Connor’s T-Shirt Quilt

When my nephew Connor finished high school, my sister sent me a bundle of his old t‑shirts from teams, clubs, and school events. She’d saved them for years with the idea that they might someday become a quilt, and turning them into something he could take with him felt like the right way to mark that transition. Each shirt held a memory, and arranging the blocks was a fun way to piece together a picture of his school years.

I used the Too Cool T‑Shirt Quilt method, which lets each shirt dictate its own block size instead of forcing everything into a uniform square. The system uses multiples of four — from 4×4 up to 16×16 — so each logo or graphic gets the space it needs. There’s even a wonderfully nerdy formula for calculating the final quilt dimensions based on the block sizes you cut, which delighted my math brain and made the layout feel like solving a puzzle. Once the blocks were cut, arranging them became a mosaic of Connor’s middle‑ and high‑school years. Each piece carried a memory, and fitting them together felt like assembling a portrait of who he had been and who he was becoming. For the backing, we chose a deep forest‑green minky — soft, cozy, and perfect for a dorm room. Phineas (my Pfaff Quilt Expressions) handled the quilting beautifully, even with the stretchier knits. The Super Glider kept everything moving smoothly, and clearing the bobbin case between bobbins became part of the rhythm of the project.

We chose a forest‑green minky for the backing to make the quilt extra cozy — something he could use in a dorm or wherever life takes him next. When it was finished, it felt personal and full of the energy of those growing‑up years. It was a joy to make and a nice way to send him off into the next chapter. Congratulations, Connor.