I received a phone call a while back from a young lady who had spent three years with the Peace Corps in Tanzania. She had had to leave suddenly, and the only souvenirs of her time consisted of several t-shirts and some pieces of Tanzanian fabric. Could I use these to make her a memory quilt?
It was quite a design challenge, let me tell you! What I finally came up with was to frame each t-shirt panel with the Tanzanian fabrics, and added black borders to set everything off.
The bottom center panel is an embroidered purse that she’d carried with her everywhere and it contained a LOT of memories. But the thing was terribly ratty and falling apart. What I did was to fuse it to interfacing, and then carefully hand baste fine tulle over the whole thing. Now there will be no more abrading to further deteriorate it.
She had many special requests that I was happy to accommodate: embroidering names & dates, appliqueing bits and pieces from the sleeves and backs.
The final result was something she was utterly thrilled with. (Wished I’d taken a clearer picture!)
1 thought on “Tanzanian T-Shirt Memory Quilt”