“Hello Rita: The quilts arrived half an hour ago. Sean, Alana and I had just returned from dinner and were sitting talking when the doorbell rang. Didn’t think UPDS delivered this late. But they’re here and they’re amazing. Simply amazing. None of us could speak when we first opened them up. They’re so much more than we expected.
Sean was overwhelmed with his and has a story to tell about every panel in his quilt. I do too and the red in my quilt matches my couch perfectly. You did an outstanding job and I commend you in every sense of the word.
I took pictures of Sean and his quilt and me and mine. I’ll send them tomorrow but I wanted to get this off to you right away so you knew that they arrived and how absolutely blown away we are.
Thank you so very much. I’ll be spreading the word about your work. You’re a gem!”
(These are the quilts we made for Ann: T-shirt quilt 1, T-shirt quilt 2 and T-shirt quilt 3.)
“Rita helped me to give my husband a very memorable birthday gift. I provided Rita with my husband’s shabby, ripped and very aged baby blanket and she was able to recreate it into a beautiful new quilt using pieces of the original blanket. The best part was that we gave birth to a baby boy the same month as my husband’s birthday, so we are now able to hang the quilt in our son’s room. Rita made sure to ask what colors we were planning on using in our son’s room, and without giving her any real direction she was able to use her creativity and experience to create a quilt that kept the originality of my husband’s blanket, while adding modern designs and colors to create the perfect keepsake. We now have a momentum to pass down to our son and we truly cherish the work Rita did.”
“The responses to the quilts have been very positive. My mom was very impressed with how you were able to produce such a gorgeous quilt from the shirts. I could tell that she loved it and that it created many special memories.
The next day mom and I met my sister for lunch and it was there that we presented her with her quilt. At first she was puzzled; however, after a few moments we could see her reaction change as she began to realize that the beautiful collection of square were dad’s shirts. She was a little speechless. Her hand moved across the carefully quilted squares and she was quiet. It is a lot to take in and of course she was still in a state of surprise. Later that night she told me that it brought tears to her eyes that something so beautiful was created out of something so ordinary. This quilt will forever connect us to our dad’s memory.
I think he must be smiling and perhaps even laughing that his old shirts are now a quilt. He would want us to be happy and I know that it would give him great pleasure to know that his shirts and his memory will live on in this beautiful quilt for generations to come.
Both my sister and I enjoy snuggling under dad’s quilt. It is like a big hug.
“You know Rita, the more I look at the quilt the more I love it. And that’s saying a lot since I loved it right from the start! Thank you again so much for making me such a wonderful memory quilt!”
Then, she wrote me again to say this: “The memory quilt Rita made for me was so beautiful. She made sure she understood how I envisioned the final product and made a change mid-stream to accommodate me. Rita creates a high quality product, one that will last a lifetime. I absolutely love my quilt!!”
“Thanks, Rita, for the wonderful quilt! It was a great way to display all the race t-shirts that were hidden under our bed. It was the perfect Father’s Day present!”
We created a signature quilt for Mark & Tina, where we gathered 80+ signatures!
“I am still pinching myself when I look at that wonderful quilt you created (with a tremendous amount of input from others to fill the blanks) and looking now at every stitch and all the work that went into it. Unbelievable! I am truly thankful. Thank you so much!”
“I received the quilt today and it is beautiful. What a great job you did – such quality work. Thank you so much for this – it was worth the wait and will be treasured forever! They (her son & daughter-in-law) absolutely loved the quilt. My son has seen picture quilts before, but said they just look like pictures on fabric. He thought this was much better craftsmanship (believe me, he is not one to normally notice such things)! They also loved the layout of the pictures. It is a beautiful quilt and they love it – great memories. Thank you for such a wonderful gift. The quality is unbelievable and the thought that went into it seemed as if it meant as much to you, as it does to them.”
“I gave it (the quilt) to Elaine and she started crying, which started me crying, and so on and so on until the whole family was crying…happy tears of course! I’d love to use you again for another memory quilt and possibly a quilt made of my old sentimental shirts if you wouldn’t mind keeping me as a customer! I just love how this one came out, and the customer service was pretty good as well!
Thank you again!”
UPDATE: (a few weeks later…) Elaine has shown the quilt to all her friends and everyone loves it…she still tears up when she talks about it. She also has some friends in a quilting group and when she brought it to show them, they told her that it was of the highest quality. It is truly the greatest gift we could have given her and it means so much to her. Thank you so much Rita!
Kootney Custom Quilting 