So there once was a very special lady

Once upon a time there was a very special lady in my life, her name was Sheila Hatty. I called her "Aunt Sheila" even though she was technically my mother's only cousin. Aunt Sheila had three boys, Tommy, Joe and Lou. [Wish you could have seen my mom and Sheila when they got together such par tier's and stinkers. ]

When I found myself a single mom during my 30's it was my Aunt Sheila who mentored me after all she had raised her 3 sons quite well basically on her own. I still remember one funny tib-bit of advice from her was that my boys were sure to fight as they were growing up so if they began a fight I was to grab a broom and swoosh them outside and do as she used to tell her son's, "their fights were not to damage anything of mine, just themselves if they insisted on being stupid enough to fight."
Sad to share I lost my Aunt Sheila when she was much too young, 67 years old if I recall correctly. I watched her fight a very strong fight against cancer yet she lost. In our many talks while I was coming to grips with her illness she shared how much she loved her grandchildren and her one regret was that she would not have the time she wanted with her youngest grandchild Ava. Well her little Ava graduated from high school this past June and I KNOW my Aunt would be so proud of the job her son Lou did raising his daughter and even more proud of the wonderful young lady Ava has grown to be. So to honor my Aunt Sheila I designed a special quilt for my cousin Lou to give to his daughter so they could remember all the wonderful times they had as she grew through her childhood years.
So here are photos of my process of creating Ava's memory quilt.

Quilt top sewn together now ready to quilt on the HQ16

Quilting on HQ 16 frame, almost completed working on
the bottom right corner, a special label with family photos

Rolling the quilted top off the frame.

Almost rolled off frame, you can see the quilt shape.

Adding the University t-shirt to the back.

Adding University T-shirt to backing.

I usually design a t-shirt memory quilt with all the t-shirts on the front with a solid backing but in the case of Ava's quilt her father did such a great job of saving or compiling t-shirts that included nightgowns from early childhood, little short shorts with labels on the behind, ;-) and t-shirts from her high school years I made a creative decision to save the University T-shirt for the main focus of the back.