Cathryn Scanlons Clothing Quilt Name "The Heart of Me"

This is the Texture of Life quilt I made for my neice Cathryn.  Her mom has been saving her clothes since she was born.  Cathryn is now a wonderful young 17 year old woman.  This quilt is made from all her jeans from the age of one to probably 12.   I think we all could say our jeans make up the majority of clothing that we wear in our lifetime.  It was so much fun making this for Cathryn and to see her face when she opened her 2017 Christmas gift.

The above is the clothes line of Cathryns clothes used in her quilt.

Below is the stages of my mind as I created her quilt.

The Pallet of clothing 

Pockets waiting for there place on the quilt

Buttons and Labels are in the background, along with a drawing 

Wondering where these will end up.

wondering what I should use for the background

I always embroider the name of the quilt on the back


And below is Cathryn being surprised by her 2017 Christmas Gift.

It always bring joy to my heart to see the smile on her face.  So much love sits amongst the stitches.  

Lee Mannillo texture of life quilt

N.V. of my Heart Texture of  Life quilt  is made from the clothing of Lee Mannillo.

this is the Pallet of colors that designed N,V. of my heart

This quilt challenged me for I started it in September 2014,  I kept working with it up until the second week in January 2015.  Feeling overwhelmed that I wasn't getting the results that I wanted.   I took the project apart and started over.  Starting over proved  to be what I needed to do to move on.
For what I created in two weeks since has brought tears to my own eyes. 

This is one way to hang the two quilts with zippers and buttons attaching them together.

this is another way to hang the two quilts with the  heart strings tied to attach the two quilts. 
 there is an N and a V quilted in the middle of the heart .

 

TEXTURE OF LIFE FIBER ART MADE FROM THE CLOTHING OF LEE MANNILO





Quilt Name - N. V. OF MY HEART


This is the story of Lee Mannillo. Lee  was a young vibrant woman,  she couldn’t wait for the day her twin boys would be born.   The day after Lee gave birth she was stricken with a blood clot that took her away from the eyes of all who loved her, and away from her sweet baby boys.     She named her twin boys Nicolas and Van. Hence the name N.V. of my Heart, Her friend Laura contacted me to make a Texture of life quilt for Nicolas and Van from Lee’s clothing. Laura asked me to make two identical quilts. The day the mail delivered two boxes of clothing I immediately opened them to lay out the clothing. I don’t start stripping the buttons and seams right away. I always find a nice day to take pictures of the clothing out in nature. With Lees clothing I used velvet covered hangers in bright colors and a tree limb with a fall back ground to display her clothing.

there is a birds nest, bee hive with bees and an Owl

Next I thought about the idea of making two quilts exactly alike. That is when I decided to make the two quilts interact with each other. Make them into halves of a tree. My drawings all had a tree with a branch that mirrored the other side of the tree. That is when I saw the heart. Instead of the quilt only being a large tree I saw the tree being reversed and the branches connecting to make a heart.


I started this quilt in September 2014 and worked with it daily through January 18, 2015. On the morning of Jan. 19, I began questioning my ability to make this project. I had this blue/green fabric that was running up the middle of the tree. And it was distracting my eye from the tree every time I looked at it. So I decided to start the tree over omitting this fabric. As soon as I did that the tree kept growing. Until it grew into itself. And my drawings transformed into two quilts


When I had both sides of the tree made I then realized what if I put the zipper from Lee’s sweatshirt and the buttons from a shirt and the sparkling buttons of a sweater up the middle of the tree I could attach the two quilts together. When they are attached this way the quilts form a whole tree. That blue/green fabric was used for an Owl. A skirt with beads and embroidery where used to make a bee hive. As well as heart string hanging from the branch of the heart on each quilt. A green scarf was used to make the 3d Leaves and the braided roots of the tree. A rust shirt was used to make the branches that hold the leaves. The tree is made of the remaining clothing. 

The zipper used to connect both quilts

used to make leaves & roots

When the tree is unzippered an unbuttoned and the left side is placed on the right side of the other, the branches form a heart. I made heart strings to hang from the end of each branch so that they could be tied to keep the quilt together to form the heart. The roots are also tied to keep the heart together. I also quilted an N in the center of the heart on one quilt and a V in the center of the heart on the other quilt so that the end of one met the other when tied. There is also an N and a V in the trunk of the tree. 

 


One morning while I was sitting with the quilt. I started writing a poem.


N.V. Of My Heart


N. V. what will you be

When your as tall as a tree,

Tugging on heart strings is what I see,

When your as tall as a tree.

Hoot, Hoot, Hoot, what will you be

When your as tall as a tree.

Buzzing around like busy little bees, is what I see,

When your as tall as a tree

Buzz, Buzz, Buzz count with me

One, two, three, what will you be,

When your as tall as a tree.
A to Z, dance for me,

of my heart you will always be,

When your as tall as a tree.


Written by: Donna Sheerin Gillis



After I wrote these words I knew I would have to embroider them on the back of each quilt.  I wrote this poem for daytime.  And the night time poem is exactly the same except it has one word that is different it reads   A to Z, Dream of me, of my heart you will always be, when your as tall as a tree.
This is the back of both of the quilts. 

