Memory Wall Quilts

This pattern has often been misunderstood. I think it's mostly my fault because I'm the one who came up with the name! But so many people have the idea that it was designed to be a memory quilt. In case you are unfamiliar with a memory quilt, its made in memory of a loved one. It's typically made using old clothes or t-shirts. But it was never my intention to use this pattern as a memory quilt. Though, it would work well for that. 

Another common misconception about Memory Wall is that you'd have to print your photos onto fabric to make this quilt. That's also not true, though that would be awesome, and I fully intend to do that some day.

My sweet Grampa Kelly loved photography and throughout his lifetime he managed to collect an impressive amount of photos. He had several old albums from the 50s and 60s with those small, square, photo prints with the white borders. You know the ones? It was those old photos that were my inspiration for the block. When I started working on the layout for the quilt, I thought, why not draw inspiration from something else photo-related? Enter, gallery walls. 

I've always loved gallery walls. They are a great way to hang several much-loved family photos together or a treasured art collection! To the point, this quilt was inspired by photos or art hanging on a wall. You don't need to print photos on fabric to make this quilt!

Now that we've got that covered, let's move onto all the quilts we've made with this pattern. And you'll see, this is the most versatile quilt pattern, probably, like ever.

This was the second Memory Wall quilt made, and it uses the gorgeous Pond Tales fabric from FIGO Fabrics. We made this one for my Dad (we're always making him quilts, even though he never uses them!). On Saturday, I shared a peak of the hot dog backing fabric on Lindley General Store. It's a cute little nod to his favourite food! This version just demonstrates how well this pattern works with directional and large-scale prints.

For the baby version, we used a Christmas collection by FIGO Fabrics called Noel. Why? Honestly, we needed to test the Baby size of the pattern, and this fabric is adorable. That's it. But...here me out, using Christmas fabric on a baby quilt for a baby born in December would be a very cute idea. In my opinion.

This one was made for my cousin in Barbados. Yes, they do use quilts in Barbados! My cousin has AC so she does need a quilt. This quilt is the bed sized Memory Wall, measuring at 85" x 100" (sorry, I don't have a full photo, that's a story for another day!). The fabrics used are Northcott's Fantasia (discontinued), which is full of purple and blue butterflies and moths. As there were several prints in the Fantasia collection that my cousin didn't like, we used Lillyella's free FPP butterfly charm block pattern to make additional butterflies instead of trying to find more butterfly prints. We scaled the FPP templates to fit the Memory Wall blocks as the blocks are a few inches bigger.

October Rose, the newest Memory Wall quilt in our collection. This one was made using scraps from my sisters stash. I made it for her so I thought it made sense to use her favourite fabrics. The fabrics are mostly Art Gallery Fabrics with a few others from FIGO and various other brands. 

Memory Wall is such a versatile quilt pattern and can be used with large-scale or directional prints, to FPP quilt blocks like we've shown you above. It can be made scrappy or not. The more of these quilts we make and the more of other quilts we make, the more I appreciate just how versatile this pattern is!

With it's big, square blocks, this pattern would be terrific for an I Spy quilt. Begin by collecting one each of interesting blocks until you have enough to make the size you'd like. It may take some time, but it'll be worth it!

You could make it a hand embroidery sampler. Maybe add a different redwork design to each block or some of the blocks and mix the embroidered ones with some printed fabrics in a similar theme.

How would you make this quilt your own? Let me know in the comments below!