Reduce, Reuse, Recycle ;)

Anyone else have so many sweatshirts you don't know what to do with them? And so many that you can't really wear them all? But somehow they're tethered to your heart and you can't bear to part with any of them? Maybe I'm the only one with this problem but I love a good sweatshirt. I'll wear it until its literally ragged. That's probably why some of my other ones get neglected. Moving on- after seeing the state of my favorite green Eddie Bauer sweatshirt, I decided it was time to retire it. But since I don't live with my parents anymore, there wasn't anyone to take it and say it got lost in the wash! So I went through my closet and apologized to many of my sweatshirts, explaining that their day of wear was through but they were moving onto bigger and better things. Here's what I did.
Here are two of four piles I stared with. In the mix was my favorite EB, my Darren Venu football team sweatshirt that a girl once offered to pay me for, most my MHS sports teams shirts, a tennis one and one from bebe brother's high school.

Then I got to work cutting and dicing! Sleeves first, then a slice up the side, across the shoulders, remove the hoodie and bands. If there was a logo, I tried to salvage it as best I could.

I did 9 inch squares. I ended up with 49. Perfect for a 7x7 quilt!

I laid it out on my living room floor, keeping all the logos together so you could still see most of them. Can you see my green EB about three rows from the top? Just about center? *sigh* I love that article of clothing!

And here's what it looks like! I haven't clipped it yet. I put it in the wash first to see if the fabric will curl on its own and see what happens. Why waste cramping your hands if you don't have to? Its perfect size for a lap blanket and is heavy! My awesome little Kenmore sewing machine was such a trooper through 6 layers of knit when seams came up! I'm quite excited!

On a side note, I saved 5 other sweatshirts. But just the ones that are still acceptable for public viewing :)