The Wearable Quilt

In a tribute to my finished T-shirt quilt, I started digging through my old pictures seeing when I actually WORE all of those shirts. It was a great trip down memory lane.

 

Most of my pictures were sorority pictures, even though half of the quilt is "Winthrop University" shirts. I guess I didn't do as many fun things in those. Oh well...here's a few of the shirts before they became my latest craft project...

 

 

Relay for life was always my favorite event for us in the spring. It's a great cause, but lots of fun too!

Hubby always came up to join our team in walking and celebrating cancer survivors.

 

I look like the oddball this year...but it's only because I was our team captain. We got the super-cool navy shirts.

We always had a great crowd come out...especially this year! This was my senior year at Winthrop with all of my sisters.

Oh how I love these girls. My roommate, my MOH, and my birthday twin. Event though we all live far apart (one lives in Nepal!!) we are still close and keep in touch with each other. That's what sisters are for.

The local Chick-Fil-A was our Monday hang out spot. If you give out free food with a church bulletin...you know the Christian women's sorority WILL show up. We were after all, hungry college students.

Basketball games and homecoming were always a blast. I miss cheering for our teams!

We welcomed everyone back to campus each year with a convocation picnic. We melted every. single. year.  If you've never been to South Carolina in August...you don't know heat!

 

Sisterhood retreats were always filled with fun and surprises. The Great Flour Fight of 2006 was one to remember. Grab some knee high socks, fill them with flour, and chase each other with your weapons. It's fun and a great stress-reliever. Give it a try.

 

So we don't look so happy in this picture. I'm sure we were just tired.

 

 

That's better. Shenanigans could always be expected with this group.

 

 

All of the events were so unique, which led to some really unique shirts. This made the quilt extra special!

 

Maybe I didn't wear ALL of the shirts. The snowman was a little chilly.

It snowed a lot on my 21st birthday. Best birthday present of all...cancelled classes! There were lots of these little guys around campus that year.

 

As hard as it was to cut up my shirts that had seen me through so many good times, I know that the memories I have IN the shirts is what's important. I laugh and smile when I look at the quilt and remember where I wore each shirt, who I was with, and what mischief we got into.

 

It is a very cherished sewing project indeed.

The T-Shirt Quilt: A labor of love

It. Is. Done!! The t-shirt quilt is finished and being loved, by me, a LOT. I had a lot of anxiety over this quilt. Mostly about cutting up the "memories" the shirts held, but I got over those fears and got started. You can read about the beginning here.

 

The quilt measures a whopping 55"x 90", so it covers the top of my queen sized bed, if you need a size reference! It's huge, but there's just more of it to love.

The blocks sewed together better than I expected because I interfaced each one of them. It kept the material from stretching, but it also gave me a major headache. I now hate interfacing after ironing all of it down to these huge shirts.

 I love how big and colorful it is....

Perfect for a superhero cape!

 

It makes me soooo happy. And it's hands-down the warmest blanket in my house. ALL of those shirts, and it's backed with super-soft fleece, so it's two layers of comfort.

 

 

I debated how to quilt this thing for a long time. I didn't want to use my traditional straight line quilting like these quilts: A Christmas Quilt, A baby quilt, and A Nautical Quilt.

 

So I bought a free motion foot for my machine, and started practicing. Practicing on small projects like potholders was lots of fun....but once I got this beast of a quilt under my tiny little machine, the fun went away quickly.

 

It is painfully difficult to quilt a blanket this large with a small machine, but it can be done. With lots of patience, and a few screaming sessions, it got finished. I just meandered all over each block, trying to avoid going over or through really important things on the shirts.

 

The quilting shows up better on the back, and actually looks like a fun puzzle.

Once the quilting was done, I knew I didn't have the energy for a traditional binding, so I wrapped the backing fabric around to the front, rolled the raw edge under, and stitched it down. I like the way it turned out. Any other binding would have been too rough on such a soft quilt.

I love staring at the finished product, remembering all of the good times these shirts went through.

 

I was going to put it up in my "college box", but after all this work, I would rather enjoy it. It has already accompanied me on a few naps.

Now that this one is out of the way, it's time for some more, much smaller, projects.

Up next.... A BIG girl room for a little girl who will be turning 3 all too soon...

T-Shirt Quilt: The Beginning

Have you ever had a hard time letting go of something that you just KNEW you weren't going to use anymore? This is me and my college t-shirt collection. If you've spent 4 years at college, especially if you were involved in clubs and organization, then you know what kind of collection I'm talking about.

