A Quilt for Khari!

The start of Khari's Quilt

A friend of my Dad's gave me the idea for a t-shirt quilt many years ago.  Lois mentioned a quilt that she was planning to make out of t-shirts from all the states she had visited.  Well...  I started pulling out ride shirts!  I'd just completed my first 1,000 miles in competition - most on Jas.  I needed a few more blocks, so printed up a couple of my favorite ride photos on t-shirts.  Lois cut them into squares, pieced them together with strips of a horse themed fabric, added batting, a back & had the edges quilted on a long-arm.  Later - I took it to another quilter & had each of the t-shirt blocks quilted down.  I learned a lot from this process - certainly what I wanted to do differently next time.
  
It had taken me ten-years to reach that first milestone, which seemed like forever at the time.  But, as friends said then;  the second 1,000 would go quicker & it has - in just five years with Khari.  I say;  just when some riders ride more in one year - than I do in five!   It's all about the ride though & I've enjoyed every one of mine!  I can't think of a better way to save the memories than to put them into a quilt! 

The photo above is my layout for this second quilt.  I still need to have a three more shirts made up.  I found the perfect fabric to use for the strips between the blocks at my cousin Jackie's shop;  The Quilter's Fix in Sheridan, WY.   It's a print that looks like tooled leather.  I'm thinking I might use flannel, or even polar fleece for the backing this time.  Now I have cutting, stitching & more layout to do before I turn it over to a "professional" quilter to do the piecing.   
Fun for a cold rainy day!
P.S. - Finished!