Another Project Decades in the Making

Here is another project that has been decades in the making. The back story...

My oldest brother died of AIDS in 1990. Prior to his death, the AIDS pandemic was ravaging the gay community. In response the Names Project was started. In 1988 there was an enormous display of the Names Project Quilts in Washington, DC. I was living in DC at the time and attended.

Flash forward to my brother living with AIDS in Hollywood, California, in the late 80's. After working a couple of times in Minneapolis, I went to Hollywood to help take care of my brother. After he died in January 1990, I moved permanently to Minneapolis on an offer of work at the Guthrie Theater.

Garland Wright, Guthrie Artistic Director, always made sure that staff had the 3rd Sunday in May off in order to participate in the Minnesota AIDS Project (MAP) Walk to raise funds and awareness of the AIDS pandemic.

I eventually was asked to chair MAP's AIDS Walk Committee. The t-shirts you see here are from years of volunteer work and the center is the Names Project Washington, DC event.

With this no-sew blanket, I discovered I could work on it in my lap. This was a huge help to my knees and back. I assembled and cut it on the floor but once it was ready for knotting, I could sit on the sofa with it in my lap and knot away.

This blanket is half the size of the theater blanket and went lots faster with the experience of the first under my belt.

Forty Years in the Making

Most of you know that I had a career in the theater before my over 20 years in Information Technology. 

I was introduced to theater when I was in junior high school thanks to an amazing teacher, Carol Tomlinson, who I am lucky to still be in touch with via Facebook. 

The finished blanket

I also can vividly recall seeing Julie Harris in The Last of Mrs. Lincoln" at the Kennedy Center when I was in junior high. That production and performance convinced me to pursue a career in the theater. I was also immensely fortunate to meet Ms. Harris and actually become acquaintances with her over the span of several years.

My theater career had an enormous impact on my life. The primary reason I live in Minneapolis is because of theater.

So I finally constructed this t-shirt blanket with t-shirts from my theater life from college to The Guthrie. Why I say 40 years in the making is because the college t-shirts are over 40 years old!

I owe the construction of this mostly to YouTube vloggers. You can find everything on YouTube. 

This is a no-sew blanket. The t-shirts are tied (knotted) together and the fleece back is attached using a no-sew/no-tie method.

The start with the t-shirts cut up

T-shirts tied and using no-tie technique for border