thank you all for the ideas! I don't think this will be a particularly emotional quilt for me as these were all clothes he kept at the "lake house" and don't really remind me of him at all--with the exception of the fleece jacket I don't think I ever saw my FIL in any of them and they aren't even his "colors"--just what she hadn't donated yet.
I will do the stablizing and then toss into a gentle cycle on washer--hadn't thought about that at all. And the crazy quilt idea--with the exception of the T-shirt it could be workable too. One thing I'm thinking I will have to do at this point is to supplement the fabrics I have with some actual cotton--in his favorite color of purple. while the shirts are a size 3x or 4x so lots of fabric--there is just not enough contrast to actually make blocks. Do think this will be a project to work on next month while I'm recovering from knee replacement and then do the sewing after the first of the year. Thanks again--you guys are great!