As we get older, we get rid of things that may have a lot of meaning to us.  Maybe it’s an old tee shirt from a charity event that you helped with and it doesn’t fit anymore.  Or maybe it’s a baseball that you received from a foul ball at a baseball game.  Or maybe it’s a toy that you had a child that you don’t have room for anymore.

This was something Haley did.  While cleaning her room, she decided that she wanted to get rid of old tee shirts.  But, these tee shirts had memories and things that she had enjoyed when she was in high school.  There were old track shirts, 4-H shirts, and other shirts from her favorite things like tech crew and volunteering.

So, creativity ensued, taking these memories to turn them into something beautiful.

I took all the shirts and cut them so that I could get the design that I wanted off of the shirt.  I wanted them in squares so it was easier to make a blanket.  But, there was one shirt that was a little bit more difficult because the picture was bigger the rest.  Urgh…

First Layout

Once I had all the pieces from the shirts, I bought thin interfacing and a mature black and white fleece for the back.  I didn’t pick something really thick because Haley gets hot really quickly.

I then ironed all the tee shirts to the interfacing and started to lay out the tee shirts into the design that I wanted.  I wanted a slight pattern to make sure that all of black shirts weren’t on the same side.  Also, I tried to have a shirt from high school, a shirt from track, a shirt from 4-H, and a random shirt on every row.

Then the sewing began!

2nd Layout

I sewed the pieces together to get the finished product.  I first sewed the panels together in the rows, making four individual rows.  I then sewed the four rows together to make the entire front of the quilt.  I then sewed the front of the quilt to the fleece for the back.  As a final step, I sewed the corners of where the panels met to the fleece.  I did that as a small security so that the front and back didn’t separate all the time.

And here is the final product!

It looks so good!  As you can see, I changed the layout yet again.  I felt like this was the most conducive look and it turned out really good.  I love how there are no colors that line up and there is a different shirt in each row.  I also had to make one of the shirts in the row with the Pirates of the Caribbean shirt skinnier so they would fit.

This was an easy project that I thoroughly enjoyed working on.  And the best part is that Haley absolutely loves it and uses it all the time…when she is actually cold.