Memorial Quilt: Coats & Kilts - Quilt #4

This is the final quilt in a series of 4 quilts made for a family with deep Irish roots. The father would travel to Ireland over the years and bring back Irish kilts and traditional dresses. All these garments were kept alongside some gorgeous childhood coats.

This quilt is a double Irish Chain pattern. The dominating fabrics for this quilt is the green velvet taken from this traditional Irish dress and a child's pink wool coat.

I removed all the ribbon from the dress very carefully so it could be in squares in the quilt. I also had to add some pink flannel to the quilt so that I had enough pink for all the diagonal squares in the pattern.

And similar to the 1st quilt I completed for this family I used some squares from the blue cotton dress with ribbon & lace still showing. 

I completed the Doctors without Borders Quilt before quilting this quilt which gave me a good platform to practice my feathers. 

This quilt has a lot of feathers on it. In the center of every chain is a medallion of feathers. Some feathers are on straight spines ...

 ... others are on curved spines.

 

There are feathers on the border ... 

... that curl around the corners. 

 

And the back - even my husband commented on how pretty the back was!

I am going to really miss these quilts! Such a lot of work - I think maybe at least 100+ hrs in each!

Memorial Quilt: Kilt & Coat Quilt #1

I have been working on these quilts - four in total - for a long time. I am excited to share the results with you.

The quilts are made from kilts and coats that were in the families mothers attic. There were kilts, coats & traditional Irish dresses from their childhood. The fabrics, textures and colors were bright and beautiful - a mixture of wools, velvets, cotton (and maybe some mystery blends.) 





I decided to add some white flannel to all the quilts - flannel because it is soft and snuggly - but also because it compliments and blends into the texture of the wool kilts and coats. All the squares were cut to 2.5"x2.5" and are 2"x2" finished.

I was very careful when I took the clothes apart to preserve all the details. I took the ribbon off and reattached it to strips of flannel to use as squares. I didn't want to waste any ribbon detail so there is a button hole included in one block.



I left some trim and lace on in some places. I love how you discover something new in every square.



 The center of this quilt is a panel from a blue cotton summer dress.


I used most of the rest of this blue cotton dress in the diagonals lines of the triple Irish Chain pattern. I added some matching blue flannel so that I had enough of the same color to complete the pattern.

In the center of each chain is a flower ....

... which is surrounded by tiny pebbles. Would you believe me if I told you each flower took me 1hr to complete?

The border of the quilts is taken from the blue velvet in this dress ....

... I LOVE quilting velvet. It is gorgeous to work with. 

The binding is made from an old school uniform.

And I love the back. (I couldn't decide which photo I liked the best ....)

AND just to remind you of what some of the different materials started as ...

 Childhood wool coats

13 wool kilts

This is the first of four quilts I completed for the family.

For me there are several really exciting moments in a project like this - being given the work is such a tremendous tremendous honor - the moment you load the finished top on the machine is so exciting - then finishing the quilting is even more exciting - and finally when you hand the materials back to the family as a finished quilt - that feeling is just something else.