A Finished T-shirt Quilt

 
I finished the Federal Express T-shirt quilt about a month ago.  It was fun seeing all the old shirts and events from our tenure back in the day.  Do you military types see the Bravo Zulu next to the plane and below the Stuff It T?  Lee received a Bravo Zulu award when he was Senior Manager of Engineering for the Western Region.  I found some images on the computer and had it printed on special fabric.  There are a lot of things on the quilt that long time FedEx employees should recognize.

 

The last thing I needed to do was the binding.  I like to cut off the edges of the quilt first, although not everyone does it this way. 

 

It is a good idea to have someone help you.

 

You didn't buy that, did you?  He is a pain in the neck and not only does he climb on any project and grab it with claws when I try to move him, but he SHEDS like crazy.  See all that hair?  NONE of it is attached.  Touch him and it comes off on your clothes.  Help.  As if.

 

Cut 3 inch strips of the binding fabric.  Then attach the strips into one long strip.

 

Fold and iron the strip in half and then sew the cut edge to the front of the quilt. 

 

Fold it over and hand stitch it in a blind hem stitch on the back of the quilt. 

 

This takes quite a bit of time, so you should turn on TV. 

 

Finding a Tom Selleck movie is great.  Now he IS a help.  More important, he didn't shed on the quilt!   Plus, he was filming Magnum when we lived in Hawaii and Lee was the Honolulu station manager for Federal Express.  They delivered a lot of packages to the Magnum folks.

 

I spent quite a bit of time with a sticky roller to remove MOST of the hair and then wrapped up the quilt for a gift.  I gave it to Lee yesterday.  It was our 35th anniversary. 

 

He will probably put it somewhere in the office where he has a lot of Federal Express memorabilia. 

 

Any FedEx employees are welcome to come check it out.

 

 
I may even give you a discount on a stay in the B&B.  Except those people that don't deserve it...and you know who you are!

Back To The T-Shirt Quilt

I had to quit work on my Federal Express T-shirt quilt over the holidays.  No time, and really , no interest when I had a house fuLL of family.  Family gone, Christmas decorations put away, time to finish the quilt.

I did something to my back so I can't stand for any amount of time, but sitting seems to work, so I went back to the quilt.  I already cut up the T-shirts I had and affixed them to some fusible inner facing for stability.  T-shirts are stretchy things. 

 

There weren't enough T-shirts, so I downloaded some pictures of Federal Express planes off the internet.  Lee worked in both the San Diego office and the Los Angeles office and I found images of Federal Express planes flying in or out of those airports and downloaded the images on to fabric that you can run through a printer.

 

After 15 minutes, or in my case, a couple of weeks, you can peel off the plastic backing and soak the pictures in room temperature water. 

 

I set them on a towel to dry, ironed them on the wrong side and they are ready to add to the quilt.

 

Then Lee found ANOTHER T-shirt and an old ball cap with an embroidered Federal Express truck.  I put the T-shirt on the stabilizer and cut out the truck.

 

 One of the used T-shirts has a stain on it and I will put the embroidered truck over that.  After I cut out the back of the T-shirt I noticed that the front had a pocket with a FedEx logo over it.

 

I cut out the pocket with the logo and stabilized that.  I used an applique pressing sheet.  This keeps the glue from the fusible inner facing from getting on the iron.  It also keeps the paint from melting on the iron.  You have to wait for it to completely cool before you remove it from the project.  I tried to do it too soon and some of the paint wanted to peel up on the pressing sheet.  I placed it back down and pressed it a bit more, let it cool and them carefully peeled the sheet off the T-shirt. No paint.  Other than the stupid stuff I do, I must be a genius!

 

 

Lee rummaged around in the closet and found an old Fed Ex uniform shirt.  During peak season, i.e. Christmas, FedEx managers would frequently be found driving or helping in some way in the field.  He liked getting out in the trenches!  I took the sleeve with the logo and the pocket and I will find spots for them.

I laid the whole thing out on the dining table and moved things around to suit.  When I had it the way I wanted it I took each row up in a pile.

 

Next I will put purple and orange fabric ( FedEx colors) around the T-shirt squares and start to assemble this thing. 

T-Shirt Quilt

When I said I was only going to do one more project this year, I lied.  Well, I misspoke.  I meant it at the time, but facts have proven me wrong.

 

I cleaned up my closet and discovered a bunch of old Federal Express T-shirts that I had saved.  Some were from when we lived in Hawaii and the rest were from when we were in California.  Rather than tossing them, I thought I might try my hand at a T-shirt quilt.  This is when you cut out the printed part of a T-shirt and use it to make squares for a quilt.

