Barb_MO

I am wanting to make some t-shirt quilts but only have a 9 in. harp machine on a very small frame so would have trouble quilting one on that set-up.
Wondering if anyone ever added sashing strip between the t-shirt blocks and put the quilt together like a raggy quilt and clipped the seam and let it fray?
I was thinking about another option past sewing wrong sides together and fraying and letting the fuzzy seams stand up. What about, once the seam is sewn, press it to the side or open it and topstitch it down and then either let it fray naturally or clip it? Since the sashing would be regular cotton I thought if I topstitched the seams it would not put too much stress on the sashing fabric and be stronger.
I was also thinking of using double sashing of school colors so the frayed edges would have a mixture of the school colors.

ckcowl

the *thing* about your 'raggy' idea is---the t=shirt fabrics will not fray/rag. if you are planning on using regular cottons for sashings and the sashings what you clip that would probably work out ok- I think It would make a pretty cool quilt. I like t-shirt quilts (and have quilted a couple of them with my regular domestic machine-no frame- just the machine I pieced it with; without any real problems) but doing a quilt as you go would be a good option- since the stabilized t-shirts are quite heavy I would back my sashing strips with a layer of flannel- to help with the frayed edges and to add some weight/body to the strips. I hope you show us pictures when you get it done- people are gonna Love it!

Barb_MO

Thanks you ckcowl. I use pellon light iron on to stabilize the shirts and I can use it on the sashing strips, but thought about using double thickness of the sashing strips. I don't use flannel because I don't like how it sometimes curl up instead of fraying.
If I were to using the backs of the t-shirts with stabilizer for the backing on each square, would I need batting?

ragquilter

If you want the quilt to be really thick and heavy, you could use batting but 2 thicknesses of t-shirt and stabilizer would be pretty hefty. If you are going to go with the rag quilt method, you would not need to add sashing. I always double stitch all my rag seams, including outside edges for strength. I think it would make your t-shirt quilt look neat and you would not be wasting the backs of the shirts.

feline fanatic

Have you considered tying it? I tied many a T-shirt quilt and used Fat Batt and they came out great. Here is a link to a picture http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...lt-t47094.html

I tie every 3" on the 12" block. I cut out a 3" square of felt and used it as a guide for placing my ties.

GailG

I've already used cotton sashing around t-shirts. (Each shirt square is sashed on all four sides.) I think it would work well to sew sashings together in the ragged fashion. Also think it would work well to do the QAYG method. Tying is also a good option.

Barb_MO

Thanks, that is a nice quilt.