Do your girls have a jillion T-shirts from cheer, orchestra trips, gymnastics, sports competitions, girls camp, etc? They don’t want to throw the shirts away, but they are rarely worn, right? Here’s an idea for a Value Project. It could fulfill the requirement for Individual Worth (who I am) or Knowledge (I handmade a quilt!)
My daughter created a wonderful memory quilt with all those shirts she had with commemorative designs on them. (Most were much too large to wear except for night.) She cut each shirt into a 13 inch square, then framed it with a dark color (teal) poly-cotton border about 4 inches wide. (The cotton fabric added color and connected the designs visually. It was also important structurally, as it stabilized the stretchy T-shirt fabric. We arranged the squares with a pattern of darker shirts diagonally across the quilt face. It
looked extremely cool! Backed with a richly colorful flannel plaid that had all the colors of the shirts, (one seam down the middle), filled with a fluffy batting, and tied with variegated yarn, it is a terrific “Outdoor Quilt”. Queen size for easy lounging! And everyone loves it because it is soft cozy flannel. And machine washable.
This project is beautiful, and amazingly useful. And my daughter did all the cutting, sewing (by machine), and layout herself. We tied it with her grandmother’s help , 3 generations of women, on a visit (useful to have my mom’s quilt frames too 🙂 The binding was also sewn on by machine, using the teal cotton border fabric.
I wanted to share this fun idea!
