Memory Quilts or T-Shirt Quilts do not have to be uninteresting or ugly. I remember being surprised by a relatively well known modern quilter talking about how quilts do not have to be like that weird t-shirt quilt you stuck in the back of your closet. Sometimes a customer will hire me to make a t-shirt or memory quilt because someone they love wants one, but they will be careful to say they think it is going to be ugly. I am always happy to dispel their preconceived notions of what a t-shirt or memory quilt is and how it looks.
Sometimes theme makes a t-shirt quilt really special!
Honestly I don’t make a quilt unless I know it will be beautiful, and I do still surprise myself with how lovely a simple t-shirt quilt can be! And I have interesting, adventurous clients who let me explore art with their clothing.
Differences in construction can also add interest to a t-shirt quilt.
Cone Flower Memory Quilt. The flowers are made from clothing.
Tree Memory Quilt.
I recently finished a pair of memory quilts (the cone flowers and tree above) that are decidedly art, and the art enhanced the memory and tactility of the clothing itself. My customers were so pleased, and at the delivery meeting their joy and wonder at the memories aroused by the quilts reminded me why art and the recognition it provides are so important. Virginia Woolf, when talking about the art of literature in “A Room of One’s Own,” discusses integrity…that writing is art when it makes a reader say, “Yes, that is right.” The work provides integrity to what it is describing, and I think t-shirt quilts and memory quilts do the same thing. They are tangible examples of integrity…the reality of a human life and their loves and preferences translated through clothing and stitch. Art.
The quilting is just lovely with the Cuddle back!
Sending Quilty Love,
Ginger
Currently Reading: I’m further along than last week in the same texts, and I only have one story left in Anne Monroe’s short story compilation, and it is called “Too Much Happiness.” Maybe it will be happy. Don’t get me wrong, the stories are excellent in a very Flannery O’Conner Way. I keep thinking of “A Good Man is Hard to Find”…Ohh, a little Faulkner, too, definitely “A Rose for Emily” vibes. I’m also still on the island with the boys in Lord of the Flies—of course this is a reread, but it doesn’t stop me from hoping it ends differently, and Elizabeth Bowen has me intrigued, but I still think the end is going to be bad in The Death of the Heart and not because of the title either. I hope you are reading something that brings you joy or tickles the best parts of your brain. I think I may need a cozy mystery next.