Today I was at Joanne's picking out some fabric for the back and border of a quilt. It was an interesting experience on a couple different levels. For starters, the whole reason I am making a quilt is that I have had a bunch of t-shirts that have been taking up space in my dresser for years. You see, I haven't wanted to get rid of these shirts because they are all sentimental in some way or another. So, instead of getting rid of them or keeping unworn t-shirts around, a friend of mine suggested making a quilt out of them. My mother happily agreed to help out.
There are ten t-shirts all together:
1. My bright green "Repent" shirt from Spiritual Emphasis Weekend (SEW) my 9th grade year.
2. A grey "Numonohi" shirt, my high school's PE uniform.
3. My "Semper Fidelis" shirt from junior year fund-raising.
4. A bright red shirt from my best friend in high school that says "Just be happy I'm not your kid!" in yellow lettering.
5. My "Oshen" reggae shirt with a color picture on the front and the same picture in black and white on the back.
6. A maroon Lincoln Lake Baptist Camp "Wilderness Camp" shirt, also with yellow lettering, and also says, "It's in-tents!"
7. A turquoise-ish "Opportunity" softball shirt, from my sophomore year of college when I was on the team.
8. My white "Greek Geek" tee that the girls and I made our first semester of Greek during my sophomore year of college.
9. My blue "Jesus Yu Leva Stret Ya" shirt that I got while on a missions trip to PNG, spring semester of my sophomore year.
10. My gray "Lifeguard Great Wolf Lodge" uniform from this past summer.
As I was standing in Joanne's, looking at the range of colors represented by my shirts and trying to figure out a border and backing that wouldn't be too busy or clash too much, I started to get a headache. The bright lights and electronic buzz of stores in the U.S. can sometimes be overwhelming. Added to the many bold and brilliant bolts of material with vast and varying patterns, it was enough to exhaust me. I stood there staring at the selection for a while, then I feebly pulled out a few bolts here and there, holding them up to my array of shirts to see how they compared. After I had set a few aside and still come to no conclusion, I knew I needed my mom's help and opinion to make a decision.
She came and saw what I had picked out, and we discussed different possibilities before selecting a couple kinds of material for the quilt. When I mentioned my headache to her she made some comment about me being an MK. She was implying that my headache was probably due to my lack of the same shopping endurance as the western world. It's true I suppose. Shopping in the U.S. can be overwhelming at times, especially right after leaving PNG. Since I have not been out of the country in a while, I hadn't really considered that as a probable cause of the headache.
Giving it some more thought, however, I could only smile at the coincidence of MK qualities. There I was in Joanne's, with a headache likely caused by the bright lights and overwhelming quantity of stuff in the store, picking out material for a quilt made of t-shirts that I couldn't get rid of for sentimental reasons. Kinda funny how the reason a person can't handle department store lights is the same reason why they can't handle getting rid of old t-shirts.Labels: every day life
