Memory Quilts

  Today I'm talking t-shirt quilts as I've had several questions about this lately and with the holidays coming up I wanted to share with plenty of time to get your shirts together since these make such great gifts.

I made this t-shirt quilt years ago (I think it was pre-Mason) and it was hours and hours of work and my fingers literally bled.  I cut each shirt, backed it with interfacing, sewed them together, then did a layer of polyfill and then the back and then HAND QUILTED the whole thing before handing it over to my mom to do the binding.  IT WAS A BEATING.  

BUT - how awesome is it.  It's spirit shirts from my first few years teaching which were SO SPECIAL and fun. 

Parents used to coordinate the shirts for powderpuff and I still remember when the kids surprised me with my own powderpuff shirt the year I was pregnant with Luke...

... my due date was April second so they made my number 42 - it was precious.

Another year they gave me the nickname Math-A-Licous ;) hahaha FUN memories for sure!

LOOK AT ALL THOSE STITCHES!!!

When my own kids started going to MCA we quickly accrued quite the collection of spirit shirts.  Once all three kids wore them I would typically toss them in this big plastic tote in the attic with the thought of "one day I'll make a quilt out of these" but knowing good and well that I NEVER wanted to tackle a project of that magnitude again ;) hahaha

During Christmas break in 2021 when we were reorganizing some things in the attic we brought out "the bin" and I was determined to figure out a plan for the tons of shirts we had and Project Repat kept being recommended over and over and over again. 

For Project Repat you "rough cut" your shirts and only send in the side that you want used.  I went through the bins and cut out all the usable sides and then started laying everything out.  I decided on a navy/gold/gray quilt...

... a "random" color quilt...

... and a quilt for a friend who has passed along a lot of her kids shirt to us over the years.   She didn't know I'd been saving some or that I was having the blanket made so it was a REALLY fun surprise to give her.  

I opted to pay extra to lay my blankets out and email them a photo to use because I didn't want to end up with similar colors next to each other but kept the other standard options.

I mailed the shirt pieces off and about a month later the blankets were complete and PERFECT!!!

I MEAN!!! Look at it!!!  And here's our "colorful" one...

I can't even handle how much we love them!

The navy/gold one and the one I had made for a friend were backed in navy fleece and the colorful one I had backed in gray fleece. 

The quality is awesome, the process was simple and I LOVE that all these fun memories are preserved in something that we use on a daily basis.  I've had two more MCA quilts made since the first three - and on these I even used jerseys from Mason's flag football days which was such a special touch.

Again - I paid extra to lay them out myself and have them sewn in this exact layout. 

The plan is to keep tossing shirts in the bin until we have enough to make another blanket or two They're perfect for couch cuddling but also great for taking to football games, picnics, etc. 

You can click HERE to check them out and get notified when they run sales/promotions.  

Two years ago I was cleaning out closets and getting organized and decided to bite the bullet and find someone to make a quilt with the kids Christmas pjs I'd been saving.  I didn't start saving pjs with any intention other than passing them along from kid to kid and there are lots of pairs that I donated, passed along to friends, etc. before I had the idea of making a quilt but I still had quite the stash.  

I got a recommendation from a friend and reached out to Anne and got the ball rolling by meeting with her, dropping off my bin and talking about what I wanted.

Over the past few months she'd text me pics and updates and we worked through some "design choices" that ultimately I left up to her since she's the expert ;)

One of my FAVORITe parts is that she preserved some of the details from the pjs - buttons, pockets, etc.

I dropped my bin off with her in March and picked up my finished quilt a few months after that and YOU GUYS!  It is EVERYTHING!!!

The back of the quilt is one of the flat sheets from Luke's old Christmas sheets - and I'm so happy because I LOVE THESE SHEETS!!!

SO MANY MEMORIES on this quilt!

including this pair of Christmas tree pjs that they all wore on their first Christmas...

Anne even surprised me with some pillow covers!

So let me say this - Anne is SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive than Project Repat - but since my kids pjs weren't t-shirts I needed someone who cold use the tiny pieces of clothing and make something fantastic out of them and her level of craftsmanship and care is NEXT LEVEL.  When she was done she gave me back all of the extra pieces and I just gave her the bin back to make a second quilt because I love the first one so much.  She's also working on a quilt made with special pieces of Griffin's Matilda Jane Platinum and a few other dresses that I kept.

I hope you found this post helpful and maybe it inspired a craft project or two at your house!

HAPPY Monday, friends!!!