The final workshop I want to tell you about that I
thoroughly enjoyed was the one on making Bears, Quilts and Memory Projects,
given by Kathy Rambo and Gail Lafferty.
If you are at all creative, this is a great way to do things
in memory of your child while keeping busy. Kathy and Gail do these projects
(or at least start them) at their special Compassionate Friends gatherings, so
they can all work together and have the companionship and be able to talk about
their child as they show their finished projects.
They have made and showed the audience craft projects such
as jewelry, angel suncatcher, T-shirt quilt, teddy bears, explosion photo
boxes, origami photo books, photo transfers on canvas, photo pillows and more.
They had at least 100 examples of both simple projects and more complicated
ones.
The T-shirt quilt is one of my favorites they showed using
their child’s T-shirts and explaining how to put it all together. Granted, you
need certain supplies to do all these projects and this one was no exception:
iron-on interfacing, thread, rotary cutter, border material and 15-20 T-shirts,
depending on the size of the quilt you want.
Another favorite they showed but way more difficult was the
teddy bear. For this you would need a Simplicity or McCalls 15 inch bear
pattern, cotton material, 4 covered buttons of ¾ inches (brand name Dritz), 2
eyes size 18 inch (brand name Darice), 1 nose size 21 (brank name Darice), doll
needle (5 inch brand name Dritz), dental floss and poly-fill stuffing. All
these items can be found at a fabric store or can be ordered online. From there
you need to follow the pattern. It is possible to use your child’s clothing to
cover the bear or just part of the bear. You can also put a photo of your child
on the stomach of the bear.
One of the simplier projects was decorating an Altoid memory
tin. After cleaning the inside and out, decide what theme you want to do. If
you have a small trinket of your child’s, you could build you theme around
that. Some other ideas are: spell your child’s name with letter beads or
something related to what your child
enjoyed doing like a sport or hobby or even a holiday they liked. Choose either
scrapbook paper, wrapping paper, a magazine picture or any colored paper to
decorate the box. You would need to make a pattern to cut out and trim it to
fit. Glue to box. Add the embellishments with either tacky glue or a glue gun. You
can also add ribbon around the outside or anything else you’d like. Since you
are making this tin with love in memory of your child, enjoy the time you spend
remembering your beautiful child and create a keepsake to take with you in your
purse, keep by your bed or place on a special shelf.
I have personally done a computer photo transfer to a
T-shirt of my two books. (Some parents do a photo transfer to a T-shirt of
their child’s photo.) I was surprised at how easy it was to do and how nice it
came out. For this you need have a copy of the photo on your computer. Then
make a laser print copy (printed in reverse or mirror image) of your photo with
special photo paper used to transfer the image on to material. Print the
picture on the special photo paper, let it dry completely before placing it on
the T-shirt and iron it on with a very hot iron. When it cools, remove the
photo paper gently and slowly from the T-shirt and it should look great! Let it
dry completely. It will not come off when washing, but do wash inside out.
If you need help on any of these projects or have questions,
contact Kathy at KatjRambo@wowway.com
or Gail at angel4gail@tds.net .
