a Labor of Love - Fast Eddie's quilt

My mother nick named my nephew Fast Eddie when he first started walking, because that boy could move once he learned he could stand on his own two feet and walk.....I don't think he actually ever walked...I think he started from the get go running!

This is the t-shirt quilt I have been working for over three years now. It is made from t-shits that belonged to my nephew Eddie. Eddie passed away almost 4 years ago. I made a ton of mistakes on it, but undoubtedly it was the hardest quilt I ever had to make. When I first received the box of shirts...it took me well over 18 month's to even be able to open the box, I opened it looked at the shirts and closed the box right back up. I was overwhelmed with memories of Eddie and his growing up years and I just couldn't open the box again. It took me almost another year to open it again. The next time I did, I was able to take the shirts out and actually cut and stabilized several of them before I couldn't do it any more. The shirts still smelled like Eddie and it was just to hard to do anything with them. Finally, I realized that no matter how often I put it off, I had made a promise to his mother to get this quilt done and I was going to have to just suck it up and work on it. I finally got all the t-shirts cut and stabilized and sewn into rows and had to stop again. About a month ago, I was finally able to sew all the rows together and just this past weekend I was able to get the borders on it. This is going to a long arm quilter today to see if he can use Eddie's favorite blanket as the back of the quilt and then will be quilted with fancy hearts that my quilter can do. I still have not decided what the label will say and I have to get that done this next weekend. I have to say, out of all of the quilts that I have made, I will be truly glad when this one goes to its new home.

I miss you Eddie!

till next time,


Anett