Patti's Memory Banner Quilt With Bird Appliques

It's time once again for Amy's Creative Side Quilt Festival.  This entry is for the Spring 2013 festival.  My other entry is under Throw Quilt category. 

I finished Patti's memory quilt today.  Patti is my late mother-in-law's oldest daughter and carries on her name.  I decided she needed something a little more fancy than a quick block quilt.  While surfing the Internet for quilt ideas I found several types of flag banner quilts and decided that would be something I could use my mother-in-law's clothes for to make a nice quilt for Patti.  I also came across a bird quilt on Pinterest and decided to add a bird to each row.

I found some navy blue trim at Hancock's to use for the "clothes line".  I cut each triangle out of an 8 1/2" X 11" piece of paper.  If you like the birds and want to make your own, you can go to my Pinterest (top of the blog) and follow my Quilt Idea board where you will find a link to these cute birds where you can create your pattern.

While garage sale shopping a few weeks ago I got this two yard cut of blue cotton for 50 cents !  The blue represents a beautiful blue clear sky.  I first arranged the trim and triangles on the background fabric to get my spacing then sewed one row on at a  time.

Sewing on the trim for the clothes line using a wide zig zag stitch....

I used a light weight bonding adhesive for each triangle since the clothes were out of so many different fabrics.  I did not want any shifting of fabrics while sewing the triangles in place.

I added the bird to the row after the triangles were sewn on.  I used a zig zag stitch for everything.

The quilt top was not quite wide enough so I used some blue floral fabric that my mother-in-law had in her sewing closet.  I wanted to use as much of her fabric, thread, etc as possible in the memory quilts.  She was a great seamstress and crafter who taught me well !  I made these border strips 4" wide.

I used a quilted mattress pad for the backing.  Since Patti lives in Michigan, this will give her a nice heavy quilt for those long winters!

Lots of safety pins were used to sandwich the two pieces together....

I used a free motion quilting technique to give this quilt lots of "puckerness" goodness...

I used an old pillowcase for the binding.  I cut the pillowcase into 3" strips, folded in half, top stitched to the front and hand stitched to the back.

Today was an overcast day, so it was perfect for taking outdoor pictures in the backyard....

I'm sure Patti will love this quilt as much as I do and it will give her some tender memories of her mama as she looks at these fabrics from her 50th wedding anniversary dress, shirts, jeans, hospital scrubs and pajamas.  The birds were cut out of Pat's pajamas that she wore the last couple of months during her battle with cancer.  Pajamas that Patti gave to her mom.  Patti said she loved wearing them because the style of them made them look more like regular clothes than p.j.'s.  She found them comforting.

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