Time goes fast and stands still

Just over a week ago, my mom and I ventured to my sisters house to begin working on a project we had planned a few months ago. Just about six months ago to be exact.
My brother had a plethora of t-shirts. After he died, none of us were sure what to do with them. No one wanted to give them away, or dump them in the trash. 
So, after a few discussions with Glenda, my sister-in-law, we decided to make memorial quilts out of them.
Now, some of you may be thinking that because we live in the world of little towns, we would have nothing more to do than make quilts and jelly. Nay, say I. This was something we had to tackle, and soon.
We all picked out the t-shirts we wanted on our quilts, bagged them up, and took them to Penny's to begin the major task. 
Now, you have to keep in mind that none of us have ever made quilts. Yes, I have made some small baby quilts, nothing hard, easy one pieces. But we had decided it couldn't be that hard to make a few quilts. Well, 10 didn't seem that hard, we figured, if a person could do one, we three could certainly make 10. No problem. Oh, for famous last words.
First, we had to iron on backing to all the shirts. No easy task. It took my mom and I a day and a half to complete it. Penny supervised. Millie, my dog had come along with us, and was bored after the first few minutes of watching the steaming irons. She had more fun later when the material scraps were all over the floor for her to play with.
After completing this part, we moved on to how to put them together.
First, we had to make squares. Because, quilts have squares.
This would have been much easier if some of the shirts didn't have logos that covered the entire front of the shirt and sleeves. 
Not wanting to destroy a single logo, we cut the shirts in half, and decided that we would use the entire shirt, laid out flat, front and back to make the smaller lap robes for the kids. Each one would have a single shirt.
Now to put them on the material we had purchased. 
We spent the rest of that day contemplating how this should be done, and eventually decided we would use a simple zig-zag stitch, and piece them together.
It took us one entire day to finish the top of one quilt. There had to be a better way. Simply cutting out material and piecing them together was not going to work. 
Light bulbs came on above our heads when we decided to sew the entire shirt onto one piece of material.
We had four days left to complete all the tops so that my sister could take the quilt tops to work and place pictures of John on them.
In all honesty, after we figured out this part, it did fall into place and with sewing machines smoking, (or was that Penny and I?) we were able to get all of them done with a couple hours left over.
I have now decided this was one of the best therapy sessions I have ever had. We all needed that time together. We all shared memories of my brother as we cut and sewed. Some so funny we rolled with laughter, others so sad we had to take a break and cry a while. 
Mom shared a story about my brother bringing home a dead cat, and telling everyone his dad would fix it, because dad could fix anything. (I have to admit, he can fix just about everything, and make it better than it was in the first place, but a dead cat full of bugs was not something he could quite do.)
Penny talked about the memorial service and all the people that had come. We had so much love and support that day. God's hand was holding us close that day, and many more since then.
I talked about how John loved his nieces and nephews, and all the things he did for them through the years. They loved him so much, and it had nothing to do with anything he had ever given them. They just loved him because he always loved them unconditionally. They all new John would give good advice, a quick smile, and a pat on the shoulder. 
We talked about even more, but those things seem the most important to me right now.
Now that the tops are finished, Penny is putting pictures on them, and then my mom will take them all over to her friends who does quilt and has a huge machine, to have them finished. They may even be done by Christmas!
Now to tackle making jelly...hmm...maybe next year!