The Hooters Quilt

Delightfully tacky, yet unrefined.

You read that right.  It's a Hooters quilt.  Quilting (to me) is all about making a memory- or preserving one.  Why else would somebody make a quilt out of old Hooters t-shirts?

A very special family friend married the love of his life a few weeks ago.  In his "bachelor days", he had a rather extensive collection of t-shirts from his many visits to various Hooters restaurants around the world.  I "acquired" his collection and took a rotary cutter to it.  I took special care to preserve the spots on the shirts that were autographed by the ladies.

By the way- it seems I always have a dog around when I'm trying to photograph quilts.  This one is being tested by my son's moose... I mean dog... Nelson.  He's a cross between a St. Bernard and a Great Pyrenees.  Big.

 

As far as quilting goes, this one isn't anything special.  It's just a rag quilt- little sandwiches of t-shirt on top, batting scraps in the middle and flannel on the back.  Sew an "X" through the sandwiches, stitch them together with a half inch seam and stitch all around the perimeter at 1/2 inch.  Then clip all the seams with rag snips (important so you don't get blisters).  Then wash a few times and clean out the lint trap in the dryer a million times.

This quilt is a great memory for the groom.  It represents a time in his life and memories of friends, trips he took, and his transiton from boyhood to manhood.  He LOVED it!  You might be wondering how the bride feels about this.  She loves it, too!  Jealous?  No way!  She says, "I'M the one he married!!!"

Being a quilter gives a person the ability to create a one-of-a kind gift from the heart.  Nothing I could have purchased would have shown his young man how much it meant to me to watch him grow up than this quilt does.

And besides... now I can say I made a Hooters quilt. :-)