The Fabric Of Our Lives

I have had a work in progress that has been hanging around for years!  I mean yeeeeeeeeeeeaaaars.  

The t-shirt quilt lived in the form of shirts stashed away in a dresser drawer in the basement for a long time... until the collection became so unruly that it was overflowing its allotted space.  That was when I pulled the shirts out and cut out only the parts that would be used in a quilt.  (truth be told, I wish I had cut the red one just a little over-sized) As some of our shirts reached the point of no longer appropriate to be worn in public because of stains or paint or tears in the them, I trimmed them down and added to the collection. It became much more manageable and a controlled. 

As I hovered in times between projects and deadlines I would pull out the squares and prepare them for a quilt by adhering fusible stabilizer/interfacing to them.  

In January I stabilized the final few and had determined that there were enough blocks to make a generous sized throw.  I pulled out the fun Route 66 and license plate fabric that I had purchased with the intention of it being sashing strips, borders and backing.  When I ordered it I had estimated generously... and it is a good thing!  

I had used some of it for borders and sashing strips in two other quilts.... But I had JUST enough of the Route 66 fabric for this quilt!  Whew!  That was close...

The license plate fabric that I used for the final border was not nearly as close, but exactly what was needed to represent the time spent traveling to acquire most of the shirts. :)

As I assembled the top I thought of the old cotton theme that was used in commercials...  You know... "Cotton - the fabric of our lives".





As I looked over the shirts I realized that this quilt was just THAT - representative of our lives... the fabric of our life.

There are shirts that represent our work lives...  Fox Valley Rifle Range, Trinidad State Junior College and Nolan Quality Customs. >>>

There are shirts that represent our vacations... the Washington DC, Gettysburg, Disneyland and San Diego trips.
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A few are just down right ironic and funny!  Like the "Bad Spellers" shirt that Dave was given by his uncle when we moved to Colorado.  You see... Dave was never really great with spelling.  He was making a career change from Gunsmith for Fox Valley Rifle Range and becoming a gunsmithing instructor at Trinidad State Junior College.  

Truth be told, he really isn't that bad with spelling... he can tell when a word doesn't look right.  It was just that until he became a teacher, he never cared!  Thank God for spellcheck.  Though it is only helpful when a word is really mis-spelled.  If the word is a real word, just not the right word (like maid instead of made), it doesn't work really well...

That bad spellers shirt was never one of his favorites, though it has been strategically placed in the quilt next to a shirt that contains a mis-spelled word... "Trinidad State Junior Colege"... (You can see this in the close up of the TSJC in the photo above.)

The story with this shirt is that Dave and a few of his co-workers had visited the bookstore for some classroom supplies and while there the store employees were unpacking a new order of shirts and sweatshirts. Dave looked them over and complimented the fact that they looked nice and asked how much they cost.  He then noticed that "Colege" was not correct!  Yep, the "bad speller", the guy that took grief from just about everyone about his spelling... He was the one to notice the error!

The bookstore was not able to return them... they had no choice but to sell them at a greatly reduced price... and hope that others didn't stare closely at the shirt to notice the mistake. LOL!  

Dave and I have so many memories of TSJC...  It is our Alma mater.  It is the place we met... we danced, we ate meals together, did homework... we fell in love and made plans for our future as husband and wife in Illinois with him working for the family business, FVRR.  We  eventually returned to begin his career as an instructor.  I was even an employee for a few years in the Alumni & Foundation office.

So many memories woven into this quilt...  **sigh**

The John Deere shirt is included because Dave is in love with their tractors.  I mean he makes the "Tim-the-toolman" grunts when he sees one.  In 1988 he could not have been more proud than when we had recently acquired an 8-week old yellow Labrador puppy (Samantha Amber) AND a used JD lawn tractor from his Brother-in-law.  Life was good... he had his puppy, a lawn tractor and a beer... a few minutes later he looked over and saw the pup sound asleep and realized his beer can had been tipped over and... well, as the dog grew older and no longer used for hunting, he would crack open a beer and pour a little into her dish.  If he didn't, she would sit and stare at him and begin to drool.  Sam enjoyed the beer making adventures that Dave & his friend, Keith had... she was always more than willing to handle the taste-testing with them!  And it obviously caused no damage... the girl lived for 15 years!

Speaking of dogs and beer... One of our favorite mountain towns to visit is Cuchara, CO - home of The Dog Bar.  A place where vacationers and locals can go enjoy a beer and lunch or dinner on their patio and keep their dog right next to them!

One of Dave's summer classes enjoyed an evening there... Some classes he just enjoyed a little more than others... and this was one of them.  

And then there are just some other fun memories... like when he was dared to wear a pink shirt to class.  Yep he did!  And the "mystery" shirt that showed up on his work bench from a fellow employee...  it took him months to figure out who it was from!

And who could forget our memories from Indian Lake (the location of the cottage his Mom & Dad had)???

What would your memory quilt contain?  

What makes up the "fabric of your life"?

Leave a comment... I love to hear from my readers.  Be sure to leave an email address if you are using a no-reply account.

Quilt Happy!

Melva

Melva Loves Scraps - Home of the Quilters Through The Generations series

Linking with:

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