A Memory Quilt is wonderful way to capture your memories.

Scroll down the page to see these interesting Memory Quilts and their stories, submitted by viewers like you.

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This is only my second quilt. I made it as a wedding gift for my niece. It was made up of 100 4 1/2" blocks in her wedding colours. On the back of the quilt I actually took a piece of her brides maid dress and placed a picture of her and her husband at the altar taking their vows. The picture was ironed on to a vintage patterned white material. - emcgoura, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

When I first started quilting, I made this wall hanging for my grandma. It has a heart for each of her grandchildren, with room for more. Since my applique skills were horrible at the time (and not much better now), I used fusible web to attach the hearts and girl/boy cutouts on the bottom and then sealed the edges with fabric paint. I wrote the names of each grandchild above a heart. As new grandkids, and then great-grandkids, came along, I wrote them on too. My grandma passed away a few years ago, so I now have this hanging in my sewing room. - Tammy, Wilton Center, IL, USA

This is part of a memory quilt I am in the process of making. It won't be done until my son graduates from high school in 2015. I'm making 1 square a year and that square will represent something important to him during that year. So far, here's what each square is: his birth square, the Noah's Ark decorations in his nursery room, Face from Nickelodeon TV, Buzz and Woody from Toy Story, Lego bricks, schoolhouse for kindergarten, a Hot Wheels race car, motorcycles for his dirt bike and go-cart, and a square representing 3 levels of Cub Scouts. I think this year's square will be Star Wars related. I am using the quilt-as-you-go method, so by the time he graduates, all I'll have to do is add borders. - Tammy, Wilton Center, IL, USA

Here's the quilt I'm doing for my daughter, same idea as my son's memory quilt above. So far, each square is: her birth square, the Noah's Ark decorations in her nursery room, her dolly and blankie (that she still sleeps with at age 6), a ladybug because she loved bugs (and still does), Tinkerbell because her room is decorated in fairies now and her nickname has become Tink, a schoolhouse for when she started kindergarten (can you see her looking out the window?), a daisy representing her first year in Girl Scouts, and this year's square is a ballerina. - Tammy, Wilton Center, IL, USA

The first time my parents went to the Bahamas in the early 1970's, my mom bought a few yards of this pink fabric with bahamian scenes on it. They discovered a little resort called Stella Maris on Long Island. That became our vacation spot for a few years, but Mom never did anything with the fabric. In 2003, I came across it in my stash and decided to use it in a memory quilt. I used the "One of a Kind Quilts" book and this is the result. It is machine quilted and I had favorite phrases quilted into the inside border. The back is a mish mash of squares that started out as the front, but just didn't work out. It measures 50" x 57". - Tammy, Wilton Center, IL, USA

My mother had started putting together a family geneology, but had not gotten very far. In 1992/93, I decided to do something about it. I talked to her sister and Aunt Ellen graciously gave me names and addresses she had of all the relatives. I wrote to them and received a tremendous response. My mother's parents had emigrated from Sweden and a lot of relatives still live there. One cousin wrote to his nephew, who lives in the original family hometown and attended the church where most of them were baptized and married. Jon-Erik researched the records going way back. The earliest ancestor he found was born in 1483. By the fall of 1993, I had entered all the info into a computer geneology program and my daughter started printing it out. In all, there were over 1200 printed pages and I don't know how many names. Two 3" binders were used. The books were given to Mom as a Christmas gift in 1993. She was thrilled and completely surprised.

To make a very long story a little shorter, when I saw the pattern "Roots of the Past" by Cindy Gravatt for Cedar Creek Quilt Designs, I KNEW I had to make it. We (my daughter and I) started with Mom and Dad near the center of the lower tree trunk with leaves depicting their ancestors and descendants. I used a different green leafy print for each line ie. one print for me, my husband, our kids, their spouses and children and other prints for each brother's families. I used a fourth print for my mom and all of her ancestors and a fifth print for my dad and his ancestors.

The names and birth, marriage and death dates on each leaf were done using iron-on transfer paper. Photos were scanned and printed using a photo transfer fabric. Fusible web was applied to each leaf and photo and then were ironed onto the tree one-by-one. (I can't hand sew due to arthritis so I couldn't applique them on.) I machine outline quilted the tree, each leaf and photo. We made a separate ancestor list for each of my parents and another for their descendants. These were ironed onto fabric and using fusible web, were applied to the back of the wallhanging. It hangs in my living room; it elicits a lot of compliments (which I love).

The wallhanaging measures 38" x 50". Unfortunately, I hand washed it in cool water, no soap, and the photo colors ran. I have since found Printed Treasures to use for transferring photos to fabric; it gives truer color rendition and the colors do not run when washed. I would highly recommend it. - Joanne, Peotone, IL, USA

I wanted to do something special for my brother, John's 60th birthday in 2005. Since he, our dad, our other brother, Bob and my son-in-law, Doug, have all raced midget race cars over the years and I have a lot of photos, it seemed appropriate to make a racing quilt using Printed Treasures fabric to transfer the images.

There are pictures of them racing, my dad with the checkered flag, several awards presentations and T-shirt logos. There's a picture of John as a kid in Dad's car and one of Bob on his trike. Both Bob and John raced motocross, so of course, there had to be a couple of bike photos. Two of my favorites (2nd row, 2nd from right) are of John and Bob. The top photo shows John in the lead, the bottom shows Bob leading. The guys argued for years over who was passing whom. That argument was never settled.

John was honored by the owner/restorer of Dad's old car by being asked to drive the car in a vintage car race. For several years, UMARA (racing club) held Big Wheel races for kids during the intermissions. My grandson, Scott, and John's grandsons, Alex and Ben, won their respective races. They're the bottom row, 2nd from right. There's also a picture of me (middle, bottom row) wearing John's racing suit when I drove Doug's car in practice. (Hey, I had to get in there somehow! The final picture is of John and me one Christmas morning breaking in John's new boxing gloves. That picture is typical of our childhood.

Black and white checks of various sizes were used for the background, binding and backing. Machine quilting was done around all the images. The quilt measures 44" x 55". There are four generations of my racing family pictured. - Joanne, Peotone, IL, USA

These quilts were made for my daughter and son after their dad passed away. My husband, Bob, was a midget car racer and he had a bunch of racing-themed T-shirts. I gave all his shirts to my sister-in-law, Bob's sister, and she made quilts for the kids. She made an additional one for me. It's been 12 years, but they still have the quilts in their rooms. - Jackie, Frankfort, IL, USA

My sister-in-law made this quilt for me for my 50th birthday. I'd seen another "picture" quilt she'd made and asked her to make one for me.

I got together a number of photos I wanted included and she and her daughter transferred them to "Printed Treasures" photo sensitive fabric and put the quilt together. It is backed in an angel print fabric because I believe in angels. Also on the back is a copy of the poem "Warning" by Jenny Joseph. That's the one about growing old and wearing purple. - Jackie, Frankfort, IL, USA

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