Memorializing T-Shirts

Another week closer to the Big 3-0 and progress continues on the Operation 30 list. This week the focus was on my t-shirt quilt. I'll admit, this has been on the To Do list for a while but locking it into the official list will make sure it gets the proper focus in the next year to get finished completely. (Truth be told - having it done by the end of the summer is my real goal.) This is a mom-and-me project all the way, and I'm happy she's so willing to make the time to lend her craft skills. Frankly, I wouldn't even know where to start without her.

The first step was to figure out which t-shirts to include. You can imagine how difficult this was given the huge quantity of t-shirts I've been collecting ever since grade school. Softball, volleyball, dance, cheerleading, intramurals, ZTA, Greek Week, St. Pat's....you name the activity, and I guarantee I have a t-shirt to remind me of my participation. After some consideration I finally settled on a general format which allowed me to organize and choose my t-shirts properly. The result is what you see above which consists of two rows of elementary school shirts at the top, followed by two rows of high school shirts in the middle, and then two rows of college shirts at the bottom. I'll even have a couple squares in the middle that will be a compilation of mini logos from various t-shirts. I still had a Frullati shirt to capture my first ever real job in high school. (Score!) Just thinking of all the memories that will be captured in this quilt makes me smile. I think it's going to be an excellent representation of the first 20 or so years of my life!

With the t-shirts identified it was time this weekend to cut them apart and iron on special backing to keep them from stretching over time. I was grateful to have the help of my Aunt Diana who was in town visiting from Nebraska. Between the three of us we got this step pretty well knocked out in a couple hours. Next step will be to cut-out the t-shirts to quilt-size and choose a material to frame each square. Even though there's still a lot to do, it already feels like it's coming together.

I can't imagine a better way for my t-shirts to live on in perpetuity. :-)

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