Wednesday, August 11, 2010

T-Shirt Quilts plus a twist!

Several years ago, my cousin lost her husband to an incredibly fast growing cancer. He left besides the bride that he married right out of high school, 3 teenagers.

Several months ago as Mary (the widow) was attempting to clean out some of Jim's clothes, she asked me to help her "do something" with all of his t-shirts. I suggested a small "lab robe" size quilt for each of the kids.

They each chose their favorite t-shirts and bundled them up for me to "do something with". After I finished the three small quilts, I was thrilled with the results, but sad that there were no shirts set-aside for something for Mary for HER memory quilt. What to do? She insisted that she was fine and as long as the kids got something, she would be happy. As I was cleaning up the mess in my sewing room, I had a thought. What about all of these perfectly good t-shirt BACKS? Maybe I could make something out of them?

After cutting the remaining shirt pieces into large "fat quarter" size pieces, I used a simple Turning Twenty pattern for a simple quilt top. I quilted it with edge to edge dogwood blossoms. I think Mary will love it. I hope Jim, up in heaven, isn't upset with me for putting flowers on his old t-shirts!

Sunday is a family reunion and I hope to take all of the quilts to her at that time.


8 comments:

  1. I imagine him laughing at his t-shirt backs with flowers on them! The men in my family would.

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  2. Wow, you did an amazing job! What a wonderful gift for each ... and so creative to use the backs for Mary's quilt. I know she will love it ... so very special!

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  3. What a great idea and some very nice hugs for the family!!!

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  4. How nice to make full use of all of the t-shirts --a lovely idea. Good for you!

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  5. Personally I like hers the best. Good job of solving problems. Shirley

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  6. Oh, so nice! And gives me great incentive for Tshirt quilts I need to do and ideas for some lovely light weight print knits I can't bear to fling.

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  7. I would really like to see individual pictures of the boys t-shirt quilts. All 4 are just beautiful!

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