ARLINGTON T-shirts and quilts might not sound like a pretzels-and-beer sort of natural combination, but its certainly a novel one, which Christy Brubaker hopes will help support a civic cause.
Brubaker completed the T-shirt quilt that her mother, Shirley Countryman, had started stitching together, after Shirley and her husband Ken brainstormed the idea with the downtown merchants of Arlington. By selling raffle tickets for the quilt, which is made up of T-shirts from various Arlington-area events throughout the year, they aim to raise money for the construction of the gazebo in Legion Park.
The quilt includes T-shirt logos from car shows, the Duck Dash, the fire departments anniversary, and assorted activities sponsored by the Boys and Girls Club, among others, offering what Brubaker deemed a strong cross-section of the citys character.
Brubaker attributed the lions share of the work on the quilt to her mother, who spent close to four months stitching it together, as opposed to Brubakers relatively brief six hours of finishing touches. Brubaker likewise credited Arlington Capital Projects Manager Paul Ellis and Construction Manager Terry Marsh with getting people excited about the gazebo project again, after it had been put to the side.
Although the T-shirt quilt made its debut at the Sept. 9 Arlington Drag Strip Reunion, it will continue to appear at events throughout the area this fall, right up through the raffle drawing for the winning ticket takes place Dec. 2, just after the citys Santa Parade.
Theres a lot of long-term employment in Arlington, because people choose to stay here, Brubaker said. Whoever wins this quilt will be able to say, Hey, I was involved in those events, and have those memories attached to the quilt.
Raffle tickets cost $5 for each, or $20 for six.