The Quilt, Part 1

The story started with a shirt. It's not a particularly stellar shirt, but for many years it's been my very favorite shirt.

This shirt:


No I did not attend the International School in Riyadh, and before you ask (as many have before) I did not find it at Value Village. It was given to me, and one exactly like it to each of my brothers when our friends Sarah and Elizabeth moved to Saudi Arabia just before the Gulf War.

At the time it was our significantly cool mark that we had friends living overseas. Later it was a reminder that we had friends in a war zone. But I have to confess that it slipped out of my life, and when it returned I was a teenager, and it caught my eye because old, beat up t-shirts with unusual designs were in.

But about a year ago, my wife pointed out that one day I was going to open our drier and all our clothes would be covered in an red lint, and my t-shirt would be no more. I realized it was time to let it go. Sort of.

The story continues with a quilt, because even though this shirt has the most historical significance of any article of clothing I own, there are many MANY t-shirts that I love, either outgrown, or overused. Bands I love and loved, and the idea hit me as I was wrapped in one of my wife's quilts, a large throw pieced together with squares from jeans, pockets and inseams included.

Aha! I thought. Now I can have my cake and eat it too! And thus it began. And after a lot of sifting through clothing and determining which was most worthy and most aesthetically pleasing, I came up with the following collection:

Shirts offering what my mother would call "free advertising" for Tom Waits, Andrew Bird, Robin Hitchcock, Yo La Tengo, The Flaming Lips, KWVA Radio in Eugene, Redhook Beer and um... well that black one is just a stick figure standing on a chair saying "The floor is made of lava!"

So this is part one, and to show you I'm not just fooling around, here's my game plan:


It's all measured out. Next steps: Determining what color t-shirt material I'll use for the blank squares (each of the 12 15X15-inch squares will hold one t-shirt design) and attaching a supportive backing to the material so the shirts stay together.

I'll keep you gentle and anxious readers posted on the adventures of quilt-making.