WIP Wednesday - Autograph Quilt

When I left 'gainful' employment last spring to embark on the adventure of retirement I really had a lovely send off.  There were cakes, gifts, plaques, pictures, a cruise on Lake Mead, a lunch with tequila shots...but I digress.

One of the nice things was this group of fabric pieces.

Another manager and I shared the enjoyment of thrift store bargains and she remembered a conversation that we shared wherein I mentioned someday making a quilt from thrifted men's shirts.  She purchased a few, cut them in to strips about 3" by 9" and asked each member of the management team autograph one with a good-bye message.

Today, I pulled them out and decided to put them together somehow.  Various pens and markers were used and I am guessing that not all are washable, so this will be a wall hanging for my sewing room I think.

I pulled out some white strips left over from other projects, as well as some yellow and a blue with a tiny white print.  I cut the strips is various widths, since the shirting strips were not all uniform.  I started by sewing all the shirting strips to white strips and then randomly sewed either a blue print or solid yellow to the other side.  There was an odd leftover, so I made one block with two shirting strips with a white strip in the middle.

This is what I have put together, so far.  When I am finished, there will be five blocks in a row and 6 rows top to bottom.  I am thinking that I may trim the solid strips and the blue print so that they are narrower and more of a frame for the shirt strips, rather than a rail fence look.  I don't have a lot of empty wall space in my sewing room and I think it will still work well on a slightly smaller scale.

  

Typically, I really didn't plan it out, I just started sewing and it got pretty big, very fast!  I would probably waste less time and fabric if I planned a bit more and jumped in a bit less!

It was really fun to go through and read them all again as I was pressing and sewing.  There were a lot of inside jokes and fun references.  I can't say I miss working every day, but it did bring back some fun memories!

See more Wednesday WIP's here!