Sunday, February 20, 2011

Creative Cover-Up 2

Did I mention that my wife Nancy makes quilts? OK, I know I blogged about it once before and joked that her quilting offered lots of "material" for more stories (reference July 16, 2010). This time let me explain that in addition to all sorts of other quilts, she makes tee shirt quilts from tee shirts we buy when we are on trips.



The above quilt is from a trip west.

Just a warning: If you ask my wife Nancy to see our vacation pictures, you may be in for more than you bargained for, but only one thing could take longer and endear you to her even more, and that is asking about her quilts.
So when my cousin Evie asked to see the tee shirts Nancy bought for her tee shirt quilt on our recent trip to Hawaii, my jaw dropped open and I said, "Are you sure, Ev? She has a lot of tees."
Ev just smiled and said, "I want to see them." Below is a picture of the stack of tees.



The pile on the chair are cut-outs from the shirts. Nancy takes along a scissors so she can cut out the artwork and leave the rest of the tee at the hotel. I used to use them for rags in the shop, but I have more rags than I can use in a lifetime so now we just toss them.
The tee shirt quit hanging behind the chair is made from original artwork tee shirts that we designed and used to sell.
Below are some close-ups of individual tees from out trip to Hawaii:
The road to Hana was about 50 miles of single lane and switch back curves along the coast of Maui.

We like tees that display maps and identify places on a map.

The Park area at Pearl Harbor is all new and opened in 2010.

Banyan trees grow branches toward the ground The branches root, get bark, and resemble tree trunks. One thinks he is in a forest of trees but it may only be one tree, as in the case of this banyan tree, which covers nearly a whole block. This is the largest in the U.S., but there is one larger in India, i am told. 

The shirt on the right is a tribute to the "Margaritaville" attitude as celebrated in Jimmy Buffet's song.



The 21 letter name above is the name of Hawaii's state fish. Those of you who listened to the radio in the  pre-rock and roll era may remember the Hawiian song that went...
"I want to go back to my little grass shack in Kealakekua Hawaii
Where the humuhumunukunukuapuaa go swimming by..."

Here are some more of Nancy's great quilts:
This is her first tee shirt quilt, which contains a variety of tees that reflect things we did during our first 20 years of marriage.

Tees on this quilt are from trips to Washington state in the west 
and to Canada's maritime provinces in the east.

Here's a stack of some of Nancy's quilts. 

My next quilt blog will "cover" the relative quilt.

Photographs and quilts by Nancy A. Fredrickson




4 comments:

  1. To think after all these years I finally know what they're singing about in that song. Nancy, you are one gifted lady! What a great way to keep the memories alive of all your trips etc.

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  2. I'm with you on all counts, Jude. I never knew what it was in the song that went swimming by. I thought humuhumunukunukuapuaa was maybe just some "fill in" stuff like "yeah, yeah, yeah." When I saw on a tee shirt that it was the state fish, it was like a big light bulb clicked ON. I'll bet you can't get that song out of your head now, right?
    Regarding the second and third part of your comment, I was lucky to have that light click ON for me over 40 years ago.

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  3. This is so interesting...how many quilts has Nancy made? What does she do with all of them? Beautiful work.

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  4. She hasn't given me a count of the total, but I will ask her and post it on my next quilt blog. She stores them on several display racks, piles them on spare beds, hangs them on walls, and has them handy on sofas just in case someone wants to cover up when they nap. A favorite remark of mine is, "Hey, Nanc, you wouldn't happen to have a spare quilt I could use to cover up?"

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