The poem was embroidered on the quilts

The back of both quilts with the poems

 I learned that Lee loved Halloween. My niece showed me pictures of Lee each year in a different costume. I also learned that Lee had many very close girlfriends. Looking through my stash of cloth I found two small pieces of Halloween fabric. Oddly enough both fabrics had a row of woman dressed as witches. I bet Lee and her girlfriends went to a lot of Halloween parties dressed up. Both of these cloths are on the back of the quilt to represent these woman that surrounded her.


Both quilts have the poem. My hope is that these words will be read to these little boys as a bedtime story.


Or as a song. And maybe a little ditty that they will read or sing to their own children.


My thought is that when the boys are learning to stand and walk that the heart will be prominent. And when the boys are tall enough to fill in the heart. The quilt will be reversed into a whole tree. Because now it will become a learning tree, they will learn to zipper, to button, to count the bees and the leaves. And each branch on the tree will be used to measure their height. 

The following two shirts were used to make the owl.

this fabric was used to make the Owl
 

this fabric as used to make the Owl

This project may have been made by me, but it is bigger than me. I can only hope that these quilts become an heirloom to follow these twins into the generations to come. 


When I was given this project there was a letter written by one of Lee's girlfriends.  Named Who will save the Dahlias.  

I kept looking at this flower and decided to make Dahlias out of Lee's clothing. 

This is the shirt used to make the Dahlia below.

This is the Dahlia

I was asked to make 9 Dahlia's

This is a picture of Lee sitting on my window sill with my sketches and sewing machine.



this is a 10 x 10 piece made in 3D.




When I received a letter in the mail from Lee's mother saying the Dahlia she was given was a shirt that she had bought for Lee when she was pregnant.   And she was so thankful.

This is when I know what I do with clothing is what I am meant to be doing.   May it heal the hearts that knew the soul.  



 

　


　


　


　


　


　

Honor The Brave

Hello all who view this blog,  I have just completed a quilt for all Service men and women who have served and are serving this great country.  Though I usually use this blog for quilts made out of clothing, this quilt is not made from clothing,  however it deserves a place in this blog.  For it was made in honor of all Service Men and Women.  This quilt started by a  customer who mentioned her friend was in the service, and wish he had a place to leave his story.   I told her I will work on this.  And here it is.   I designed and made this 3d quilt.  It was started  in July and I completed it in November in time for November 11, 2014 Veterans Day.  I like the idea of a hidden message in the quilt.  So in this quilt there is a hidden message that reads.


"To all men and women who have served and are serving this great country,
   for baring the scares of war, you are all hero's".


There are 50 stars and 13 stripes on the flag that represent the colonies.
There are 20 pockets that reflect the wars and interventions that the United States has served in.
There are 3 d triangles that wave up and down.
There is an American Eagle that is also a pocket
There is a Peace Dove with a 3 d wing, and 3d olive branch hanging from his mouth.


Here are the pictures from beginning,  The flag banners of all the wars and interventions

50 Stars and 13 Rows.  There also are 3d triangles.

        A Work in Progress

            The Peace Dove in process 3 dimensional

 A few of the 20 banners that surround the flag

    

The Bald Eagle in process

                  The end result of 4 months work.  The entire quilt is pockets for people to leave their stories.  May these stories they leave behind heal theit hearts. 

The name of the quilt is -  HONOR THE BRAVE

  The Back of the quilt

My plan for this quilt is for it to become a Traveling quilt when I retire.  Until then I hope service people come in to Pat's Pizza in Bethel, Maine to leave their story. 

Part 2 of Beverly Morrow's Texture of life quilts

Sorry I had to open another posting to show you the quilts of Beverly Morrow, I have too many pictures to show everything on one blog.  I didn't realize there is a limit to how much you can post to one blog.  So here is the last of the quilts.   Enjoy the life Beverly Morrow.

                               And here is the last quilt named  " 3D Poppies"

3 D Poppie was the only quilt out of the Beverly Morrow collection that was not my own design,
This design was taken from a wonderful quilt artist named Kumiko Sudo from her book Fabled Flowers innovative quilt patterns inspired by Japanese Sahiko and Orgami Traditions. 

What I learned in this book has inspired me to create my own designs. 

It was truly my pleasure in bringing you the Texture of Life quilts made in honor of Beverly Morrow mother to my friend Sally Bartlett. 

And since this is the holiday season I would like to share with you a poem I wrote about Laughter.


                          Laughter

Laughter stretches out
  through the house,
Bouncing around like a gitty child,

Seeping out the windows to the
   streets of noise,

Wondering !!!

Until it finds an ear to listen
not knowing of it's origin,
he smiles to himself,

As the infection of laughter
   moves the corners of his mouth,

Left to the imagination of his own mind,
that leaves the streets to another time,

When Laughter had a mind of it's own.


Written by: Donna Sheerin Gillis


May this holiday season find your homes filled with laughter bouncing off the walls.




Thank you for visiting my blog and I hope you enjoyed all I had to share.