and months after his passing we decided we wanted to make memory quilts using his shirts for the kids.  Greg was a Junior High science teacher and had a huge amount of button up shirts.  We didn't use any of his knit t-shirts, lots of the kids have taken those over as PJ's.  

Our mom was the major force in this project.  There were a couple nights with cousins and sisters-in-law where they were cutting squares but it was a huge amount of work from our mom.  Once the squares were cut our sister, Amy, separated them for each of her kids.  Certain shirts in the quilts they all remember and some shirts were special to specific kids.

All the squares for tops were spread out, I did 3 in Arizona and I know several more family members and friends helped here.  I don't know exactly who so my apologies for not recognizing you specifically.  From there our phenomenal amazing Aunt Wendy quilted every one of these.  Seriously.  We love her, she is so kind and generous.

None of these quilts have been washed.  Some shirts still smell like their daddy and we want to keep it that way for as long as possible.

I created a few bindings for these quilts but another step to label the quilts was supposed to be part of my contribution.  However my massive somewhat sudden move left me with no time.

I contacted Jennifer from Jennifer's Jewels.  She created the most beautiful personalized tags for our nieces and nephews.  All 10 have the child's name and then have the same personalized saying that our sister decided on.

I wasn't able to be there but Heather and my mom delivered the quilts to the family in their newly finished home.  9 out of 10 were there, the oldest is working up at school for the summer.  From what I was told it was a happy time and not sad.  That's good :)

Aren't they gorgeous??  That picture warms my heart.  Now they each have a piece of their dad forever.  They can snuggle it when they're missing him.  Each shirt may hold a memory of him.  I'm so happy I was able to be a small part of this project.

Also for any of you concerned please know that our sister Amy is getting her own memory quilt of her husband. She wanted a little more time and wants to really make it special with the shirts and design.  We also made her a quilt as an "I love you" a few months back.

I wanted to quickly again say THANK YOU to Jennifer.  She so generously donated her time and product for these kids, without asking for a single thing in return.  I would encourage you to use Jennifer's Jewels for your quilts labels.  Not only is she kind and generous but she creates beautiful custom tags.  Thank you Jennifer!