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Quilts made from tee shirts

Quilts made from tee shirts

Old 04-16-2010, 02:10 PM
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I would like to make a quilt for my grandson who will be graduating from high school next spring. He has been involved in many sports and has many tee shirts with logos. Has anyone made a quilt like this, I don't even know where to start.
I make regular quilts, but am sure there are certain ways to give body to the knit material etc. Thank you from Ohio
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Old 04-16-2010, 02:13 PM
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Type in T shirt quilts in the search at the top of the page. There are lots of them and lots of ideas.
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Old 04-16-2010, 02:15 PM
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You will need to iron some fusible stabilizer onto the back of the Tshirt before piecing it.

Google T shirt quilts but here is a how to:

http://www.straw.com/quilting/articl...uilts_how.html
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Old 04-16-2010, 02:53 PM
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wow, it seems to be the big thing to make, there has been a lot of talk about tee shirt quilts. I have yet to make one.
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Old 04-16-2010, 06:29 PM
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My daughter loves her quilt. I saved memorable tees from birth to graduation from college. They are tricky because they tend to stretch. You must put a fusible backing on each tee. Did mine like a crazy quilt. It turned to be very heavy so i only used minimal batting. good luck.
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Old 04-16-2010, 08:06 PM
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Originally Posted by Oklahoma Suzie
wow, it seems to be the big thing to make, there has been a lot of talk about tee shirt quilts. I have yet to make one.
They are not hard! You just have to stabilize the material with fusible lightweight interfacing.
I've made 5 of them. Some with each shirt cut to size of the design and several with all one size block. The "floaters" are nicer looking in my opinion but the grid ones looked good too. In fact, my machine quilting lady called today to say two of them were ready for pickup! Can't wait to see them as they're for the wife of our school baseball coach (all his team shirts)!

My daughter took one for her college dorm (my avatar). The back side is also t-shirts, but they float on a teal background. She really loves it!
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Old 04-16-2010, 08:11 PM
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I love the one on your profile. It is so different from the normal t-shirt quilt. I like the small blocks.
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Old 04-16-2010, 09:01 PM
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Originally Posted by booklady
The "floaters" are nicer looking in my opinion but the grid ones looked good too.
What do you mean by floating the t-shirts? I can't figure out what this is or how you do it.
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Old 04-17-2010, 04:05 PM
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Originally Posted by Prism99
Originally Posted by booklady
The "floaters" are nicer looking in my opinion but the grid ones looked good too.
What do you mean by floating the t-shirts? I can't figure out what this is or how you do it.
When I cut all the shirt designs in one size and set them in a grid pattern, that's my grid design.

other times I cut the shirt design to fit the design and all the shirt pieces might be different sizes. I then set them up with a solid color sashing and no specific grid pattern. I call that floaters because the shirts seem to float on the background.

You can see from my avatar that the shirts are all different sizes. They are cut with a three inch grid in mind. The shirts are 3, 6, 9, 12, 15" by 3 , 6 9, 12, 15. All cutting measurements are divisible by 3". Then I lay out a pattern using grid paper. I use "sticky notes" cut to the shirt design and play with the grid pattern and the sticky notes untill all the shirts have a spot. Then I measure my sashing to fit in between. On the avatar quilt top the 3" squares were used in the sashing. The back side uses a teal fabric for the sashing. I'll check my computer to see if I have better pictures that might show this.

My first try was to cut all shirts according to design, then figure out the sashing. This was a geometric nightmare because there was no rhyme or reason to sizes. Then I got smarter and cut the shirt designs on a 2" or 3" grid. The sashing was much easier.

Again, I'll look for some photos to show this better.
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Old 04-17-2010, 04:19 PM
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I found a couple pictures. See how the shirts are different sizes and the sashing just fills in between them. The shirts seem to "float" on the background.

Others are made where all shirts are cut the same size and set together on a grid 4 across, 5 down type thing. I'll have a photo of one of those as soon as I visit my machine quilter on Wednesday to pick them up!

The design in my avatar is also a floater. The only difference is that the sashing is made of charm squares rather than a solid fabric.

this is what I call a "floater"
[ATTACH=CONFIG]63573[/ATTACH]
Attached Thumbnails attachment-63568.jpe  
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