By TeeFury fan Josiah
My obsession with geek culture started in high school when my brothers and I were given a PlayStation. My brother got Final Fantasy VII and it changed the way we saw the world. It was better than TV! As a young kid, the characters spoke to me. Their struggles, love for each other and the way they kept trying in the face of insurmountable odds. I’ve always been inspired by strong women, who kicked butt and weren’t afraid to show it. Pokemon and Zelda were soon to follow, then I branched out more into the movie and TV side of it with Studio Ghibli and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (my favorite show of all time).
My first geeky tee I ever got was in 2008, a gift from a close friend. I started buying more tees, not really thinking about what I would do with them down the road. I would randomly buy tees for my husband, Travis, who loves all things Peter Pan, Game of Thrones and Pokemon. I started talking about making the world’s most epic t-shirt quilt about the same time I started purchasing from Teefury, an amazing source for all of my favorite fandoms. It had everything I loved and there were hundreds of other people like me who were just as into all of it as I was.
Our vision was to take all our tees and make a quilt, as a symbol of our life together and how far we have come. The quilting women at Make It Sew in IL, allowed us to come in and lay the tees out the way we wanted. After 64 geeky tees and countless hours later, we were able to put each shirt exactly where we thought it belonged. The quilt is big enough to fully cover a California king bed!
At the end of the day, my favorite part of the process was the collecting of all the tees. Do any of them have a particular meaning to me…the answer is honestly all of them. Each one reminds me of a particular point in my and Travis’ life together. Each tee brings back the sense of wonder I had when I first experienced that fandom. From Final Fantasy to Spirited Away, geek culture gives us a place to escape when the outside world is too much. It’s a virtual place where we can focus on our mutual loves and interests instead of all the ways we are different.
Favorite TeeFury tees in the quilt:
Our Lady of Protection by heymonster