Help Requested for T-Shirt Block Placement With Various Sizes
 

I am making my son a quilt using aviation-themed T-Shirts he has collected for over 20+ years. The designs have been cut out but are a variety of sizes. I have attached a list of the shirt designs and their sizes. Can anyone give me some help in arranging the blocks in the best placement. I know I will have to add borders to get some of them up to size comparable to others but not sure how to go about all this. He wanted the Warbirds of America shirt in the middle of the quilt.

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This quilt is stressing me out!! ;););) Thanks for looking over this mess.

Winnie Fleming makes t shirt quilts using "fillers" between uneven blocks. This class might help you. I got to see some of her quilts in person years ago & they were beautiful.

https://shop.mybluprint.com/quilting...rt-quilt/37500

The biggest problem I see is that most of your sizes do not have a common denominator and a few that are primes (the 13 and 17) so not evenly divisible by anything. The only option you have is to use filler strips like osewme suggested. I would lay them out on a design wall or bed in the placement you (or your son) wants and start measuring for your filler strips. Don't forget the seam allowance. I did that when I made this quilt: https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictures-f5/double-sided-t-shirt-quilt-t209647.html but even on this one most of my shirts were cut to sizes that were evenly divisible by 3 so I had (in finished sizes) 3 x 3, 6 x 12, 12 x 12, 12 x 15, etc. so I was able to sew the quilt together in quadrants. The devil fishing shirt was the one odd size and I used filler strips. The shadow box layout helped too.

I made a hockey quilt with all different sizes, I have made numerous T-shirt quilts but I think the hockey one is the only one I have a picture of. I’ve always used different sizes. I just lay them out in a ( pleasing to me) way then figure out what I need to do to put it together

You might try putting 4 blocks together into a larger unit. Then add sashing as needed to make a consistent block size.

I would cut colored paper to match the sizes and play with the layout.

Are the block sizes in a portrait or landscape mode? You may need to add sashing to just one or two sides to get the measurement you need for block sizes.

Good luck. It sounds like a fun project!

Rather than "play" with life size blocks, I would cut them out of 1/8" or 1/4" graph paper, with one square per inch, using a solid piece of graph paper to lay them out. Do the sizes of your current list reflect the actual size that you interfaced and cut, or just the size of the center motif? If possible you may have to trim some of them down to fit or add not only sashing but more or less shirts. Just play with it like you are arranging furniture in a room.

When I made my T-Shirt quilt I had many different sizes, and put them out so I could see then and arranged them large on the bottom and small on the top. Then added fabric to fill in between them. My T-shirts had an image on the front, and one on the back. So the large back ones went on the bottom of the quilt, and the small ones went on the top. I used T-shirt fabric, and cotton fabric to fill in. Then free motion quilted it. Some of the images were animals and I wanted them to be outlined. And changed thread colors often.

Thank you all for the suggestions. I will begin laying them out on the bed tomorrow. My design wall isn’t big enough to put them all out. Wish me luck!

I use this video when I am doing t-shirt quilts: How to Make a Collage T-shirt Quilt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW6vlC-qr4Q. Good luck on your t-shirt quilt and we would love to see it when you get it done.

this will be a rather large quilt based on those block sizes. I've made lots of t-shirt quilts that have different size blocks and have found that the best way to figure your lay-out is to simply lay the blocks out on a bed. That way you can play with the background colors and size at the same time. Not sure why, but it always makes more sense to me to do these type of t-shirt quilts as strip quilts instead of rows. Your goal is to not have any Y seams. Once I've kinda of figured out a layout, I then get my EQ8(used to use graph paper which works fine too) and sketch it in so that I have a better idea of the filler strip sizes I need. Good luck and post a picture.

I had that same problem and put blocks in to fill the spaces.[ATTACH=CONFIG]620719[/ATTACH]

An excellent idea and I'd go one further, print pictures of the t-shirts and arrange those first! Much easier than moving the shirts around??

If these are true sizes, it looks like your blocks will need to be 17 x 17. . I would either take a few out (perhaps make a couple pillows) or consider using a few in the backing. It doesn't appear any are small enough to combine, so you just need to make them all bigger to fit the 17 x 17. You can either frame the smaller ones and place them randomly around the quilt - - make them bigger and then use a sashing for all to tie it all together. You can use as small as 1" sashing so it doesn't add too much more to size. I would then frame it out with a 2" frame matching the sashing color. The only other thing I would consider is, if the shirts tend to all be the same color, but the logos are of various colors, consider adding cornerstones to the sashing of all the colors to brighten it up without detracting from the prints. I use the thinnest of battings or even flannel as batting because of the extra weight of the t-shirts and interfacing. Also, I quilt down the sashings and usually just do some sort of echo stitching around the logos. This secures them and highlights the logo. I think the most important thing with a t-shirt quilt is to think of it in stages. Do not think about the whole thing at once, it can be overwhelming. Think about fusing and cutting the shirts, arranging the layout, framing the blocks, assembling the rows, etc. At each stage, pat yourself on the back and think of what you have done. This sense of accomplishment goes a long way to keeping us going on a huge project! Please post pics when you are done, we would love to see it!!