You never know where a "quilt" will do their best work or where a long-arm quilter finds unexpected work...
Quilts are pieces of our childhood, memories of stitches lovingly placed, colorful reminders of seasons in our lives - a first baby quilt that gets passed down, a hand-quilted jewel by a Great-great Grandmother, a wedding, a graduation, a memory quilt.... the list goes on.
So why would a funeral home need a quilt?
I will give you the shortened version :
My husband and I have both lost our fathers within a year of each other, these situations always give you pause to think and reflect.
We decided to get our affairs "in order" so when the time came it would be easy for our children. During our meeting with Daryl, the funeral home director, he asked about our work ect... When he found out that I owned my own business as a longarm-quilter, he asked at the end of the meeting if he could meet with me at a later date. We had two meetings one to discuss what his needs were and one for me to show him my ideas!!
I don't often take on commissioned work, but this one was meaningful in more than one way for me.
I found these beautiful cross patterns by Judit Hajdu of the The Quiltfox Design. Daryl loved them and asked for 3 quilts to be made of a certain size, I had to do some serious "quilt math" to enlarge the sizes! Below are some pictures of these finished quilts:
The quilt pictured above, you may have seen on my Instagram, I made two of this version. It looked like weathered wood; this fabric was from Hoffman Fabrics their Homestead Memories Collection.
The third version pictured above, I have to say, is my favorite. The cross looks like it is glowing, it was a little more involved in its construction and enlarging it in length, making sure to keep the ombré effect intact.
The pantograph I used of all the quilts is called Hammersmith by Keryn Emerson. It just looks like cathedral windows to me on these quilts and well suited for them.
So back to the original question:
Why would a funeral home need a quilt?
This is the exact question I had asked Daryl; his answer was as follows:
"When a loved one passes in a home or at the hospital, the process of removing the loved one is softened by the covering of a quilt on top, it emotes a sense of comfort, care, and love."
It made perfect sense to me after that, I still remember seeing my dad as he was taken from our house, and the sun was shining on his face and it would have been lovely to have seen a quilt, one that I had made, lovingly laid on his body as we said goodbye.
This project was a labor of love and very cathodic for me as I worked on them.
Thanks for reading along and keep sewing those quilts, as they all have meaning, love, and care showered and sprinkled though them.
Until next time!
Michelle
Seashell Quilting Studio