Jean N and her Hawaiian Tee Shirt Quit

Jean wrote to me a while back about her collection of gorgeous tee shirts – she made a gorgeous quilt from them!

The shirts on the quilt represent 16 years of taking my fourth grade students on an annual study tour of the Big Island of Hawaii. Although there are only 15 blocks all 16 years are represented. If you look carefully at the center block of the bottom row you’ll notice an area that’s a little pinkish.

That little piece was taken from the missing shirt and stitched onto the blue one. Except for the printing of the piece being of a different color the design and shirt color were exactly the same as the shirt that it is on.

Our shirt designs were done by various people… one by a parent who was a scientific illustrator at the university, several by local tee shirt designers, and others by our students. Some designs were of a more general nature while others focused on a highlight of the year’s trip. For my backing I used a fabric that I found on the Big Island. It features the honeycreeper birds that are endemic to Hawaii.

I’m pleased with the result and glad that my shirts did not just end up in a rag bag. btw… I actually had 48 shirts since for each year we had one shirt for the 3 days of our trip.

Again, thank you for sharing your shortcut quilting method and for allowing me to share my experience with you.

With much aloha,
jean n