Finished!

I finally finished my husband's memory quilt! His identical twin brother passed on three years ago this May. I was able to snag some of his cotton work shirts. After a while, my husband was ready for me to make a quilt for him. He picked the design, the quilting pattern, the size, and the backing.

• Initial Inspiration: Bonnie Hunter's book Scraps and Shirttails showed me that quilts made with men's shirts could be beautiful.
• Background and Accent fabrics: Shabby by Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet for Riley Blake designs provided most of the accent fabrics. I also used a Bleached Denim Confetti Cotton (also by Riley Blake Designs), and a Moda Grunge for the background.
• Design: Electric Quilt 8 was an invaluable tool to bring this creation to life. I'm not that great at picturing what something will look like, But with EQ8, it's easy to upload fabric pictures and see the quilt before you make a single cut.

• Pattern: I made my own, but was inspired by Cozy Quilt Design's Jacob's Ladder. My husband like the pattern, but also the name. His brother was a spiritual man, so it seemed to fit.
• Cut with: AccuQuilt cutting system. Using the chisel shape saved 92 seams--that's 92 seams I didn't have to sew, but more importantly, 92 seams I didn't have to match! And, with the engineered dog ears, there was no patch or block trimming!
• Quilting designs: Longhorn B2B, and SW Armadillo Border, both by Anne Bright Designs. We learned after my husband picked these out that the Longhorn is the Texas state large mammal, and the Armadillo is the Texas state small mammal. Who knew?