By LAURA BROOKHART / Community Columnist

When Hal Woodman searched on FB for someone to piece and quilt the many T-shirts he has worn/acquired while supporting and attending Helena events over the last dozen years, Lura Campbell was the name that came up most highly recommended.

“Creating a T-shirt quilt is like working a puzzle,” Campbell acknowledges. “It is essential to create a workable pattern without sacrificing design.”

Campbell, whose licensed Helena business is run from her home studio, has made many such quilts. Underway are quilts for two sorority sisters. Both will be two-sided quilts—one containing 58, the other 68 T-shirts!

A plethora of college memories is contained in these, tucked away for over 10 years by their owners awaiting a functional reincarnation.

Woodman’s quilt contains a special surprise square—a Triple Dog Dare T-shirt illustrating the movie “A Christmas Story.”

Woodman adopted the photo-persona of the Ralphie character early in his blogging career so as to remain anonymous, at least in its early stages.

And, of course, Woodman’s geocaching gnome hunts are well-remembered, so Campbell came up with a gnome square that was screen-printed and donated by Adam of By George.

A shirt from Woodman’s campaign for city councilman is also represented.

Johnson’s quilts will last a lifetime and beyond, due to durability of construction and the overall final quilting applied with a long-armed professional machine.

If you been saving T-shirts from someone special, have your own stash of T-shirts or perhaps want to surprise someone for Christmas with a T-shirt quilt, you will be interested to know Lura Campbell will be teaching a class at Thimbles, Inc. in Hoover on Saturday, Oct. 17 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Campbell will help you plan your quilt design and piece together the squares in this session.

“The big thing with T-shirt quilts is that you are challenged by so many different graphics and colors,” Campbell said. “There is a way to make these elements best flow together and a way to prepare the T-shirts to lay flat, so you will not have distracting lumps in your fabric.”