 

While cleaning out pre- and post-baby clothes, I was going through the mountains of college shirts in my closet. Some I had already put up in storage, and others were taking up shelf space. Most of them look pretty busted, because they were my go-to shirts for several years. I didn't wear "nice" clothes. Jeans and t-shirts with flip flops were what you could find me in every. single. day.

 

As much as I love these shirt, they were taking up WAY too much storage room in a house with not enough storage. So I decided it was time to shrink them down a little. I was going to make a quilt!

 

The pile started with about 35 shirts, all from my 4 years of college.

I hugged each and every one of them as I took them and laid them on the floor. I excitedly filled Hubby's ears with "do you remember..." and "I wore this when...".  My sorority shirts were the hardest to go through.

One of my Winthrop shirts I had gotten as a junior in high school, once I decided I wanted to go there. That shirt...is old.

Other shirts were from random clubs and events that I took part in while I was at Winthrop. So much happens in 4 years. Relay for Life, honor societies, church organizations....so much to do.

I spread them all out, and got sad about cutting them up. I just couldn't do it! Then Hubby reminded me that I still had the MEMORIES of what happened in the shirts, the events, the friends. I knew I wasn't going to wear them, but I was holding on to what the shirts meant to me. After his pep-talk, and a few more pep-talks from my college girlfriends, I realized that they were in fact pieces of cotton.

So I started cutting. I cut the fronts and backs off of each shirt, making sure to leave plenty of room for trimming and seam allowances.

I wanted my quilt to be different than so many of the other t-shirt quilts I've seen, so I made each block a different size. I like the mix of skinny and long blocks to break up the quilt. There are so many colors and fonts too to look it. It's fun to see!

 

The blocks are sewn together into one HUGE quilt top right now. I chose a piece of super-soft fleece for the back, basted the two together with pins, and I'm now in the process of quilting. Now I see why quilters send large quilts to a professional. A long-arm machine would come in handy right about now, but I'm tackling it a few inches at a time.

 

I can't wait to be done and have the most well-worn quilt EVER to wrap up in. Or put in my college storage box....we'll see.

Alumni Weekend

I had a wonderful time with my Alpha Omega sisters this weekend for our Alumni gathering. It was so nice to see everyone, and to be back "home" at Winthrop again.

I took a little walking tour around campus to take some pictures of my favorite spots.

I have so many good and unique memories from my 4 years here.

This sign has new meaning now.

It's just as beautiful as when I left it.

We had a great Alumni Dinner Friday night. Some older sisters were able to make it and we talked about old times and traditions.

Saturday was full of activities starting with the Alumni Brunch hosted by the current sisters.

We connected with our "family trees" and took LOTS of pictures. I'm not sure that we should have been sitting on that wall, but it was symbolic...so it had to be done.

It was gorgeous outside so we snuck out for some picture time...most of them were very silly, but we got a few usable ones.

All of the Sisters and Alumni at the brunch with our GIANT letters.

The letters bring out the craziness is some people (ME)

It's always nice to go back and see familiar places and faces.

Weekend Away!!

This will be the first time I've spent two whole days away from my baby girl. I will miss her (and Hubby) but I'm super excited to be going back to Rock Hill for my Alpha Omega Alumni Weekend!!

In college I was in a Christian sorority called Alpha Omega. My best friends came from this group and we are all still soooo close, even though geography has torn us in all different directions!

This weekend we will meet new sisters, hang out with old ones, eat and worship together, and have CRAFT time!! It's going to be a wonderful weekend hanging out with my girls again.

Here's little trip down memory lane for me...and YOU! I literally have thousands of pictures from my 4 years at Winthrop with AO, but here are a few of my favorites....

The welcome back picnic at Winthrop with my bestie Morgan.

Sisterhood retreat 2007

The WHOLE group at our sister initiations

The "Great Flour Fight of 2006"....this was the best fight/activity ever.

If you've never tried it, put some flour in pantyhose and beat the crap out of each other.

It's therapeutic...I promise.

(And this is one of the only pictures in existence where I'm wearing shorts.)

Again with the Bestie.

Birthday Bash, 2008

Me and the girl on the right, Kristen,  share the same birthday!!

Relay for Life. Always near to my heart.

My blessed roommate. This could have been an amazing picture.

But this is why I love her.

This is my favorite picture of me and Hubby from before we were married.

Formal 2007

I slept in this box overnight, outside for a Home-Sweet-Homeless fundraiser. I wish it had not been in February, and I wish my box hadn't collapsed on me.

Winthrop Homecoming!!

Monday nights at Chick-Fil-A. There will never be anything like it.

More Winthrop Homecoming

Another year of Relay for Life. This was always my favorite event.

I can't wait to see these girls again and spend the weekend with them!! It's been too long and I'm afraid two days won't be enough time to catch up.