 

I would never start a project without my able, slothful, assistant.  And who would want to work with fabric that wasn't covered in cat hair?  Well, I would, but I don't always have that option.  And Lee would never help me, so he is company, of a sort.

I even have one from when I worked in Burbank, before I met Lee.  I may leave that one out.  It was in the early days of Federal Express and the guys all got together and had some shirts made.  The planes flew in to the Memphis hub and then the packages were sorted and flown to their destination overnight.  Back then the service commitment was that the packages would be delivered by noon the next day and Federal Express was the only company that could  consistently do that.  We were proud of that and so the T-shirts were born and they said:  Federal Express - keeps it up all night and gets if off by noon.

Ah, youth.  They all thought it was funny.  Ok, I admit it, I thought it was funny, too.  I still have the shirt.  I probably won't put it in the quilt.  Most likely.

Most of the quilts have been worn and have various stains. I didn't have enough to discard those and I just decided that that will be part of the charm of this quilt.  Or I may applique something over he worst of the stains.  I'll decide that later.

 

I haven't made a quilt on my own, without a class to tell me what to do.  I went to the Fincastle library to find a book on T-shirt quilts.  They have an extensive collection of quilting books and I found one. 

 

Then I hit the Old Trinity Schoolhouse Quilt shop for advice and some supplies.  I bought some fusible interfacing to iron to the back of the T-shirt material to stabilize it.  Federal Express had Purple and Orange as their colors, so I got some of that.  Now that they are FedEx, there are variations on purple and orange for the different services.  The T-shirts I have are from the olden days, though.  Antique.  Last century.  Gosh, I'm old.

 

I cut out the fronts and ironed them to the stabilizer.  This took forever.  I had to force myself to make the first cut and after I was successful with a few of them, it became easier.  Then I cut them to sizes that will work in rows.  Some will be larger than others because I didn't want vast area of white T-shirts on my quilt. 



 

I don't  have an even number, so I think I will fill in with pictures I will attempt to download onto fabric I can run through the printer.  Also purchased at the quilt shop.

 

I am not going to stress about this project, because there is no deadline, so I will work on it when I feel like it.  And when I can decide what goes where.  I need a class!

 

I Hate Painting

The lesson in this story is to not get good at that which you hate to do.

Our father had rental properties when we were young and he used slave labor to keep them up.  By slave labor, I mean we kids.  We were required to do it and didn't get paid.  But we were fed and clothed. 

I have been painting since I was 10 years old and I am pretty good at it.  I am too good to pay someone to do the job I know I can do, maybe even a better job.  Plus, I am cheap, so there you go.  I paint.

We bought the wood to finish the arbor/gazebo and it has been drying in the shop.  Lee laid it out on boards for air circulation and yesterday I ran out of excuses (it's cold, it's raining, I HATE TO PAINT) and put on the primer coat. 

Because all four sides of the wood will be exposed, I have to paint all four sides.  Because it is raw lumber I have to paint a primer coat and a finish coat.  Because you can't paint the wood and then set it down on something that it will stick to, I had to paint three sides of the lumber.  Then I had to wait for it to dry and flip everything over and paint the fourth side.  Then start all over again the next day with the finish coat.  This basically means I have to paint four times.  Did I mention that I hate to paint?  Yeah, I thought I did.



Here is a tip for lazy, cheap painters.  In between coats, while you are waiting for them to dry, wrap the brushes and roller with foil.  That way you don't have to either clean them or toss them and you can just quit and then start up again with ease!

I have an antique, irreplaceable jacket that I use for working at the barn.  It is antique because I have had it since I was in my early twenties.  It is irreplaceable for two reasons.  It is a Federal Express uniform jacket that was for employees.  I am no longer a Federal Express employee.  It was before Federal Express changed the name to FedEx.  So they are no longer made with the Federal Express logo.



It was cold, so I wore this work jacket.  The spaces between the 8 foot 2X2s were small and I had to squeeze in to reach the middle with the roller.  This is what I did to the jacket. 



I said I was good at painting.  I never said I was NEAT at painting.  So now it is ruined.  I should have worn the jacket next to my skin and used my horrible work shirt that I bought at Dollar General for about $5 as a jacket.  Then my priceless jacket wouldn't be ruined, just the shirt.  But I didn't think of it until I noticed the mess I was making and then I just wanted to finish.

To be fair, the jacket is old and worn and frequently has horse pooh on it.  But now it is UGLY, too.  Good thing I don't obsess about THINGS!  Even better that no one sees me but the horses and they have no fashion sense.

Another good thing is that we can install the boards on the next sunny day.  The bad thing is that I STILL have to paint the posts and I am not looking forward to it.  Did I mention that I hate to paint?