Once again, I’ve asked my friend Irma to share with us about her son’s high- school -graduation-send-off-to-college t-shirt quilt. As a special note – today Casey is celebrating his 25th birthday! Happy Birthday Casey from your friends at The Quilt Rambler!

This is my story about the various quilts that my friend, Karen Overton, has made for me – this one is specifically about the quilt she made for me for my son using his old high school spirit shirts.
First, some background information…
My name is Irma Cortez, and I have only one child – a son named Casey. As an only child, I admit that I lovingly doted on him and gave him anything and everything he needed or wanted, and I also kept everything he ever made or wrote, or that was of any significant or sentimental value.

In high school, my son was actively involved in various sports like football and tennis, along with various organizations and clubs. He also has a strong Christian faith and he attended many youth activities including singing in the Christian Rock Band at his church.
Dickinson High School had a dress code, and like most teenagers, my son didn’t like wearing a uniform.
Since he was involved in so many different school sports, clubs and activities, he was always getting free spirit shirts or we purchased shirts from the various clubs or events that he attended, which eventually lead to quite a large collection of spirit shirts.
At first, spirit shirts were only allowed at school on Fridays for pep rallies and football games; however, it was soon announced that it would be acceptable for students to wear spirit shirts any day of the week.
My son was scheduled to graduate from DHS in June of 2010, and he was accepted to and would be attending Baylor University in the Fall that same year. Since we knew that he’d be going away to college after graduation, I started cleaning out his room at home, going through all his old clothes, and discovered that he was no longer wearing a lot of the older shirts from his previous years in high school.
This is how and when I decided to have a t-shirt quilt made from my son’s old t-shirts, and this is when Karen Overton came into the story.

Once I gathered and collected all the spirit shirts that my son no longer wore, or didn’t plan on taking to college with him, I contacted Karen and we scheduled an appointment to discuss a quilt project.
With all the shirts we had to work with, I elected to have a queen-sized quilt made for my son using all his old shirts. This size quilt that I decided on is called a 5X5 quilt (also called a 25-square quilt), meaning it was 5-squares wide and 5-squares long.

I’m not really sure why I chose green and gold for the sashing and the cornerstones, except that maybe it was because there were various shades of green, but I recall that I choose gold for the backing to bring out the gold colors on the front.

Go Dickinson Gators!
The photo below shows the monogram I had put on Casey’s quilt. I used gold thread to match the gold sashing and cornerstones and the backing.
As I previously stated in my other story about Lulu’s MuuMuu quilt, most of my quilts that my Mom made me were always kept in storage at the top of my closets.
However, I now have this quilt hanging on a quilt rack in his room at home.


I’m so pleased with all the quilts that Karen Overton has made for me. Her workmanship and the quality of her quilts are top-notch. Her knowledge of quilting and the time required to finish a project is very precise. She can estimate when it will be ready and most times, she finishes them sooner. I have received so many compliments from friends and family who have seen the quilts she had made for me, and I’ve referred several people to her.

Thank’s Irma, you are a great mom! And a wonderful friend and customer. The best compliment is a referral – I appreciate you!
This is Karen Overton, The Quilt Rambler
Telling YOUR story, one quilt at a time
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