T-shirt Quilts for Firefighters

Why do firefighters have so many T-shirts?

Rick Gorski, a volunteer firefighter from Cleveland Ohio area puts it this way:

The biggest reason is because of the large amount of "traded" T-shirts. Firemen are famous for collecting T-shirts from other departments. Most T-shirts warn by firemen are not from the city that they protect. Fireman will trade almost anything for other cities’ fire stuff. It's more fun running amuck with other cities’ stuff on than their city. Don't ask me how I know. It's definitely the tightest brotherhood of any job-group that I know of. 

Are you married to a firefighter?

Does this sound familiar? Anne Gagliano has been married to a firefighter for over 20 years.

Being married to a firefighter means … collections, piles and piles of collections. What do firefighters collect? They collect T-shirts; we have three storage containers of T-shirts in our closet: shirts from other departments, shirts from various stations within his own department, and shirts from different ranks and positions that have spanned his 20-plus-year career. I secretly try to discard them when I can to make space for the new ones that keep coming in. 

T-shirts as Get Well Cards

Within the world of first responders, T-shirts are also used as get-well soon cards. Sometimes when a firefighter is injured in the line of duty, other fire departments will send the injured person one of their T-shirts, wishing them well from that department.

So we know that:

• Firefighters have lots of T-shirts from trading and collecting.
• Those T-shirts are very important to them.
• They are not going to stop collecting them anytime soon.
• As new T-shirts are added to the collection, the old ones get set aside.

Solution: A quilt made from their firefighters T-shirts.

If your firefighter has too many T-shirts and you are secretly trying to discard them, consider another option. Think about having those T-shirts made into a T-shirt quilt. A T-shirt quilt makes a perfect gift because you have gotten rid of all those T-shirts and you have kept them too. Win, Win! You win and he wins and you both can snuggle up with a great quilt.

We have made many firefighters’ T-shirt quilts over the last 20 years. We typically see these quilts being made for birthdays, anniversaries, retirements, and sadly as memorial quilts. Don’t wait to make a memorial quilt. Have your firefighters quilt made so he or she can enjoy it now.

To learn more about having a quilt made from your T-shirts, download our free T-shirt Quilt Buyer's Guide.
It's a great place to learn about the different styles and quality of T-shirt quilts.

Below are a number of photos of various firefighter T-shirt quilts we have made.

These quilts are all very unique. What do you think your T-shirts would look like in a quilt?