Heni's Quilt

This is one of the pictured that is going on my "Love List Board"......You may remember an older post here on Henibean entitled The Quilt Treatment...(about a quilt that had lots of special quotes and scriptures embroidered on it..made for me by my lovely niece)? I had always admired the quilt and loved seeing pictures of the other quilts my niece made afterwards... and (over time) I had a growing desire to make one myself.

A few years ago I decided to make one for Heni as a Christmas present. I had saved up a heap of the girls T- shirts (that I had enjoyed seeing them wear and subsequently grow out of).... and decided that I wanted to use them to make up the  squares on the front of the project.

...Now I'm not going to give you a step by step account of how to make a quilt  on here because there are plenty of tutorials out there already.... (that's how I learned how to make this one!)...BUT what I will  tell you is why I thought it might be a good idea in the first place and show you some of the pictures of the various stages and how it came together.  

The t-shirts hold a heap of memories from when the girls were tiny...  usually Daughter Number Two would wear them first seeing as she is bigger, and then hand them down to her smaller big sister (Heni). I have fond memories of both of them wearing the same thing and I wanted to preserve some of these remembrances by turning them in to something useful that Heni could use now. I also had a yearning to learn a new skill ... but most importantly I wanted to have a quilt to remind me of Heni (in a time that she may no longer be with us)... and to be able to pass it on to my Precious daughter number 2. 

So bearing in mind that I'm a complete novice... and am forever grateful to YouTube videos....here are some of the pics from the Quilt makeup...

 
Because the T shirts were varying colours it was difficult to decide on a colour scheme that would potentially tie them all together.... but seeing as Heni's room is bright and multi- coloured, I opted for lilac, orange and lime green!

I had fun cutting them in to squares with my fab rotary cutter and then laying them all out to figure out which squares I wanted to put together.

Once I had a general idea of how the squares were going to be made up,  I then spent ages faffing around arranging and rearranging them to produce some balance from one end of the quilt to then other. It was a little better when I laid them all out on top of the material that I was going to use to border them.

Left side of front of quilt

Middle front

Right side of front of quilt

Laying them out on the floor gave me room to picture them better and rearrange as desired. When I was happy with the layout I then machine sewed strips of the lilac material to join them all together....

I taped the backing material to the floor ( wrong side  up) so that I could place the wadding on top....and then pin the wadding and the front piece together.... without getting everything all jumbled up and creased.

The trickiest bit for me was making the binding to put around the edges and hand sewing it all on  : ( ....not my most favourite bit!

Heni asleep in the background on her daytime nap...one of the potential places that I would use the quilt when finished!

The finished quilt

I was quite pleased with my first ever attempt and gained a little courage and confidence to do something similar with some more T-shirt fronts a little later. I  turned them into  some cushions for my Sanity Space upstairs! 

Do you have any clothing that reminds you of a loved one that you would like to keep? Would you like to turn it in to something useful? 
 If you have been wondering what to do with them, then I would encourage you to  have a go at making something yourself... it doesn't have to be a big item.The only limit is your imagination and perhaps some skills! If sewing is not your thing then having one made is equally special  There are some great ideas out there if you google around, but you can check out some that I found interesting  here  and here 
(I don't have any affiliation with theses sites...I just like the ideas!) 

The quilt has been used heaps over the last few years and I hope it will get used for many years to come....I just LOVE the vibrancy and the many special memories that it brings back to me.... and when the time finally does come that Heni moves onward and upwards, then I will be blessed to have all of these recollections that I can wrap myself up in and then pass on to her "big little sister".

Jx

Why not build up a little confidence and courage today by having a go at a project you have been meaning to do? Let me know how you get on at Henibean's facebook page