Originally Posted by feline fanatic

I would never attempt to hand quilt a T-shirt quilt especially if doing an all over design. UGH. Kudos to you for taking the job on. I would have kindly declined that job. You could try not interfacing the T-shirts but I have only seen one T-shirt quilt done without interfacing and it was, quite frankly, pretty awful. Load of ripples, puckers, pleats and distortions from where the T-shirts stretched out of shape in assembly. Although some people have most likely done a better job. I think there is someone who does them on line without using the interfacing.

Aside from an all over, I have made many Harley motorcycle T-shirt quilts. Until I got my LA I hand tied them every 3" with three strands of embroidery floss. Now I LA them. The imprints used were hard enough to get a heavy duty embroidery needle through for hand tying. Why not just quilt around the imprints to get them to pop, instead of making yourself go crazy with an all over design.

Another thing to consider is the weight of the quilt. T-shirt quilts are heavy with or without interfacing. I would think the weight of the quilt, especially when being laundered will be very likely to break and pull out your hand quilting stitches. I think you should get your client to reconsider or get them to sign a release so they fully understand that the handquilting may not hold up due to the nature of a T-shirt quilt so they don't start bad mouthing your work around town if the quilting starts coming apart. That may just get them to change their mind on the MUST be hand quilted part.

For transferring a design you could use Saral wax free transfer paper in white or carbon or Transdoodle transfer paper. Dressmaker's carbon may not come out as it is made to be used on the back of the fabric in dressmaking.