Long Arm Quilters
 

I’ll be ready to load my t-shirt quilt on mylongarm in the next week or so.I havenot yet quilted one on my long arm and I am looking for any do’s, donts and allthe tips you guys can give me!Thank you so much!

When I longarm quilt T-shirt quilts I never stitch through the decals. I go around them, in & out- however I can to stabilize everything without stitching through the rubbery stuff. I use warm & natural or a like batting that allows up to 10” between quilting lines. Lengthen the stitch length a little bit and smooth it- don’t stretch it tight. Hopefully it will already be pretty well stabilized- you don’t want to stretch the T-shirt fabric and cause distortion and waves .

Unlike Ckcowl, I have no issues quilting through the logos. I feel if they are screen printed ink there is no issues but if they are the rubbery type transfers, like the kind commonly found in tourist traps or mall shops where they put the emblem on while you wait, you could have issues. Most high quality t-shirts like harley shirts and shirts made for concerts and special events are screen printed not the rubbery style transfer that cracks and peels over time.

Here are links to two where I quilted right over the tshirt logos. One was an all over working from the front of the machine that my friend pieced (and was also my first T-shirt quilt done on the LA), the other was a panto working from the back that I pieced. Both were double sided. I had no issues at all. I have done many others, these are the only two I have posted pics of.

https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictur...ts-t95274.html

https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictur...t-t209647.html

I have no issues quilting over the screen printed t-shirts on my longarm. I use a size 18 needle, stitch length of 12 and Omni thread with magna glide bobbins. I always do a free motion a edge to edge with a simple large meander and never use dense quilting. If there are shirts with plastic type graphics I quilt around these close to the logo but not over the plastic. I also discourage the use of these plastic type shirts to the ladies I know that make t-shirt quilts. I linked a good video of Lisa Capen quilting a t-shirt quilt, she makes and quilts lots of them. I love all her videos, she is a great teacher.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w72E8qdFMqs&t=1s

I also have no issues quilting through screen printed (ink) logos, I try to avoid the rubbery logs, but if I need to quilt through one due to bat requirements (I go for a bat that allows less dense quilting) I will slow way down. Generally I will do an E2E or a Border2Border on t-shirt quilts--the attraction on them is the logos and memories they hold.

i am one that doesn't sew through the logo on the shirt i go around them.