T-Shirt Quilt - Rescue me!
 

My niece (who doesn't sew a stitch) has asked me to "help" her make a T-shirt quilt. Glad to do it. Recently emailed her some instructions on preparing the T-shirts based on information that I gathered from all you helpful quilters here on the Board. I have only made 1 T-shirt quilt for my 3 time NCAA wresting champ nephew. It has a prize position on his bed and is greatly loved.

Back to my niece - apparently, most of her shirts are the rubberized raised logos, which I told her we couldn't use (again, based on the recommendations from this Board, which I totally understand and agree with). She has emailed back to me questioning why we can't use rubberized T-shirts when she has seen other rubberized T-shirt quilts owned by her friends.

Now, I have been quilting for over 30 years. I am not a novice. However, I fully understand that quilting through rubberized fabric can not only break my needles, but can also throw off the timing of my machines. I have a Bernina 630 and a Juki 2010Q. I have paid too much for these machines to risk causing damage.

Do any of you more experienced T-shirt quilt makers have any advice or suggestions? I would really like to help her out, but I know that most of the work and the quilting will rest on my shoulders. Please rescue me!

One option is to make a tied quilt, rather than quilting it with one of your machines. You'd have to use a batting that allows moderately wide spacing, of course.

I have quilted T-shirt quilts for clients that have used the rubberized shirts. I always have to do a type of meander that allows me to avoid quilting over the graphics. For a longarm this is easy to do but for a domestic machine it would present lots of problems. just my 2 cents

I do exactly like pewa88 does--if the logo is bigger than recommended with the batting, I think you could still quilt it if you went very slowly. I'd also recommend you use a larger needle--might want to check with your machine store on what would work best with your machines.

I vote for tying the quilt. If your neice has no sewing experience, this will be perfect for her. I personally love the casual, homey look of tied quilts and t-shirt quilt is perfect for this. IMHO!

Just tell her that if she wants to use the rubberized shirts, you won't be able to do it on your machine. There's no reason to ruin an expensive machine just because someone who doesn't quilt and doesn't understand the harm that can be done to your machine wants you to.

Sewing through the rubberized fabric slows down the needle penetration just enough to throw the timing out of whack... causing lots of skipped stitches. I wouldn't sew through it, either.

Totally agree with not quilting through them. I’m a longarmer and won’t sew through them. The stitching isn’t as good and the one t-shirt that I did quilt through, the stitching ended up coming apart after several washings. Lesson learned. I will stitch around the logos, but not over them. Unless the rubberized logo covers the entire shirt, stitching around them will work just fine. Plus, stitching around it “puffs” it up, making the logo stand out.

You could piece it and send it out to be quilted

I've made abut a dozen t-shirt quilts and have not had a problem quilting the rubberized shirts. It's the puffy paint that gives me fits