Today I am sharing info about passage quilts. I know this isn’t a particularly happy subject for this time of year but I feel it’s important to let people know that there are different types of charitable opportunities in their community. A group in my town already makes quilts for the hospice house but a need arose at the local hospital. A small group of us have formed to provide the needed passage quilts.

A passage quilt is given to the family after a person passes away in the hospital. The hospital staff usually knows the person will be passing and picks out a quilt to accompany the deceased to the funeral parlour and the family to keep as a momento. My local quilt shop owner was approached about forming a group for making passage quilts. A call was put out to those on the quilt shop mailing list for fabric donations, labels for the quilts were printed on fabric and a day was designated for the group to get together to work on these quilts. Here are pictures of the quilts my mom and I have made so far.

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The first quilt was made from a kit I bought about 5 years ago. I broke up the kit and used the two packages of Turnovers (pre cut triangles) to make half square triangles. From there I used Missouri Star Quilt Co.’s tutorial on the Disappearing Pinwheel Churn Dash. This was a quick pattern and I hope to make it again. This quilt was quilted using the Feather Meander pattern by Angela Walters and was quilted by Kelly Creek Studio.

The second quilt is a Churn Dash in blues and greens. I drew out my own pattern and block so I wouldn’t have to add borders to make it the size I wanted. In the picture this one hasn’t been quilted but it is quilted now and just awaiting for a binding to be put on.

The third quilt is a Falling Charms, another Missouri Star Quilt Co. tutorial. I added top and bottom borders to get it to the right size. I love the yellows and blues in this quilt. This one should be quilted this week by Kelly Creek Studio if it already hasn’t.

The fourth quilt is a LeMoyne Star quilt with strippy columns that my mom made. She had the star blocks in her unfinished pile and decided to add the strippy columns to finish out the quilt. It’s a great quilt with fabulous fall colors and was donated to the hospital at the beginning of October. Quilted by Kelly Creek Studio.

The fifth and final quilt is orphan bow tie blocks that my mom received as a donation through her local quilt guild. There was an odd number so my mom set it on point and added side triangles and borders to make it large enough to be a passage quilt. This was also already donated to the hospital at the beginning of October. Quilted by Kelly Creek Studio.

Passage quilts are typically 40” x 60” but I’ve seen some patterns that go up to 48” x 60”. The quilts I’ve made are 40” x 60” and I’ve added borders to each one to get to the size needed. A good tip on the size: If you make your passage quilt 40” x 60” you can use WOF (width of fabric) for the backing without having to piece a back.

Usually I hand sew my binding down but for giving quilts the common rule is that you machine sew it down for charitable quilts. To do this I sewed my binding to the back of the quilt and brought it to the front of the of the quilt. I top stitched the binding down with coordinating thread.

A long post but I hope it was informative and inspiring.

Happy Quilting,

Camille