T-Shirts, Memories, and Quilting

When Brian was a missionary, I wanted to make several things for him as a surpirse when he returned.  One was to have his missionary blog all done into a Blurb book.  The other was to have a t-shirt quilt completed.  There were other smaller things I wanted to complete....   Well, I got Year One done of the blog book, and that's it.  I finally finished his missionary quilt the day before he flew back for school on January 2nd. - yes, of THIS year.  WOOT!  Yea, that's me - the amazing goal setter and keeper.....sigh.

My dear friend Carrie once again assisted me in this adventure, as she did when I made my first quilt for L, which I blogged about here.   I had saved t-shirts for my son from when he was a little boy and played on his very first basketball team.  I had no idea what I would do with them, but I saved them anyway.  I am so glad that I did!  What a wonderful treasure this turned out to be!

So, first I laid out all the shirts.  The design areas have to be measured and ironed on to some heavy duty pelon so they won't stretch anymore (NOTE - this is not in chronological order, so don't try this at home!).

This is quite a complicated process - and I am not good at Math.  I had to create my own pattern using graph paper and teeny bits of paper.  Once I got the hang of it, it was actually pretty fun and I enjoyed making a design!  This is not the final copy, but an example of how it works.

After the design was complete and all the strips were sewn together....

...it was time to go to Carrie's house to use her amazing Long-Arm machine.

 

 We had a few challenges with the machine.... it can be a bit stubborn...

but never fear, it all worked out.

And in the end, it was GORGEOUS!! Yes, I am bragging just a little.

 

Some day, I hope my wonderful son truly appreciates the hours and hours of measuring, cutting, reminiscing, adding and subtracting, rearranging, crying, trying again, driving, sewing, and picking out mistakes.  I also hope his future wife (whereEVER she is....) will let him use it and will also love it and appreciate it.  

Guess we will just have to WAIT a little while to see......