Hello!   Thanks so much for stopping by!  Life has been a little crazy the last few weeks and promises to be continue to be super busy for the month ahead so I don’t have anything brand new to share.  However, I thought I’d share the quilt I made for my husband for Christmas and year ago.  It is a t-shirt quilt and I’ve had pictures on my blog before, but I thought I’d share the story.

I never told my husband I was saving his t-shirts or little things.  I’d just tuck away anything that had special meaning in a box.  Christmas came around and I had absolutely no idea what I was going to give him.  He is so hard to buy for as he always asks for practical things (think work clothes) but I like to find at least one thing that is special and unexpected.  Then I remembered the t-shirts.  I worked in secret while he was at work and photographed my layout so I’d remember what I was doing!     Rather than just a theme, this quilt tells our story.

This first shirt – front and back – was the first gift I gave him – well almost!  He is a big Rush fan – since he was a kid.  He wore this t-shirt until it was falling apart – so I found him a second one!

When we first got together, he was in the Air Force in Abilene, TX.  We were married there and lived there for a year with him working on the flight line at Dyess AFB with the B-1B’s and I worked for  a wonderful lady at the Museums of Abilene.  My step-daughters lived there at the time, too, and it was a fun time.  These next 2 pictures are from a t-shirt and hat Tom got from work.

When Tom got out of the Air Force he had gotten his Bachelor’s in Computer Science and got a job doing IT and had to go into Microsoft training for 6 months.  For the first two months I visited my mom and my Nana & Pappy.  I went to Ocean City, NJ with my sister and aunt & uncle and then Tom came to Philadelphia for the second two months.  We got lucky because there were an odd number of people in Philly and they arranged for Tom to have his own room so I got to stay with him there.  Anyway – my sister and I took a train trip from Philly to Washington DC and I got him this t-shirt from the Air & Space Museum because he is all about space!

We ended up in Houston, Texas about a year after he got out of the Air Force.  Emily & Angela were then living in Hammond, LA and would visit us in the summer.  This frog t-shirt is from one of their visits and an outing to Moody Gardens, Galveston.  Angela was playing near some fountains and fell in so we had to buy her something dry to wear.  It was pretty funny and a great trip!

After living in Houston for a bit and being married for a few years, we decided to try to have a baby.  I was working for a travel agency working with our international offices doing bookkeeping and ended up “having to” take a trip to London for work with my boss/friend – and got to bring Tom.  We had to have 2 short meetings the first 2 days – but got a week there!  We had a blast and went all over – and still didn’t get to see enough!  But we got home – and I was pregnant!

The new life, new love infant t-shirt was from when the babies were born.   We have one for Andrew and for Sammy.  They are so sweet.   Blues Clues was Andrew’s absolute favorite when he was little.   He got to go see Blues Clues live and had a talking Steve and talking Blue doll and some little Blues Clues outfits.  Was so so cute.   I still have all the Blues Clues stuff- just couldn’t part with them!  There is also a Spongebob shirt because Sam & Andrew both loved Spongebob!

Don’t hate…… but we were all glued to the tv with our friends watching this election and then the news waiting for the recount.

It’s funny how you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when something major like this happens.  I was in K-Mart with my kids and we were heading to the library for story time.  I saw the planes on all the tv’s and thought at first it was a movie.  The crazy thing is that I had a c-section on 8/15 – less than a month earlier! – and had the baby and my 21 month old – and was heading to the library.  What in the world was I thinking?!  Needless to say – I went home immediately where my husband had a home office working for Toshiba.

This square and the patches are from the sleeve of Tom’s Cub Scout Den Leader shirt.  He was Andrew’s den leader for 3 years and they had a lot of fun!

And it ends with some more Rush t-shirts.  We’ve seen them a few more times – and last year took Andrew and Sam to see them for their first concert.

I used blue Kona and and Air Force cotton print for the sashing and for the back.  One mistake I made was not pre-washing my fabric.  I usually don’t pre-wash – and let everything shrink up together in the dryer.  It didn’t occur to me that with t-shirts that had shrunk all they were going to – things would be a little off.  It’s really not bad – and I, of course, pretended I mean to do that – but next time I will prewash my fabrics!

Well, I hope you enjoyed the story!  I really loved making this quilt and Tom uses it every night!  Though things are hectic this month – I’ll be back on a regular schedule next month with tutorials, block of the week, recipe of the week, and quilt-alongs, as well as a monthly giveaway!  I hope you will stop back by!

Krista