In Memory of Ryan

One year ago this weekend, my husband's best friend passed away. It was unexpected, and it has been difficult navigating the world without him. My oldest son was named after him, and we loved him dearly.

Shortly after his passing, I asked his parents if I could make a quilt from some of his shirts for them. I've never shared the quilt on the blog or even on social media. But today is the day to share the story.

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking the links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

If you're new here, hello! I'm Laura! I design quilt patterns, and I'm a self-proclaimed deal hunter! Be sure to join the popular Quilting & Sewing Deals Facebook group where I post sales, deals, and coupon codes from all around the web!

His parents gave me nine shirts. Some were short sleeve, some were long sleeve, but all were men's small. And we have photos of him wearing all of them.

I knew an Exploding Heart quilt was the perfect quilt for his parents.

I carefully began cutting the shirts using my AccuQuilt and 4" finished quarter square triangle die. I cut as many triangles as I could from each shirt.

Then from the leftovers, I used my 2" finished quarter square triangle die to cut even more triangles. There wasn't much left after that!

I chose to use solid white fabric for the background because it would make the fabrics from the shirts stand out - and I had a whole bolt of it on hand.

In the end, those nine shirts yielded a LOT of triangles! Not only did I have enough for an Exploding Heart quilt for his parents, but one for his sister too! AND I had enough leftovers for a MINI Exploding Heart quilt AND two other smaller quilts too!! (But wait! There's more! Keep reading!)

As I type this out on the blog, it's tempting to just write the facts. I cut, I sewed, I pressed. But that leaves out something else that happened: I cried. Some of the fabrics still smelled like his cologne. And every time I pressed a block, the heat would release the smell again. It was a constant reminder of the things we had done and places we had gone with him. The process wasn't as simple as cut, sew, repeat. Was it therapy? Was it healing? I'm not sure. But it wasn't easy.

I arranged all the blocks on my design wall (just a flannel backed tablecloth that's pinned to my wall) then sewed the blocks into the quilt top. Each one was quilted with an all-over meander that I free-motioned on my longarm with white thread.

All three got minky on the back too. I knew these would be used as a hug, so they needed soft backs. One was a luxe minky fabric from JOANN, one was a gray dot minky from JOANN, and the MINI one got a light gray dot minky from my stash.

I used gray Moda Grunge fabric for the binding and machine sewed it on.

And each one got a label. I custom made a label for the two Exploding Heart quilts for his family. This one that's for my husband and I got my usual label. I might make a special one later for it though.

I've made a LOT of Exploding Heart quilts.

(I think it's more than 20 now!)

But this one will always be the most special to me.

Hug your loved ones. Tell them you love them. And take their photo. Do it more than you think necessary. One day you'll be glad you did.

Here is one of the Exploding Heart quilts I made for his family.

And the second one.

I used some of the leftover triangles from those two quilts to make this lap sized quilt that I mailed to his aunt.

Then I used even more leftover triangles to make this mini quilt for my husband to keep. 

I used the collars of the shirts to make scrunchies for the girls in his family.

And I used some small scraps to make photo key chains for the men in his family too. I ordered these from Amazon, then put a piece of a shirt and a photo with him wearing that shirt inside.

All that from nine shirts!! In total, five quilts, five scrunchies, and six key chains! 

This weekend will be a time of reflection, reminiscing, and remembering all the good times with our friend. And hopefully the quilt will feel like a hug from heaven too.

Now it's your turn to share what you've finished! Link up below for TGIFF!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter