Both of my boys were in Karen Orvins 1st grade class. To this day, one of their favorite teachers is Karen Orvin. They called her Aunt Karen, but she is really not kin to them. She was married to their cousin who passed away when Waylon was in her class. But she has law at looked after my boys and made sure they succeeded in school. My boys have a love for her that I could never explain.
Karen approached me a few years ago about making memory quilts for her family. I at first told her no, I was not confident enough to do it myself. But a little over a year ago I told her I would take the challenge on. At that time and a few times after she told me she wanted a quilt with the most different tops in it!! As I was cutting I decided what quilt would be hers! It took me the longest time to cut apart all the shirts and pants. I decided as I was cutting that I would leave the front pockets in the panels and make a pocket quilt.
All I could think was how awesome it would be to have a quilt where she could still reach her hands in the pockets that Herbie did. The same place I saw him reach many times. I just think it's neat to know that she can share that connection with him.
So here is the pocket quilt. I squared up all the panels. I put all the panels in order from longest to shortest. I decided on a width and sewed the sorts together to make up that with. If there was an extra section needed to make it equal, I used a shirt panel without a pocket. I made 3 rows. This made the quilt dimensions are about 54x70.
I backed it with the same Carolina fabric I used on the others and black. I stipples a swirl pattern to quilt it. I quilted around all the pockets to leave them open. I then bound it with Carolina fabric.
I placed a special message on the back of the quilt using one of his shirt sleeves. I did not sew this on too neatly. I am hoping this unravels a little and makes soft edges. One of the looks I like!
I left this quilt on Karen's porch this morning for her birthday. I take photos of my quilts in special places usually to those I am making them for. Herbie called his home his Ponderosa. I drive home from work in Charleston in the rain. When I got to Karen's house it stopped raining. It was like someone knew that I needed to take these photos. In my family we call rain, tears from heaven. Today is is one of those days that I think it's evidence to be true.
I left the quilt like this in the rocking chair. I hope Karen loves it as much as much I did making it.
