Quilting a T-Shirt Quilt, simply
 

I just made 2 T-Shirt quilts for a friend and had the Queen size one longarmed. I also made a large lap quilt out of the left over shirts and don't feel I can afford another longarm expense. I cannot free motion quilt! I have tried and tried with no luck. Not even meandering.

The blocks are 16". How would you quilt this easily? It has to be done soon as she is moving south.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

Jan

What kind of batting are you using? Some batts don't need close quilting, but at 16", I think those blocks are going to need SOME quilting. Even if you tied it, you'd have to tie in strategic places within the blocks.

What about big stitch quilting? It's by hand, but since it's big stitch, it goes a lot faster than traditional hand quilting.

What about quilt as you go? You can use sashing between the blocks.

It depends on the batting. Can you mark diagonal lines to stitch and cross hatch it?? Just don't stitch thru any of the painted parts on the t-shirts. Wish you had posted a photo.

The quilt top is all put together. I hate tied quilts. One of my problems is that most of the designs take up the whole space. I was thinking about quilting a couple of lines in each block, alternating between vertical and horizontal. Do you think that would look alright?

I just finished a t-shirt quilt. It had sashing between each shirt so I quilted in the ditch around each shirt on both sides of the sashing. Then I quilted an X through each shirt going right through the printing on the shirt. it didn't seem to cause any problems. I used painter's tape to mark the X. I also stitched in the ditch around the outside borders.

I have some of the left over backs. I think I will try out your ideas on them. Thank you!

How about just some straight line quilting? Top to bottom. Left to right.

Actually, I was thinking about that. I need to get this quilt done as she is moving soon.