The legacy of Hawaiian shirts and their subsequent quilts

Back in 2011-12, I was out in my in-laws storage shed with my mother-in-law as she was going through boxes of dress up clothes to send home to our house with us.  She pulled a box of fabric off the shelf and I asked her what it was.  For several years she had asked me how to make a rag quilt and I didn't realize that the reason she wanted to know how was so she could use this fabric she had been storing for several years and make one for her bed. The box of fabric were left over pieces of fabric from her mom's own stash of Hawaiian shirt making.  If you want to read that whole story, you can click HERE to read my post last month on the legacy of this fabric and it's importance in my husbands family.   

I wish I had the pictures I took during that time still.  But they were lost in a computer crash many years ago.  The picture of this massive Tupperware box (2 feet by 3 1/2 feet and 2 feet tall) full of all the scrap fabric from her mom's sewing adventures.  We brought the box back into the house and I sorted through it as she asked me if it was enough fabric to make a quilt for her California King sized bed.  I knew it was especially if she was going to make a rag quilt.  It was just a matter of what size to make each of the squares so that I could use more scraps than less in the stack.  I had her get out her rotary cutter and cutting mat and I cut out a few squares to show her how to make it.  After one day of my vacation I realized that I really just needed to take the box home and make the quilt up myself.  So, we headed to JoAnn's, purchased the batting, I packed the box in our truck and headed home. 

I was probably 6 months pregnant with my second child at the time and I knew that I would need to really spend some serious time working on it so that I could finish it before our own life changes happened.  I spent many many many nights pulling out the scraps, ironing them and cutting them into squares and strips.  In the end I made the squares 5 inches like a charm pack size and I also made all the strips in 2 1/2 in strips like a jelly roll.  It was A LOT of squares and in the end a lot of batting as well. I spent a week sewing all the square together, and another week putting those squares into rows.  I used my bed to lay them out to make sure that nothing looked weird in the layout and I just kept sewing.  I used the kitchen floor in the rental unit upstairs from us the day that the people moved out to lay out and spray and pin the second quilt I made to get it ready to machine quilt.  I was 8 1/2 months pregnant so yes, me crawling around on my hands and knees putting in all the pins was surely just crazy!!  

I was at my in-laws this weekend on vacation and finally all these years later, got pictures not only on my phone (which I have done and lost several times over the years) but also, got on my computer to make sure they made it here to my blog.  It was such great timing since I have been systematically going through and posting all my old projects to be able to see these quilts in person again and also, sleep in a bed that had one of the quilts on it.  

I end up making not only the California King sized rag quilt, but a queen sized jelly roll strip quilt.  They turned out awesome.  The queen sized quilt was a surprise but we were able to get them to my mother in law that year for her birthday when she came up to see our newborn son when he was born.  I had so much fabric left over and I did another post of that fabric and the quilts I have made from that fabric HERE.  

Here are some close ups.  I hope that you enjoyed!!