Jessica Gets Creative

I spent a week and a half with my mom while Riley was in Africa. Since, I had her for a babysitter and sewing coach, I decided to try something new. I made Riley a T-Shirt Quilt. I have heard about these kind of quilts and always thought that it would be nice to make one with Riley's high school sports shirts. I am really happy with how it turned out. As you can see, it is also getting used! I have been reminding myself daily, 'I made it for him to use, not to be packed safely in a box and never seen again.'

The Beginning

I used T-shirts from 1995 when Riley's baseball team won the state championship. Being a McCutcheon graduate, it did seem strange to be looking at blue and orange for hours and hours.

Finished!!!

This was a great project to keep me occupied while Riley was gone. It ended up taking way longer than I expected but totally worth it! I also had great help along the way. First was my mom. She was my coach and mentor through the whole thing. She let me use all of her equipment, filled countless bobbin threads, and even had to buy a new ironing board! (I still say that her board was broken before I got it out, though.) I did a lot of the work while the boys were asleep, but she did do quite a bit of babysitting for me so I could work on it. It was so much fun to do a project with her! Riley's mom was a big help as well. She helped me at the beginning with giving me size dimensions and suggestions on what kind of batting to use. She also did embroidery on two of the squares. She put 'Harrison High School' on one, and 'Riley Gibb 1992 - 1996' on another. She also spent hundreds of hours supporting Riley at his sporting events, and without that there wouldn't have been a quilt to make. Pam, a good family friend, was my professional consultant. She owns a sewing shop and makes these for clients quite often. She had great advice, that made it look better than I ever expected it too. She basically taught me how to put it together right. There were so many steps to this that I didn't even think about before I talked to her. She even let me borrow some equipment and cut the strips needed for the binding. What a great resource!