T-shirt Quilt--Need help!!

I have never made a T-shirt quilt. I don't know anything about how to
even begin. Now I have been asked to make one for a very dear friend.
I contacted all of my quilty friends locally and none have them have any
experience with them either.

This quilt would be for a very dear friend who recently lost her 33 yo
son very tragically. The son was my daughters closest friend all
through school. His sisters have asked me to make a quilt from his
favorite t-shirts for his mom. I hesitate to tackle this unless I know
what I am doing. This group is so wise and diverse so I am hoping that
you can talk me through the project. Bear in mind that I know nothing
about making a quilt from t-shirt fabric.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me!

Connie from ND

This comes up on occasion. Check the group archives & google; there's
a ton of info and different techniques & ideas. I'd start with a
google image search to get a visual idea of what you want, then switch
over to web search to find the instructions, tips, etc. Come to think
of it, they've changed google recently so you may not have to switch
over.

Doc

On Aug 17, 10:20*am, (Connie Einarson) wrote:
I have never made a T-shirt quilt. *I don't know anything about how to
even begin. *Now I have been asked to make one for a very dear friend.
I contacted all of my quilty friends locally and none have them have any
experience with them either.

This quilt would be for a very dear friend who recently lost her 33 yo
son very tragically. *The son was my daughters closest friend all
through school. *His sisters have asked me to make a quilt from his
favorite t-shirts for his mom. *I hesitate to tackle this unless I know
what I am doing. *This group is so wise and diverse so I am hoping that
you can talk me through the project. *Bear in mind that I know nothing
about making a quilt from t-shirt fabric. *

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me!

Connie from ND

I've made one, for a similar occasion. The main problem is controlling
the stretch. Find a very soft woven cotton fusible and use that to
back the knit squares.
A secondary issue is proportion. T shirt logos come in all sizes. Make
sure you have enough shirts to be able to pick squares that look
nicely balanced. You might want to find out which ones are the most
important to her and use those as your baseline. 9.5" squares are a
good size to work with and will be big enough for most logos. But if
all the logos are bigger or smaller, be flexible. You could combine
smaller logo squares into one as well, but the knit seams tend to be
bulky. Find a nice cotton for sashing that will help to pull all the
colors together. The width of the sashing can be anything you like.
For 9" (finished size) blocks, I'd probably cut 2.5" sashing strips
(to finish at 2"). Sashing has the added advantage of smoothing out
the seams: you can press everything toward the sashing strip.
I quilted mine, free motion feather wreaths around each logo. But
tying would be quite OK if you prefer.
Roberta in D

On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:20:20 -0500, (Connie
Einarson) wrote:

I have never made a T-shirt quilt. I don't know anything about how to
even begin. Now I have been asked to make one for a very dear friend.
I contacted all of my quilty friends locally and none have them have any
experience with them either.

This quilt would be for a very dear friend who recently lost her 33 yo
son very tragically. The son was my daughters closest friend all
through school. His sisters have asked me to make a quilt from his
favorite t-shirts for his mom. I hesitate to tackle this unless I know
what I am doing. This group is so wise and diverse so I am hoping that
you can talk me through the project. Bear in mind that I know nothing
about making a quilt from t-shirt fabric.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me!

Connie from ND

Linda Long has an inexpensive little book/kit with all you need to
know about making a basic t-shirt quilt. She appeared on "Simply
Quilts" one time and this is the link to that episode's write-up,

http://www.hgtv.com/crafting/t-shirt-quilts/index.html

I still see the book for sale in the Keepsake Quilting and other
catalogs from time to time.

Carole D. - Retired and loving it in the foothills of NW Georgia

My quilts, crafts, QIs, and more - http://home.windstream.net/caroledoyle

Here's a link I had saved "for later":

http://www.quilt-lovers-guide.com/t-shirt-quilts.html

and this one:

http://www.goosetracks.com/T-Shirt%2...tructions.html

Trixie

"Connie Einarson" wrote in message
...
I have never made a T-shirt quilt. I don't know anything about how to
even begin. Now I have been asked to make one for a very dear friend.
I contacted all of my quilty friends locally and none have them have any
experience with them either.

This quilt would be for a very dear friend who recently lost her 33 yo
son very tragically. The son was my daughters closest friend all
through school. His sisters have asked me to make a quilt from his
favorite t-shirts for his mom. I hesitate to tackle this unless I know
what I am doing. This group is so wise and diverse so I am hoping that
you can talk me through the project. Bear in mind that I know nothing
about making a quilt from t-shirt fabric.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me!

Connie from ND

Ditto everything that Roberta said.

I made one and used 12 inch finished size squares. I got a piece of
plexiglass that was precut to 12 1/2" that I could lay it out exactly on the
t-shirt to place it exactly and then rotary cut around it. Pick a good
quality fusible so it fuses well and will stay fused, take time and patience
to smoothly lay out your cut piece on the fusible. I placed a towel over
the t-shirts because of the printing and pressed, not ironed, then turned
over to press from the backside to make sure it was fused. I found a navy
blue background with pin-point dots of all colors for the sashing. I was
very lucky to find it and it pulled all the colors together. I tied it off,
but stippling or what Roberta did sounds wonderful. Personally I would be
afraid to tackle something of that size on my regular machine.

Lastly, go slow. I had help of the person whose t-shirts they were, and
they wanted to rush, but after almost messing one shirt up from not taking
the time to cut well, and smooth evenly, she slowed down as well.

Just my experience. Hope it is helpful.

Steven
Alaska


"Roberta" Roberta@Home wrote in message
news
I've made one, for a similar occasion. The main problem is controlling
the stretch. Find a very soft woven cotton fusible and use that to
back the knit squares.
A secondary issue is proportion. T shirt logos come in all sizes. Make
sure you have enough shirts to be able to pick squares that look
nicely balanced. You might want to find out which ones are the most
important to her and use those as your baseline. 9.5" squares are a
good size to work with and will be big enough for most logos. But if
all the logos are bigger or smaller, be flexible. You could combine
smaller logo squares into one as well, but the knit seams tend to be
bulky. Find a nice cotton for sashing that will help to pull all the
colors together. The width of the sashing can be anything you like.
For 9" (finished size) blocks, I'd probably cut 2.5" sashing strips
(to finish at 2"). Sashing has the added advantage of smoothing out
the seams: you can press everything toward the sashing strip.
I quilted mine, free motion feather wreaths around each logo. But
tying would be quite OK if you prefer.
Roberta in D

On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:20:20 -0500, (Connie
Einarson) wrote:

I have never made a T-shirt quilt. I don't know anything about how to
even begin. Now I have been asked to make one for a very dear friend.
I contacted all of my quilty friends locally and none have them have any
experience with them either.

This quilt would be for a very dear friend who recently lost her 33 yo
son very tragically. The son was my daughters closest friend all
through school. His sisters have asked me to make a quilt from his
favorite t-shirts for his mom. I hesitate to tackle this unless I know
what I am doing. This group is so wise and diverse so I am hoping that
you can talk me through the project. Bear in mind that I know nothing
about making a quilt from t-shirt fabric.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me!

Connie from ND

I've never made one but this was the first thing that came up when I
googled "t-shirt quilt how to":
http://www.straw.com/quilting/articles/teequilts_how.html. It looks
helpful & I suspect there are lots of other articles out there.

Julia in MN

On 8/17/2010 9:20 AM, Connie Einarson wrote:
I have never made a T-shirt quilt. I don't know anything about how to
even begin. Now I have been asked to make one for a very dear friend.
I contacted all of my quilty friends locally and none have them have any
experience with them either.

This quilt would be for a very dear friend who recently lost her 33 yo
son very tragically. The son was my daughters closest friend all
through school. His sisters have asked me to make a quilt from his
favorite t-shirts for his mom. I hesitate to tackle this unless I know
what I am doing. This group is so wise and diverse so I am hoping that
you can talk me through the project. Bear in mind that I know nothing
about making a quilt from t-shirt fabric.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me!

Connie from ND


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