Dealing with big quilts in small workspaces?
#11
Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 160
My thoughts are - are some of the T-shirts your sister's & some belong to her husband? If so, how about making 2 lap size quilts - 1 for her & 1 for him? Traditionally T-shirt quilts are heavy and I don't think they will be able to handle a king size quilt. I also agree that maybe you could cut the T-shirts smaller. Just some suggestions for you to think about.
#12
Super Member
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Homosassa, FL
Posts: 2,267
I'm in the process of finishing a 106 X 116 quilt. I quilted it on my sewing machine and the edges I did on my embroidery machine. For the life of me I can't get the hang of QAYG. My next quilt is going to be thinking outside the box that will also be kind size so any suggestions for QAYG would be greatly appreciated
Try her method, no bindings to sew between pieces. Let us know how you like it. Sounds easy.
#13
Playing devils advocate here but are you sure you want to make a king size quilt? Will they really use it on their bed? Usually a t-shirt quilt is geared toward one person, so a lap/snuggle/over the back of the couch size may make more sense in the long run. Could you somehow make those blocks smaller, not sure as much blank t0shirt space, trim more to the design? Just a thought, unless you are determined to go king.
My thoughts are - are some of the T-shirts your sister's & some belong to her husband? If so, how about making 2 lap size quilts - 1 for her & 1 for him? Traditionally T-shirt quilts are heavy and I don't think they will be able to handle a king size quilt. I also agree that maybe you could cut the T-shirts smaller. Just some suggestions for you to think about.
One thing I'm considering is making the top in quarters, then sewing those together. That should keep thing more manageable then working row by row.
And thanks everyone for the advice so far. Keep it coming.
Last edited by Kelly_Y; 06-22-2015 at 10:41 AM.
#14
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Central Florida
Posts: 1,888
My friend does king quilts and this is what she does: She puts together a row and quilts it (using her embroidery machine). Then she adds the next row and quilts that. Then the next. That way you are only working on one row at a time and the bulk is to your left not under the machine. She has done 4 quilts this way.
otherwise, doing it in quarters may be the easiest.
otherwise, doing it in quarters may be the easiest.
Last edited by Cherylsea; 06-22-2015 at 10:56 AM. Reason: additon
#15
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: New England
Posts: 865
My friend does king quilts and this is what she does: She puts together a row and quilts it (using her embroidery machine). Then she adds the next row and quilts that. Then the next. That way you are only working on one row at a time and the bulk is to your left not under the machine. She has done 4 quilts this way.
otherwise, doing it in quarters may be the easiest.
otherwise, doing it in quarters may be the easiest.
For the big t-shirt quilt, I would suggest quilting each block by itself, all three layers. Then join rows and columns with thin sashing strips. There are plenty of tutorials on the internet.
#16
My hands don't like most of the QAYG methods. However, I do have some really friendly LQS's and once a top was finished I called and made an appointment to use their large class tables to layout my sandwich and baste. [Before I had my HQ, of course.] Then I just rolled it all up and used my DSM.
With using my DSM I had a small table or ironing board behind my sewing cabinet and a small adjustable table to my left. This gave me ample room to just do FMQ or whatever.
With using my DSM I had a small table or ironing board behind my sewing cabinet and a small adjustable table to my left. This gave me ample room to just do FMQ or whatever.
#18
Super Member
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Central Wisconsin
Posts: 4,391
They asked for a quilt for their bed and I did promise them one. Not going to back out on that. I've made a tee shirt quilt for my own double bed in the past. It did end up on the heavy side, but I think that has more to do with using too much batting.
One thing I'm considering is making the top in quarters, then sewing those together. That should keep thing more manageable then working row by row.
And thanks everyone for the advice so far. Keep it coming.
One thing I'm considering is making the top in quarters, then sewing those together. That should keep thing more manageable then working row by row.
And thanks everyone for the advice so far. Keep it coming.
Playing devils advocate here but are you sure you want to make a king size quilt? Will they really use it on their bed? Usually a t-shirt quilt is geared toward one person, so a lap/snuggle/over the back of the couch size may make more sense in the long run. Could you somehow make those blocks smaller, not sure as much blank t0shirt space, trim more to the design? Just a thought, unless you are determined to go king.
Originally Posted by KittyD
My thoughts are - are some of the T-shirts your sister's & some belong to her husband? If so, how about making 2 lap size quilts - 1 for her & 1 for him? Traditionally T-shirt quilts are heavy and I don't think they will be able to handle a king size quilt. I also agree that maybe you could cut the T-shirts smaller. Just some suggestions for you to think about.
I'm with these quotes. It will be huge. You could take four of those squares and make pillow cases or sham covers. Two on each sham. Or you could make them double sided; that would use eight of the squares. I just think the quilt will be huge with them all in one quilt.
#20
Being a computer guy by day, I hit on a solution for the problem of having no space big enough to lay out the whole top.
I've got a setup for photographing the squares as I finish them, and I'm loading them into an image editor as layers to lay them out digitally. Like so:
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