Graduation Memory Quilt

I started quilting about 3 years ago.  Well to be honest when we first moved into our house about 6 years ago my sister with a tiny bit of help from me sewed the curtains for the house and I started feeling quite confident in my sewing abilities.  Nothing to it right... I wanted to make a cute throw quilt for my guest bedroom and by now I knew how to sew a straight line.  I picked out some cute fabrics, cut them in squares, sewed them together, took my backing, sewed it right sides together leaving enough room to turn it right side out, finished it and took a look at my great creation....  It didn't turn out quite like I had imagined.  I wish that I had photos of it, but it didn't last long before my embarrassment told me to get rid of it.  That technique might work for a baby quilt, but in a large throw it pretty much looks like an empty duvet cover.


On to the post at hand... I have pretty much found my niche in making memory quilts.  Memory quilts are tough, you start with a pile of clothes that really don't "flow" together and you want to put something together that will be beautiful to more then the person it was meant for.  This quilt was made as a college graduation present for one of my friends daughters.  It is a collection of all of her golf shirts that she had worn throughout her 4 years on the golf team.

This quilt pattern can be found here, it is the quilt Final Four.  It is patterned out as a 84" x 97" quilt but I adjusted it to be about 70' x 80".  It resulted in me needing only 13 pieces of clothing to incorporate into the quilt.  If you are interesting in trying this quilt in this size, email me and I can get you the fabric requirements.  I will admit that I had sketched it out,  and once I bought the fabrics and put it together realized that I had cut out forty "sets" instead of forty pieces.  Whoops...

I did find something to do with the extra pieces that I had cut.  I like to add a little "extra" to the back of my quilts if I can.  This also works great if you find that you are a little short on your backing fabric. 

My friend mentioned to me that tie dye was something that was something that her daughter's golf team used quite a bit throughout the year.  I tried to incorporate it in the fabrics I used in the quilt.

This was a fun quilt to make as it was the first memory quilt that I got to make for a girl.  Having 2 daughters, there is nothing I love more than those "fun" girly fabrics.

Anybody can do this... even you!!!!


Darla