Quilt Finish – Farewell Frank
Today is another one of those sad, but celebratory posts, honouring the life of a respected man. Mr. Sparkles has had his BFF, Gabrielle, for over 30 years. They’ve been around the world and then some, and are as tight as tight can get. I’ve known her for 16 of those years, and with that, I’ve known her family for nearly that long. When Gabrielle’s dad, Frank, passed away a few years ago, she gave me a collection of his plaid shirts for me to do my thing. Because I understood the importance of what her dad meant to her, and thus what these shirts represented, I was paralysed in designing the perfect quilt with them. I didn’t want to run the risk of ruining someone else’s memories, and forfeiting the best possible outcome.
So I sat on these shirts for way too long, until finally, I realised it wasn’t the design of the quilt that mattered. My role in all of this was negligible, instead, it was the materials and finished product for my friend that mattered most. Once I got over the fact that my idea of perfection was inconsequential, I settled on simple patchwork to highlight his plaid obsession. In order to make the initial quilt larger, I started adding a fabric pull of low volume tea-hued neutrals. There were some fussy cut novelty fabrics, geometric prints, metallic-flecked mystery scraps, and even text prints with inspiring words and phrases.
I used a 3″ finished square to capitalise on maximum fabric usage from the deconstructed shirts, and set to work on placing them as randomly as possible in a checkerboard design. Once I had a largish lap quilt top complete at 54″ x 72″, I realised I had enough fabrics to make a slightly smaller lap quilt at 42″ x 48″. This was serendipitous as Gabrielle mentioned she wouldn’t mind having some sort of memento to give to her mother as well. Things happen for a reason, y’all!
I quickly set about making the second quilt top in the same manner, and suddenly, what I thought was a minimal amount of source material had produced two memorial quilts in honour of Frank. For the backing I used Carrie Bloomston Newsprint wideback from Windham Fabrics, which has some amazingly fitting news headlines about love. It’s the perfect backing for all sorts of quilts, and as it is a wideback, it covers a lot of ground.
Gabrielle has a kindred connection with dragonflies, and has experienced them visiting her on numerous occasions in the capacity of guardian angels. So for these quilts, I knew the quilting needed to reflect that motif as it relates to such a strong representation of her father. When I found this pattern, which looks like an angelic dragonfly with a halo, I knew it was the one! I sent it to Leanne of Mount Vincent Quilts so she could add that layer of threaded magic to the quilts.
Once again, a yellow binding was on order to brighten up the overarching brown tone of the quilt, and it pulled out some of the yellow pops from the novelty fabrics. Another special thing happened: when it came to hand stitch the binding down, it was at a time when Grandma Sparkles was staying with us. She volunteered to complete that portion as a way to contribute love and support to Gabrielle and her family.
These quilts turned out to be a full circle of love for everyone involved. Grandma Sparkles and I loved making them, while Gabrielle was over the moon at receiving both quilts. She even sent me a photo of her mother sitting in her favourite chair, wrapped up in her smaller Farewell Frank quilt, lovingly remembering her husband as he metaphorically sat with her.
Title: Farewell Frank
Size: 42″ x 48″ and 54″ x 72″
Pattern: 3″ finished patchwork
Fabric: A collection of Frank’s plaid shirts, combined with various low volume tea-toned neutrals
Piecing: Machine stitched on Juki TL-98P with Aurifil 50wt, White 2024
Quilting: Long arm quilting by Mount Vincent Quilts
Binding: Hand stitched with Aurifil 40wt, Gold Yellow 5015
Backing: Carrie Bloomston Newsprint wideback for Windham Fabrics
Timing: March 2020 – July 2020
Favourite Part: Supporting a dear friend through her loss with quilts.
Beautiful.
Lovely quilt, lovely story, and a lovely person who put it all together
Love the plaid inserts in the binding. What a privilege to work with the shirts and create memorial quilts to Frank.
Thanks for sharing this quilt. I always forget that the quilting can be as much part of the story as the fabric itself. Really lovely gift.
Thank you for setting me straight on the importance of memory quilts. I, like you, would spend lots of time fussing over what I should do and how important the quilt project was. I have also learned that it is the material that carries the memories, not the quilt design. What freedom is gained when one realizes this. Now I spend more time creating and less time fussing. Thanks for sharing those beautiful plaid quilts in Frank’s memory.
These quilts are just lovely. You nailed it of course, but it’s the love that went into the project that truly shines through. I even love that little detail of plaid strips in the yellow binding.
Love your quilt. I have lots of checked blouses/tops I need to de-clutter and wondered what I should make with them. Your simple but lovely quilt is just the right project. Gabrielle & her Mum will find comfort wrapped up in their new quilts <3
Absolutely love this post. Thank you for sharing.