The loss of a four-legged friend, no matter how large or small, is often accompanied by a particularly raw kind of grief. In the throes of deciding to euthanize her beloved horse Arty, Sarah wrote to ask me whether I would consider making a memorial quilt with her mare’s horse blanket. At that time, Arty had only days to live. She told me, “Arty is my heart horse, she has made my dreams come true and will be leaving me a beautiful mini version of herself, her last daughter Clara. Arty has a degenerative bone disease and I have had to make the terrible decision to put her down. This blanket was given to me when I first got her [and] was something that I always brought out while we were together.”

Not being too familiar with horses or their gear, Sarah explained that a horse “sheet” is lighter weight than what one thinks of as a horse “blanket”. This worked out well when I began choosing the supplemental fabrics to go with it. I was also pleased to have so much fabric to work with!

I chose four other flannel fabrics to combine with the blanket, and I converted the plaid design of the blanket into the pieced design of the quilt.

The small dark areas in the blanket weave translated into the large pieced blocks of the quilt.

The supplemental fabrics became the narrower sections of the plaid design.

The ombre feeling of one of the supplemental flannels was reminiscent of the twill weave section it represented in the blanket.

As the quilt sections came together, what had originally been the large horse sheet laying across my table was replaced by its pieced transformation.

Here is the final quilt, followed by a detail. I chose a quilting pattern that felt like a rope in motion.

May Arty rest in peace and her recent colt, Clara, grow to be just as sweet.