Quilts by Big Wes

09/02/2026

Twenty-five years of the Legal Runaround 5k became one quilt, and I am still thinking about the moment it was unveiled at the race.

The Atlanta Bar Association commissioned this piece to mark the 25th anniversary of their annual 5k. Every shirt from 1998 forward went into it, arranged chronologically so anyone looking at the quilt can trace the full history of the race from the oldest panels to the newest. It now hangs permanently in their office.

What made this one stick with me was the reaction at the event itself. Runners stopped in front of it and read every shirt. They found the years they had run, pointed out designs they recognized, and a handful of people came to me directly, asking whether I could make something similar from their own race-shirt collections. That is exactly what this kind of quilt is supposed to do.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Atlanta Chief of Police Darin Schierbaum were both at the event, and I had the privilege of standing with them in front of the finished piece.

If your organization, club, or association has years' worth of event shirts that deserve more than a storage box, I would love to talk through what a commemorative quilt could look like for your group. Read the full story here: https://www.bigwes.com/quilt-blog/atlanta-bar-association-legal-runaround-quilt/

Reach out anytime to schedule a free consultation.

08/30/2026

08/23/2026

The person who said never meet your heroes never got to meet O.V. Speaks Quilts and Peggy Martin. I had an amazing time being a guest lecturer at the Atlanta Quilt Festival and I can’t wait until next year.

08/09/2026

A mom walked into my studio with 12 shirts her son had worn from middle school through senior year. He was heading to Auburn University, and she wanted him to take something real with him.

We landed on 16 blocks total, four of them custom corner blocks with an applique Tiger cut in Auburn orange and navy. For the quilting, I used a train pantograph, because he was leaving home and starting somewhere new, and a train felt like the right image to roll across all those memories. She noticed it the moment she picked it up and loved the connection.

The last thing I do on every quilt is sew the label on by hand. This one read from Mom, Dad, and little brother. When she flipped it over and found the names, she got quiet. She said she had not expected the whole family to be there. That is the part I will remember about this one.

If you have shirts set aside and a student heading out the door soon, I would love to talk through a quilt with you. Consultations are free, and there is no pressure.

Read the full story here: https://www.bigwes.com/quilt-blog/auburn-send-off-quilt/

07/29/2026

She walked into my studio with nine shirts saved from her career as an elementary school principal, and she was nervous that wasn't enough to make something worth keeping.

I told her what I tell everyone in that situation: the number of shirts is never the whole story. When a collection is smaller, I cut every panel as large as the fabric will allow, so each shirt gets room to show the graphic, the lettering, the details that made it meaningful in the first place. The layout is planned so the quilt feels full and intentional, not like a compromise.

When she saw the finished quilt, she told me she was fighting back tears. That is exactly the moment I work toward on every project.

If you have a retirement coming up, or you've been putting off a memory quilt because you think you don't have enough shirts, please read this post. You probably have more to work with than you think, and the consultation is free.

https://www.bigwes.com/quilt-blog/retirement-quilt-from-nine-shirts/

Come by the studio at CreateATL in Atlanta, or reach out to get a conversation started. Bring whatever you have saved and we'll figure out the best way to make it last.

07/27/2026

A mom came in with 20 t-shirts from her daughter's four years of high school theater. Opening-night shirts, cast shirts, crew shirts, a few from regional competitions. Every one had a show title or a date on it.

I laid them all out in chronological order before I did anything else. Freshman year on one end, the final senior production on the other. When you arrange shirts that way, the quilt becomes a timeline you can actually read. You can trace four years of curtain calls just by looking across the fabric.

For the border, I chose a fabric covered in stars. Her daughter had spent four years working toward her moment in the spotlight, and the star theme felt right without being over the top. Then I stitched a star pattern across the entire surface so the theme carried all the way through to the quilting itself.

When her mom came to pick it up, she ran her fingers along the border and said she couldn't believe I had thought to do that. Then she started pointing out each shirt and telling me the stories behind them. That's part of what a good memory quilt does. It gives people a reason to tell those stories out loud.

If you have a stack of shirts from high school theater, sports, band, or anything else, I'd love to talk through what we could make with them. Memory quilts start at $275, and the first conversation is free.

Read the full story here: https://www.bigwes.com/quilt-blog/high-school-theater-memory-quilt/

Schedule your free consultation at bigwes.com or reach out directly. I'm based in Atlanta and work with families all over the area.

07/25/2026

Not every quilt I make starts from scratch. Sometimes a customer comes to me after they have already begun, and that is completely okay.

This one started with 20 T-shirts a customer had cut herself, all in different sizes, which makes a clean layout tricky. I stabilized every piece so the stretchy fabric would not warp, then built a layout around the sizes she had so it still reads as balanced and intentional.

Then came my favorite part. She brought in a fleece throw she loved, but it was too small to back the quilt, so I used it as the sashing that frames each block. She had no idea her old blanket would end up woven through the whole thing.

If you have started a T-shirt quilt and gotten stuck, do not give up on it. I can pick up right where you left off. Read the full story here: https://www.bigwes.com/quilt-blog/rescuing-a-diy-t-shirt-quilt-project/

Consultations are always free. Memory and T-shirt quilts start at $275.

07/24/2026

What’s a scraptan? Let me try to explain…

07/11/2026

She walked in with over 30 t-shirts from her son’s middle and high school years. She wanted them all in one quilt, but didn’t want something the size of a king bed.
So we did something different: a double-sided quilt. Full-sized blocks on both sides, every shirt preserved exactly the way it was meant to be seen.
When she unfolded it for the first time, she went quiet. Then she found the jersey from the playoff season. Then the shirt from their school trip. Then she asked for a hug.
This is why I do this work.
Got a stack of shirts you can’t bear to cut down? Let’s talk about your options. Link in bio, or call 678-322-8849.
DoubleSidedQuilt

07/10/2026

Thank you, thank you to the Crossroads Quilt Guild in Perry, GA for inviting me to come and speak to your group about memory quilts. I had an amazing time. ❤️