This is my first post on anything. I'm new to quilting, but not sewing. My son is leaving for college and I've been saving all of his sports t-shirts since he was 5. I'm making his Journey quilt. I backed every shirt on Pellon 906F and there is a 1 & 1/2 inch sashing around the shirts. It's all sewn together and ready for quilting. I have a new quilting machine and I've been practicing on a mock quilt. I've got the meander stitch down pretty good. I was originally going to meander just the shirts and do something different in the sashing, but I meandered across the sashing (on the mock quilt) and it looks nice also. So if I decide to do the entire quilt in meander, do I still stitch the ditch along the sashing first or do I forgo that whole ditch part? Will it be stable if I don't stitch the ditch? I'm so confused and my brain hurts from reading the entire internet and not finding an answer. Any input would be fantastic!!

Don't know, but am interested to learn the answer. If it wasn't a T-shirt quilt, I'd guess you could forgo the sitd if you meander the sashing. But maybe the T-shirt quilts need extra fortification?

I just don't know. The t-shirts are pretty stable. I just don't want to make another mock quilt. It's a pain to put the pellon on and sew the whole thing together for practice. I just don't want to mess up his quilt.

If you meander over the entire quilt,you won't need to stitch in the ditch. That meandering will hold everything in place very well.

Do you think it would pull the sashing out of alignment if I just do the meander? There is a bit of a stretch to the shirts that can't be helped even with the pellon.

Welcome to the board from Southern California!

Don't make it too hard by over thinking. If your using good quality materials and you feel comfortable with your meander...Go for It and send it on its merry way. =) I'm sure your son knows where to bring it IF it has an issue later on. =)

Welcome from Central California!

Welcome from NYS.

Hello from Atlanta, GA. I've made 2 t-shirt quilts (for sons)--first one had sashing and second did not. Like you, I used Pellon on the back for stability; for me, it was easier to cut and sew. I did allow my quilting to go into the sashing and I did not stitch the ditch. This decision was made by the batting I used. Check your requirements on the batting. I use 100% cotton or 80/20 blend, and that particular quilt batting required quilting at least 5" apart. Theme: Harley shirts documenting my son's ride to the West coast thus HD emblems for the quilting pattern. The second quilt--used Pellon, used batting that required quilting at least 10" apart, and randomly attached the t-shirts (no sashing, non-symmetrical). I enjoyed this one more because it allowed me to be more random with my quilting. I quilted each t-shirt section with its own design--echoing a decal, diagonal lines, meandering, etc. The variety made it more fun for me.

Good luck and remember to share pictures!