Memorial or bereavement quilts can help the healing process. The focus of such a quilt is to honor the person for whom the quilt is dedicated while comforting the grieving. The quilt celebrates the life of the loved one and can become a treasured heirloom, but it is also something tangible to hold, to love, to cherish and to display.
Memory Quilts
Memory quilts can be made from the clothes of the loved one, from other chosen fabrics or from a combination of the two. Memory quilts can also be made for the living and can be made to celebrate anniversaries or special occasions, to help someone through a difficult period, or to cheer up a sick friend.
Design Process
Your quilt will be customized to your needs and requirements. I will work closely with you to choose the appropriate design for your quilt, whether it be in traditional, contemporary, or story form. Below are some samples of my bereavement quilts along with the stories behind them:
Contact
I would be honored to make a quilt for you of any size. If you would like me to design and construct a quilt, please email me at RosieR and let's discuss it.
Examples of Bereavement Quilts
One Family - Three Quilts - A Collaborative Effort
A family lost their beloved husband/father at the age of 50. Using the husband's clothes, I made the three quilts shown above. The mother's queen-size quilt was made from eight shirts and two pairs of trousers and featured a unique design chosen by the mother. The outer border was fashioned from black dress jeans her husband was wearing on their first date. The mother chose the purple fabric used for contrast. She requested a small embroidered great blue heron to remember the wonderful camping days spent with her family.
The second quilt was a queen-sized quilt for the daughter, which featured a beautiful butterfly design chosen by the daughter, who also chose the color blue for her contrasting fabric. The outside blocks were made from an additional eight shirts, discovered late in the process. Borders were fashioned from two pair of trousers. An embroidered Wallace & Gromet taken from one of the shirts was placed on the quilt at the daughter's request, a poignant tribute to her father.
In the third quilt, made for both mother and daughter to share, I chose the double wedding ring design and used three flannel shirts and a pair of his flannel pajamas. Forest green flannel was chosen by the client for the background. A small camping site design was requested, symbolizing the family of three in happier days.
A Pictorial Quilt - Unique Design
The quilt on the left is an example of my own design, revealed to the client upon completion. The following pictures depict the progress of a quilt and feature a pictorial quilt I made for a mother whose vibrant 35-year-old daughter was brutally murdered. The mother couldn't bear to part with the daughter's clothes, whose bright colors and both sophisticated and playful designs mirrored the lively young lady who had forged a new life for herself in Alaska. The mother chose to have a quilt made, thus keeping the clothes near to her but in a new artistic form. This king-size quilt can be hung on the wall or used on her bed.
The slideshow below takes you thru the design process, from studying the clothes, getting a sense of the lady who wore them, to designing the quilt using a flannel-covered wall, to cutting and sewing the patchwork, to deciding on a border (red hearts), and last of all, quilting the patchwork and producing the final product.
This story quilt depicts the daughter lying against a brown tree trunk beside another black tree trunk and looking out over the city of Anchorage and the mountains of Alaska beyond. Her house she so proudly bought is shown on the right. A picture of her mother and her, as a toddler, astride a family horse is set against of fan of her colorful skirts. At the bottom is the familiar poem, a favorite of the mother's, which begins: "Do not stand on my grave and weep, I am not there, I do not sleep . . . ." The poem is embroidered on a yellow sleeveless dress, which was the dress her daughter was wearing the last time they met.
Thirty-two Illustrious red hearts against black backgrounds form the border symbolizes the daughter's warmth, vitality, and love of animals and people.
Four Quilts - Celebrating Grandma's 100 Years
I received a box of colorful shirts all belonging to a client's grandmother who had recently died at the marvelous age of 100. I was asked to design three quilts to be Christmas presents for a daughter, a granddaughter, and a granddaughter-in-law. There was enough material for a small fourth quilt, which the client was going to use as a tablecloth. Each colorful quilt was the size of a throw for a sofa, and each design was tailored to the type of material available - the "Rail Fence" quilt was made of all knitted material, for instance, and the "Morning Star" quilt used the grandmother's shirts only in the points of the stars. These quilts demonstrate the versatility of designs for memory/ bereavement quilts. I was told that this Christmas was a poignant one, with all the reminders of grandma.
The Gift of a Bereavement Quilt
The quilt below was gifted by a family friend to the parents of a young man who tragically drowned. I was sent 25 shirts which had belonged to the young man, some of them his baby shirts, along with a hat, a pair of pajamas and a pair of jeans. She left the design up to me, but requested that I somehow use the hat and the jeans. Below are pictures of the final quilt and the pillow, made from his Christmas pajamas. Also depicted are labels, which feature the back pockets of his jeans. Note the hole in the pocket where he carried his wallet.
Note the use of the logo cut from Aaron's cap and sewn into the lower tan triangle. Also note the tiny logo on the red diamond, which came from his baby outfit. The orange "BOO!" was from one of his Halloween outfits. Most of the other triangles display typical teen age boy's shirts. Aaron was 21 years old when he died, a beloved young man, much missed by his friends and his family.
Tie Quilt - Wedding Gift
To the left is a tie quilt I made for a mother who wanted to give her daughter a unique wedding gift - a wall hanging or throw made from her father's ties. There are innumerable patterns for tie quilts. This one, the popular "Dresden Plate" pattern, was chosen by the mother as the best way to display the ties, which she had saved for many years. Afterwards, she said that "it was wonderful to work with Rosie. She provided ideas and suggestions, then patiently took the time to help me fine-tune my wishes for the final version of the design. She created both a meaningful memento with which my daughter can remember her father, but also a unique objet d'art, beautiful in its own right."
The daughter was very close to her father, who had died ten years before. As the mother explained, "I picked out a quote from a poem my daughter wrote for her father's birthday, which turned out to be his last. She [Rosie] embroidered the quote in the center of the quilt and added a lovely image of a mountain and a crane, which perfectly complemented the quote."
Following are the two fragments of that poem, featured in the center of the quilt: "You kindle fires, Father . . . Give birth to star-eyed daughters"
The red silk in the background came from one of the mother's dresses. Black shiny polyester was used as a backing, and pieces of ties were mirrored in the border.
Memory Quilts - Collections of T-Shirts
Father's Shirts Made into a Christmas Quilt,
Below are pictures of a Christmas quilt given as a gift from a widowed mother to her daughter, made from her father's t-shirts, golf shirts, and vacation shirts. The quilt which was approximately 80 x 80 inches could be used as a large throw or a wall hanging or even to adorn a bed. According to the mother, this quilt also caused a poignant Christmas. She said, "Angie LOVED her quilt. Of course, she cried. It meant so much to her. Thank you for such a beautiful thing!! I couldn't have picked a better source for this project. I have told all my friends how wonderful it was to work with you.
Father-in-Law's T-Shirts as a Christmas Gift
Not all memory quilts are bereavement ones. Many quilts are made for the living - from their collection of badges, T-shirts, or even bridesmaid dresses. The quilt below was a Christmas gift for a client's father-in-law, made from his vast collection of racing car meet t-shirts. As is evident from the picture below, he loved his quilt.
