Gavin's Memories ~~ complete!

All the way complete!  Yes, indeed.  Done. Finished.  
Edited to add: Another memory quilt for this family can be found here.

Last Friday I wrote about finishing the top, which was a bit of a struggle because the shirts that Gavin's mom brought in are not all tee-shirts.  The knits on the football jersey are different from those on his sweats and different from the tee-shirts.  Not only are the knits made differently, but they are different weights.   All of that made for some slow, careful sewing.  

Then I got to the binding.  Oh wow!  Because I'd been asked to incorporate Gavin's karate belts into his quilt, I started thinking about how I could applique the belts along the edge.  After playing around with a couple of ideas--but nothing I liked--I asked Richard to take a look.  Together we finally decided that rather than bind the quilt and add the belts after, I needed to use the belts as the binding.  That meant removing two to three seams from every belt. 

It also meant figuring out how to connect two belts together because the belts were not long enough for the long sides of the quilt.  I eventually settled on ripping out all of the seams on the very edge of the belt to expose the burlap belting material.

That allowed me to peel back the fabrics, then I cut down the burlap by about an inch and flipped the fabric into the belt to form a clean edge.  

In the example in these pictures, I slipped the navy belt into the white one.  

Keeping the folded parts down I hand-stitched the two belts together using a clear, mono-filament thread.

The corners proved to be a bigger challenge. I sewed down the sides, then moved on to the top and bottom.  I had to sew the binding/belting down almost up to the binding. Again I peeled the fabric back and cut the burlap down and folded the fabric into the belt.  Using a whipstitch I sewed the opening closed and continued sewing the belting on as binding.

Once the belts/binding was on, I turned my attention to the baseball cap that would be the final touch.  I zigzagged the edges of the cap and then added a few tailor tacks to the top of the cap.  That held the cap in place fairly well.  It could be removed so that someone else can remove it and wear it as is.

And there you have it! A memory quilt made with lots of Gavin's personal items--from tee-shirts, to jerseys and tees, to karate belts and a baseball cap.

The belts that I used as binding.

The weather was perfect (hot but not too bright) for a photo-shoot.  However, the ladder is broken.  Richard insisted that I not climb the ladder, but he gave no suggestions as to what I could climb.  In the end I used the front porch swing and then the fence around the puppies' yard.  They worked okay but if your screen has a blurred picture, I apologize.

 A few close-ups and linky parties

Linking up with:

Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts 

Fabric Frenzy Friday for Fourth Worth Fabric Studio

Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Janet at Simply Pieced is the hostess for TGIFF for Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday