I've been carting them around every time I move and I'm very tired of that. So about a year ago, I dragged out the box under the bed, washed all the shirts, and cut them up. I read a bit about making t-shirt quilts first, but really, I kinda winged it. I wanted an irregular quilt without uniform block, so I just cut up the blocks to match the designs on the shirts.
The borders around the block are all flannel scraps leftover from numerous rag quilts. This quilt was completely stash. Even the binding, border, and backing. I had some sheeting size flannel in cream that is on the back. Between the t-shirts, batting, and flannel borders and backing, this is a very heavy quilt. But the upside is that it is wonderfully soft and cuddly.
I quilted it in a large, 2-inch grid pattern.
If I had my good machine while I was quilting this one, I might have been more ambitious and tried echo quilting or free motion quilting it. But the grid worked pretty well for this quilt. Now I just have that box of college t-shirts under my bed...
AWESOME! Did you use interfacing on the tshirts?
ReplyDeleteYep. I used it on all the blocks. I've forgotten what weight it was, but I think it was a medium weight. If I had to do it again, I'd use a lighter weight. The interfacing definitely helped make it easier to work with. There was still some stretching that made quilting difficult, but the interfacing greatly reduced it.
ReplyDeleteA friend of my daughters did this with her sorority t-shirts from college. It is a neat idea. You did a great job. I know you are from NC because of the NCHSAA on the t-shirts.
ReplyDeleteGO TARHEELS!!
Oh no, Nana! You're not going to like my college t-shirt quilt that I'm working on! All the shirts are from... Duke. :)
ReplyDeleteThis quilt looks great! I think the grid quilting is perfect as you didn't want to obscure the designs on the shirts.
ReplyDelete