Originally Posted by Manalto

I'm making a tee-shirt (T-shirt?) quilt for someone as a favor. (Quilts with words on them are not my cup of tea, so I've procrastinated for over a year and have got to get to it.) The quilt commemorates 20 or so years of a charity run, so there are 20+ shirts of various bright colors, some with the year printed on them, some without. I bought some bright batik to harmonize with the various colors of shirts as sashing, and I know about using the iron-on interfacing to stabilize the knitted fabric, but beyond that, I could use some advice.
- Should I orient all the shirt-patches in the same direction and place them in chronological order (so they read like a page, beginning at upper left? There are various sponsors printed on the backs of the shirts, too. They plan to hang the quilt in Town Hall, which may make an orderly arrangement more desirable; on the other hand, it may be more fun for people to peruse the quilt to pick out the pieces they're looking for.)
- Should I go for random patches of tee-shirt, turned in various directions and cut various sizes? (More work and calculating, I know)
- Is sashing a good idea? It does "tame down" the vividly-colored shirts a bit by picking up their colors.
- All these pieces potentially add up to a huge quilt. What's a good size limit? (I have to quilt it - probably SID - on a domestic machine.)
- What about all the leftover tee-shirt pieces? Any use for them?

Sorry for the multiple questions, but I've got to get some momentum going on this before I disappoint those who are waiting for it. Responses to any of these questions - or suggestions on how to proceed - are much appreciated!