T-shirt quilt nightmares
 

I am making a t-shirt quilt for a friend to give as a Christmas present to her daughter. I have it put together and have started SITD today....the thing is SO heavy and bulky (16 shirts). It measures about 76" x 76". Because there is so much surface on the t-shirts themselves I feel like I need to do some kind of stitching on them to help stablize the fabric. I have never done any FMQ before. And I'm not sure I want to "practice" on this project. I keep watching the videos and they make it look so easy. Does anyone have any other suggestions. I keep having this vision/nightmare that I am going to wash this thing and the t-shirts are coming apart. (they do have interfacing on the backs) I'm so ready to get this done...it hasn't been one that I am enjoying working on....nothing but blue/white/gray. Thanks so much for any suggestions.
Lisa

This is probably not the project to start free motion quilting on. You can probably add a little cross hatching to the t-shirts.

I saw a t-shirt quilt at a quilt show this past weekend that was pretty neat.
They treated each shirt with different stitching. Several of them were basically outlined/stitched around whatver the design was. It looked good to me.

Maybe if you stitch in the ditch, then maybe a little stitching around the design or make your own OR using embroidery thread tie the center of each block?

Cross-hatching would work well, as would the echo quilting mentioned above. Two things to remember are that your stitches will practically disappear into the quilt, especially after it is washed, because the T-shirt material is so squishy - and therefore any slight errors you may happen to make will be virtually undetectable - and that you DO NOT want to quilt over the plastic/paint/latex that makes up the logo or design, as this will gum up your needle, give you weird uneven stitches, break your thread and generally make you wish you hadn't tried it. (Ask me how I know.)

Tiresome to you as it is now, I am sure that the finished quilt will give great joy to the person receiving it!

Alison

You also might have better luck using a ballpoint needle. It's worth a shot at least if you find you're skipping stitches.

I would not try to FMQ that monster. Probably would quilt over all the seams with a narrow zigzag stitch and echo stitch around the t-shirt logos. I have done echo stitching with my walking foot, going slowly and using the kneebar to lift up the presser foot often to adjust place. I would stitch just once around the major logo. Because of the fusible, that should be enough quilting ***provided*** you use a batting that does not require a lot of quilting. I would probably use Quilter's Dream request weight cotton (the thinnest one) to keep the bulk under the machine arm as small as possible and also to keep the quilt's weight within reason.

could you have done it like a quilt as go instead,well easy to attach rolls of blocks togather

Thank you all for your wonderful advise. Miss Kira thank you for the needle advise...as I was having skipped stitch issues yesterday. I changed the needle twice and had to tear out some stitching. UGH!! Although to late now, I never gave QAYG a thought....I was thinking about embroidering the kids (gift will be for my friends daughter and SIL) names on the blocks that have a lot of surface area???

I have done T Shirt quilts on my longarm and I meandered all over it, no problem, if you are doing with a DM, I can see where there would be a lot of drag on the quilt.. Good luck

I think it would be impossible to do on a DM...it is just SO heavy and bulky. Just doing the SITD is hard enough. I honestly don't think I will EVER do another t-shirt quilt. I SO want to be done. It is turning out nice..just a PAIN.