Remember When. . . Jeep's shirts smelled like sawdust?

5/4/2021

Meet Jeep

Jeep with pencils sticking out of his pocket.

From start to finish, my experience with Diane was remarkable. What a kind and caring person. We emailed back and forth and eventually talked on the phone about creating lap quilts out of her father's flannel shirts. Also being the daughter of a perfectionist woodworker, I could relate to Diane and instantly loved her father, as did anyone who met him.

a picture of Eugene the Jeep from the Popeye cartoon.

Image from an eBay site.

Everyone knew him as Jeep. When his military buddies learned his middle name was Eugene, they dubbed him Jeep after the character from Popeye, and it stuck.

Fabrics

Jeep in a red flannel shirt installing a window.

As a contractor, he spent his days fixing people's homes in his Kakhi pants and a flannel shirt. Even some of his dress shirts were "flannelesk". Diane and I choose to use khaki fabric for the background and flannel and plaid shirts for the design work of the quilts. The goal was for all four quilts to look pretty much the same.

Applique'

The stay stitching of the name Jeep on blue fabric.

A special scissors cutting away extra fabric from the appliquéd letters of the name Jeep

The center appliqué of a tool box with tools sticking out the top and Jeep sewn to the front.

The center of the quilts has a toolbox. The design Diane liked was a downloadable from Joy Kate Designs for machine applique'. It was fun to do this for the first time, and I loved the results!

Making the Blocks

To make each square I:

A blue square of fabric placed on to a a square cardboard template and sprayed with fabric starch.

Squared up the fabric of these well-worn shirts

A blue plaid square neatly cut aside of a rotary cutter with a cutting ruler on top.

an iron pressing a piece of white interfacing on a blue square of fabric.

Added interfacing to prevent stretching

A blue plaid square neatly cut aside of a rotary cutter and ruler.

Cut each into a 6" square

Assembly

a 3 foot square quilt made up of 8 sets of 4 flannel squares with strips of fabric in between. In the center is a white block with a tool box and tools appliquéd on top.

The squares were grouped in patches of 4 and bordered with khaki fabric to mimic Jeep's "uniform."

Getting to the Point

The quilt with the corner flipped up to show a shirt pocket with two pencils embroidered as though they are in the pocket.

Diane shared with me that her father always had two of the "sharpest pencils in the world" sticking out of his pocket. It was not uncommon for them to stab you when he hugged you. To get to this "point" I HAD to embroider the pencils into the pocket on the back. The pocket from one of his shirts holds the quilt's Story Starter.

Finishing Touch

14 heart shaped ornaments made of flannel and khaki. Each with a story starter card in the back pocket.

Of course I made an ornament for each of Jeep's grandchildren to keep him present each Christmas.

May these quilts and ornaments provide years of comfort and memories of this remarkable man. If you have a special project in mind, Contact me and we can discuss it.

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Memories to Heirlooms