A Christmas Quilt

My previous post explains this, but here is my take on the whole thing.

I started this in April.  I know how to quilt, and felt comfortable making a quilt for Jim, but  I have never done a t-shirt quilt before.  I was a little nervous.  As luck would have it, JoAnn’s was offering a t-shirt quilt class. Any chance to take a class for me is worth it so I signed up.  My friend Summer signed up with me.

I brought the first t-shirt with me to class and bought fabric while I was there.  It being April, there was no Christmas fabric in the whole store.  I found a dark green and a light green with paisley to go with it.  I figured these would be easy to match when it came time for the sashing and borders.

Hanging on the wall in my sewing room. I rearranged them a hundred times to get them the way I wanted them.

I did the first square and quit.  It wasn’t that I quit out of boredom or out of it being too hard, I just quit because summer arrived and I had way too many other things to do.  I decided that I would start back up when the boys were in school.

September arrived and Summer started to come over once a week.  I had the squares together before I knew it.  By this time the stores were filled with Christmas fabric.

I picked out a few different pieces and brought them home.  I still had one problem though… I was short on squares.

I talked with my mom over and over on this and didn’t know what to do.  Jim Wallace had brought over a box a while ago filled with fabric for me, but my mom just put it in my old bedroom for the next time I either visited or she came here.  I’m not sure if she had it when I was down over the summer, or if it was more recent that he brought it to her house.  In any case, she looked in it.

Would you believe that of all the fabric and patterns and emblishments in that bucket, the only thing that was complete was one Christmas square?  Nope?  Yea… I couldn’t either!  But it’s true!

She mailed it to me the next day.  I was already almost done, I just needed this last square.  It was a Friday that she mailed it, so Monday I was chomping at the bit for the mail to arrive.

Pam's square framed in my green fabric. It was much bigger than any of the t-shirts I used, so I knew it would look different once framed.

It was perfect!  I mean, it wasn’t perfect at all, but it was perfect!  It was totally the wrong size.  It was the wrong fabric. It was already quilted.  But all of that being said, it was perfect!  I set to work right away.  I added my borders and trimmed it down after it was sewed together to the same size as my other squares.

Laid out on the floor deciding what color border to put on it.

I loved this blue border until I put it on. Once it was on I hated it. You rip what you sew, right?

Blue border ripped off and green border added. I liked it so much better.

Before I knew it it was the week before Thanksgiving, and two weeks before Jim’s birthday.  I knew that I had to get this thing done for his birthday, that way we would enjoy it all over the Christmas holidays.  No way was I waiting another month to give it to him.

I brought it to be quilted the day before we left.  I dropped it off, knowing that it would completely change while I was gone, and when I returned it would be transformed from rags and random strings hanging off of it to a beautiful handcrafted piece of art.

I picked it up the day after we got home, which was the day before his birthday.  I could hardly contain myself that day and on his birthday.  I wanted to give it to him so bad.  But it still needed work.  See, Pam also put her own sewing label on her finished square.  I was able to take it off without damaging it, and I wanted to make sure that it went on the back with mine.  Afterall, she helped make it.

We ate dinner and had birthday cake.  He started in on his presents.  He loved everything he got.  James kept trying to give him this last box, but I said it needed to wait until the end.  And finally, he opened it.

I didn't expect an excited reaction. I think I expected an emotional reaction because I was so emotional about this project from start to finish. I was really surprised when he smiled his big and said, "You finished it!"

Guess what?  He loves it… maybe just as much as I do.

Here is the final quilt after it was quilted and binded. I love it, absolutely love it.