What brand/type of stabilizer do you use? I made a t-shirt quilt and hated it since everything stretched out so much and was a pain. Obviously someone thought of a way to fix that, and I've had people ask about me making them t-shirt quilts, so the stabilizer would really really help.

Thanks

I am working on a memory quilt and of course there were T-shirts! I used Pellon Iron on interfacing . They show on the plastic liner that it s to be used for interfacing in blouses etc. I used it on the t-shirts and it is less floppy but still soft. I liked the effect.

On the knit pieces, use a stabilizer meant for knits. After many failures with the Pellon-types, the best ones I found for general sewing with knits are Fusi-knit and French Fuse, which are both virtually the same-- a fusible tricot knit. Read the directions carefully so that you fully fuse the interfacing without scorching. It is usually available at my local Hancock's, but can also be found online. This product is very lightweight, but it does a great job of stabilizing without stiffness or bubbling.

I've been tossing around ideas for my mother's memory quilt. She's been gone almost 2 years already and I still haven't thought of a good pattern yet. Earlier, someone had the suggestion to mix the shirt pieces with pieced blocks. I think that would be cute. Someone else said to frame them in fabric and that would be good too...have to make sure it's not too busy.

I would sit down with her and explain the process of piecing. Perhaps this is something you could talk about and cut the pieces together. She would be educated on the amount of time, patience, and thought go into just the idea of a quilt, before anything is cut and pieced. Perhaps with the two of you sitting down and working on it together, it has the potential to catch that contagious quilting bug, and two work on a first project with just the two of you.

I see the potential for a wonderful combination of what you both could do together.

Thank you all for ur wonderful suggestions! My DIL told me today that she would like a twin size quilt. The problem is she lives in PA and I live in FL. We were visiting when she made the request, so I brought the bag home with me. I even had a nightmare about it last night. Oh well, I'll figure out something. Thanks also for the fusible suggestions. Most of the clothes are the little onesies in stretchy fabric. The grandbaby has more clothes than me! I actually was thinking of using the Crazy Eights pattern and then I could use logos and fabric. Not sure yet. Or a block with different fabrics in a frame around it.

For me, a LOT of my response and interest in the project would depend on how I was asked.

Someone just tossing a huge bag of clothes at me would not be a good way to get things started.

If you're going to do the quilt for your DIL (and she's so far away from you), why not go for the Crazy 8 pattern. It's fun and she probably doesn't have any idea what is necessary--she just knows that you quilt :).
Be as creative as you want and I'm sure they will be grateful. Obviously she already has faith in you :lol:
Definitely stabilize though, or life will be horrible for you with all the stretching.
If you want/need to bounce off ideas--do it on this QB there is so much expertise out here :) :) I love the inspiration I get from here.

Could someone send me a link to what a Crazy 8 pattern is? I google-image-d it online and there didn't seem to be a unifying pattern, or I'm missing it.

I would suggest something simple for this quilt. Save the complicated patterns for when you have quilting fabric :)

Try this web site: http://store.besewhappy.com/servlet/...Pattern/Detail

Gotcha, thanks!