The Quilt of Guilt

Have you ever started a project with the best of intentions? And then no matter the intentions you just cannot seem to finish the bloody thing?

That has happened to me more than I like to admit. However this post is about a specific quilt. A T-Shirt quilt for my friend Sheila. A quilt I committed to with a casual comment last August.

See Sheila's husband is turning 40 this year and way back when he had a relative who made him a quilt out of his high school t-shirts. A quilt that has since disintegrated with use I believe. And he had a box of t-shirts from his college days just sitting in his closet. A box he has moved to several states and different homes along the way. A box whose contents Sheila felt would be great for his birthday gift - made into a quilt. And I spoke up and said "I could help you with that".

That is how I received a box at my home with over 30 old t-shirts. Some of which had been worn rather thin, in a variety of colors and designs. Some quite garish in my personal opinion. And a lot that revolved about his fraternity, golf tournaments and music.

After going through the box I stuffed them all back inside and wondered just what the heck I had gotten myself into. Add to that the staggering lack of information online about how to best make such a quilt - but no end of opinions from anyone who has ever threaded a needle about the "right" way to go about this.

REALLY?

*Sigh*. Enter one of my host daughters - Pauline. Who one evening, I believe the first week she was living with me, followed me into my studio just to "watch" and then became so interested in the idea that she dove enthusiastically into helping. She became my "ripper" - taking apart these old shirts so we were left with just the interesting graphics. She then got into picking fabrics to border each piece - she has a good eye. I then showed her how to press versus iron and how to square up a block with a rotary cutter. Keeping in mind this is a girl who never even sewed on a button before. We had quite an efficient assembly line system going there for several nights.

Then life intervened and we let it sit for way too long without working on it at all. This is where the guilt part comes in. Every time I walked into my studio I felt as though this project was STARING at me. Accusingly. Each time I worked on anything else I felt it’s condemnation as though wondering why I was not working in it.

I hate being guilted by inanimate objects.

Then Sheila sent me a message about her husband's birthday coming up early in February .. AACCCKKKK !!!!! That message added to the impetus of my participation in the DaGMT 2013 challenge helped get me moving. So yesterday I worked from home - for about a half a day (sick kid) and then buckled down. And ..................



I finished one side's sections:  

                      And the sections for the other side:

Now to add them in a Quilt As You Go manner, add a border to side 1, square it up, tie it and bind it. All by Monday, February 4th so I can get it shipped to Sheila in time for her hubby's birthday.

On the other side this is sure to guarantee that I will make my minimum committment of time to the DaGMT  !!!!

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UPDATE: Well - I actually managed to do it. The quilt was finished and mailed off on February 4th and received by the birthday boy ON his birthday.