My quilting thoughts and inspirations sprinkled with a glimpse of life down on the farm

Monday, November 2, 2015

Shirt quilt challenge

There's nothing like a good shirt challenge to pull me out of my unofficial blog break...farm, family and all the rest has kept my head down and tail up for the last little while - oh and a couple of quilts that needed finishing ... but more about those in another post :-) {Apologies to those of you I haven't visited lately, I have some catch up reading to do.}

Last year Tracee of Farmgate Creations invited us to join her (in a cyberly way) in the shirt quilt challenge her quilt group was doing. Her group shared a bunch of shirts so they all had the same fabric but us on-line challengees were able to do it our own way.
It took me a while to decide what to do. One day though the penny dropped - I had a stack of Dad's old farm shirts in my wardrobe and we had our first grandbabies on the way.
Aha!!!
Out came Dad's shirts, and a couple of hubby's old shirts as well.
Yes, Dad's were well worn, collars turned and mended
and cuffs frayed but I couldn't bear to get rid of them!
These shirts made their first appearance on my blog way back in early 2014 when I used them on my Pop Monkeys. (More about them *here*).
Unpicking released some interesting debris... goodness knows how long this
hay has been hiding in the pocket!
I decided a heart block would be perfect for a baby quilt.
I had quite a challenge working around all the worn pieces and the warped plaids after years of wear and washing. I really couldn't get it any bigger as I was running out of decent fabric!
Completion :-)
Simple piecing, flannel on the back and simple quilting.
And simple binding too; all machine sewn, the first time I've done it this way.
My idea with this wee quilt is that it will do the rounds of what would have been Dad's great grandchildren, as each one arrives it will move house.
The first babies have christened it, these photos were taken in September when I visited. The girls have grown a bit since then.
Thank you to Tracee for inspiring me to make this quilt. Tracee has photos on her blog from her quilt group's challenge and also a link up for the blogger challengees. They are over several posts so just scroll through to see them all - it's neat to see what others have done.
Thank you for visiting, 
till next time,

27 comments:

  1. That is beautiful Raewyn...sniff, sniff!!! Got all emotional thinking of your Dad's shirts being with the babies!! Wonderful idea for the quilt....beautifully made!!

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  2. So many great posts (including yours) about this challenge. I think it's a great idea as a memory quilt. Beautiful story.

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  3. You have used the shirts beautifully!! How special that all the great grannies will get their turn to be embraced by it.
    Loved seeing the turned collars, my nana used to do it too to extend the life of the shirts.
    Wonderful

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  4. Such a clever idea and what a treasure! The babies are absolutely adorable. Turning collars is how I learned to sew! XO

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  5. You have done an absolutely amazing job with those shirts....love love love them. Thanks for joining in.

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  6. The twins and the quilt are adorable! Such a perfect memory quilt that will become even more special as time passes. What treasures!

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  7. Hi Raewyn your shirt quilt is so special ,I love it ,well done and your little grandies are so cute xx

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  8. Such a special quilt. Glad I got to see it for real when you were here. Love tge photos of your girls enjoying it x

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  9. A great idea, to have the quilt move as the wee ones come along!!! Your shirt use is utterly sweet and so fitting for the previous owner of those keepsakes.

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  10. I love working with shirt fabric! Though I don’t have any shirts as special as yours. Sweet babies, lovely quilt. :-)

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  11. That is such a great idea and the twins are beautiful models to show it off.

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  12. Love the idea of making a quilt as an heirloom from your Dads shirts... The quilt would be sew soft and cuddly.. The girls are sew cute..

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  13. What a wonderful Idea! And the quilt turned out so cute--at least I think it did. I was too absorbed with those very sweet little babies! : )

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  14. What a great quilt! And the babies are all ready loving it.

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  15. What a great idea Raewyn, can imagine how soft that quilt is. I did laugh at the hay in the pocket, bet your Mum laughed too. Your granddaughters are sooooo beautiful. Bet they are growing fast too.

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  16. What a great quilt and one that will continue to hold so many memories for years to come

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  17. Such a lovely way to use those shirts! It's one special quilt!

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  18. A perfect way to use your Dads shirts so the babies can be wrapped with their great granddads cosy shirts , well worn with time but still worthy of such a grand job ! Well done , I love it and your granddaughters are adorable .

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  19. awesome your dad's shirts live on! The girls sure are cute!!

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  20. What a wonderful way to turn the used shirts into a special quilt. Gorgeous.

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  21. Such a wonderful story about the quilt. And a beautiful family treasure! (I mean the quilt too!)

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  22. such beautiful babies hope you get to visit again soon. The shirts have made into a lovely quilt for them, here in the UK shirt quilts are all the rage at the moment

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  23. That's one of the coziest quilts I've ever seen! The babies are adorable on it.

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  24. I don't know how I missed this post!! But that shirt quilt is absolutely the best quilt I've ever seen!! How special!! And those little darlings - just want to jump in the photo and tickle those little toes!!!

    Blessings and hugs!!

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  25. I love love love your shirt challenge quilt.. made from special fabric and for such special new babies.. it will be lovely getting pics of any other grandies on it too... wonderful
    Hugz

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  26. What a beautiful momento of shirts and keepsake of memories
    Love

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