Memory Quilt and Pillow - My Great Grandma

As you may know if you have read some of my early posts, my Great-Granmda passed away last March.  This last summer when we went to Colorado to visit with my family I was able to bring home her washstand to restore, that was in her bathroom as long as I can remember.

While we were there her children were working their way through some of her other things and there was a large pile of clothes on her couch, which gave me a fantastic idea.  Memory Pillows!  Such a great way to preserve the memory of someone you love.  Overtime you hold that pillow it is like a hug from your loved-one.  So I asked my Grandma if she would send me four of my Great-Grandma's shirts, particularly ones that were very 'Grandma-y' (you know, like shirts that you look at and say, yeah, that was grandma's!).  She sent me four shirts (which, I don't have a pic of the original anymore  due to my phone being unexpectedly wiped clean...)  I started with the four pillows, but had so much fabric left, I just couldn't toss it!  So I decided to make a quilt as well!

The pillows are 16in pillows from our favorite wally-world for just under $4 each.

Pretty much I just cut a 16in square from the front and back of the shirts, centering the buttons down the middle.  Then sew up all four sides.  The floral print I had to leave an opening and hand stitch the pillow in, but the other three I inserted the pillow through the front of the shirt and buttoned it in!  So simple! 

For my Grandma's Brother

For my Grandma's other Brother

For my Grandma's Sister

The original shirt had a tie at the top, so I reattached the tie to the top of the pillow

This one is for my Grandma.

I added a tag to my Grandma's to personalize it just a bit more.  Super simple, just 1/2in cream-colored quilt binding and a permanent fabric pen, voila! 

The quilt is made up of 

8in squares

2 1/2 x 8in rectangles

4 1/4 squares

2 1/2 x 4 1/4 in rectangles

Once everything was cut I assembled the smaller pieces into 8in squares, this made assembling the quilt easy!   I laid it out on the floor so that I could get as few of the same fabric touching each other as possible

I made sure to keep some of the details of the shirts in the squares:

Tie like the shirt had

Cuff Buttons

Collar buttons and Buttons from the front placket

Label on the quilt.  Again, 3/4in quilt binding and this time a permanent marker.

I stitched long-ways down the quilt to hold the layers together, then cut the backing 2in wider than the quilt then pinned and hand-stitched the binding.  Love you Grandma!

Have you ever made a memory quilt or memory pillows?  How have you repurposed something to remind you of someone you love?