Woven Memories

This little quilt has connections to several other things I've blogged about:

It is part of my "Something From Nothing" series.  This is a challenge I set for myself to use otherwise cast off bits and pieces to make little quilts.  The designs need to be based in some way on the items I'm using.  You can read more about the series here.

It is a memorial quilt, in the same vein as the little quilt I made with my friend Gloria's mom's button collection and a vintage cat fabric.  Here is the post about that quilt.

The bits and pieces I used for Woven Memories came from my friend Debbie's Grandma's house.  You can meet Debbie's Grandma and read the story of the doll clothes I made for her here.

When I helped Debbie and her mom sort through and clear out the house, they gave me Grandma's sewing supplies.  I decided to use some of those things to make these memory quilts, one for Debbie and one for her mom.  These two little quilts are made with bias tapes, hem tapes, blanket bindings, piping, and ric-rac.  I wove them into a plaid fabric.  There was a wider range of colors, but I found the look more pleasing when I edited a bit, less of a hodge-podge look.

Even though I keep calling them quilts, these aren't actually quilted.  There is a layer of thick flannel inside to give the pieces some body.  The strips are tacked down inside the intersections.  I didn't actually stitch them all down because I wanted to keep the looser, woven feeling. 

The title "Woven Memories" just popped into my head when I was getting ready to embroider my signature on the backs.  I feel it has a couple of layers of meaning, just like quilts themselves.

Debbie's Grandma Wood lived to be 107 years old.  She was an avid crafter, seamstress, gardener, and homemaker.  She lived well and fully and happily.  All her stories and friends and relations were woven into the fabric of her life.