Remembrance quilt

Several times I have participated in my company's Time and Talent auction for United Way.  Last year a co-worker won the auction and I made the theater quilt for her daughter.  This year another co-worker wanted me to make a quilt from her deceased husband's shirts.  He had died in a car crash over 10 years ago when her two daughters were very small.  She had remarried a widower and together they have raised a large family.  But she still had this box of shirts.  She brought them to me along with a couple of ball caps, his military fatigues and fireman's uniform.  I had some misgivings about cutting into these things.  Definitely the emotional attachment was higher than in any other quilt I've made.

 She decided to use thin denim as sashing, supplemented by a couple of plaid shirts.  I was able to find some flannel similar to the shirts to use as the backing.  I used medium loft poly batting since with the denim the quilt was very heavy and I felt the poly wouldn't add as much weight as cotton.  Another co-worker who is in the marine reserves advised me on the proper way to display the name and US Marines from the fatigues.   I removed the patches from the fireman's uniform and disassembled the caps.  The only place I had difficulty quilting was the patches so I went around them.  The batting gave a nice puffy result with large looping quilting.  The quilt is still very heavy but not excessively so.  With the left over fabric from the plaid shirts I was able to make a pillow case.  She tells me her two daughters are trading off, one gets the quilt for a while and the other gets the pillow case.  The family is happy with the result and I am pleased with how it turned out.