Charity Quilts
Purchase with a Purpose
When you buy one of these limited edition quilts, a portion of your purchase price will be donated to the ministries at Fuquay Varina United Methodist Church. Just look for "FVUMC" on the listing.
About Us
Heirloom in the Making is just me for now. This is a woman-owned small business for the passionate creation of fabric arts by me but when the project is larger than a lap quilt, I'll send it out to one of my quilting community contacts who has a room-sized frame and longarm that does bed-sized quilts. One or two even have a computer-controlled system!
I've been sewing since I was 9 and learned on an old Singer Treadle my mother had. I loved pumping the peddle but 50 years later, I am delighted to use a highly-computerized Janome MemoryCraft machine named "Cindy Lou" for piecing your quilt and I have a HandiQuilter Sweet Sixteen stationary longarm named "Merida" for quilting small projects up to a lap size (65"x72" average).
Together with the talents of Cindy Lou and Merida, my quilt designs tend to include applique--cutting out shapes and applying them to a background fabric. You could even say applique is my jam but I try not to have sticky fingers while quilting.
I can custom-design a cartoony layout (like the Minions I drew from pictures online) or I can use more classic shapes. Although I can hand-stitch (needle-turn) the edges, that is more expensive and I prefer to machine stitch my applique down anyway. More secure that way, too!
One unusual technique I specialize in is a combination of hand and machine work called "Shadow Applique." Here, a sheer overlay is placed on top of the shapes before they are hand-stitched down with a matching color thread. The background image on this site is a "Secret Garden" quilt I did in the shadow applique style.
I can turn any applique into shadow applique but it's particularly well-suited to baby quilts. All of just part of a quilt can be done in shadow applique. To see an example of a combination, please visit my Facebook business page where you'll see the "bears" are shadow applique (from grandparents' clothing) but the stars are not (just grandpa's tee shirts).
In 2020, I started doing T-shirt quilts and am finding that they're really fun and such an honor to make--a true heirloom in the making! I've made several necktie memory quilt projects and can work with a variety of shirts but I do not work with heavy materials such as denim, leather, lined suits or outerwear. I also do not provide laundry services, so please read the FAQs if you have a tee shirt quilt or other memory quilt you'd like me to make for you.