Are these all our old trip t-shirts? No way!

***Bonus points if you get the title reference.***
 

I have a LOT of t-shirts.  I have collected them over the years, on different adventures, different times of my life, etc. but slowly but surely they’ve all been relegated to boxes in my attic, probably being used as cushy little mouse beds.  My mother-in-law is a quilter.  She made me an AMAZING quilt out of my late grandfather’s old pjs that I cherish and use on our bed in the winter months.  Put two and two together and I realized, I should make a quilt out of all my old tees!  Problem is, I figured it was going to be a huge undertaking and my mother-in-law lives 3 hours away.  Crap.
 

Insert my friend Holly who HAPPENS to own a quilting shop in my town.  I mentioned my list and she said she’d be happy to help me and she even just purchased a t-shirt cutter thingamajig and hadn’t used it yet so I could be her guinea pig.  Score!  We made an appointment for today and I loaded all my old t-shirts into the washer last night and ironed them all up and got them ready for their re-purpose before I got up early this morning and eagerly went to Holly’s house for our adventure.
 

And wouldn’t you know?  I FINISHED THE QUILT TODAY!  Holy crap!  I thought I’d be lucky if I got the squares laid out and MAYBE get the top sewn.  But instead, I brought home a completely finished t-shirt quilt!
 

Here are some pics of my day along with the FINISHED (did I mention it was done?) project!

Using the new cutting thingy to make the quilt squares.

 

Laying out the tees for the best look.

 

Using a sewing machine is kind of like riding a bike… for the first time since 7th grade!

 

Not too shabby!

 

This is about where I pissed my pants with excitement.  I was ACTUALLY making a quilt.

 

Backing and batting are sewn on… ties are done… it might be finished!

 

The fabulous flannel fabric I found for the back of it.

 

Ta da!

 

The t-shirts represent a collection of things – places I’ve worked, mine and John’s respective colleges, my first concert, etc.  There’s a story behind every single one and I probably could have made a quilt twice as big with all the other tees I have… maybe I’ll just have to make another one in the future, now that I know how!!!!

 

Until then…

 

8. Make myself a quilt out of my old t-shirts

 

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.  ~The Wonder Years