tshirt quilt question
 

I am a newbie at making tshirt quilts. I just made my niece 4 and she was very happy with them. A neighbor asked me to make her one and I am working on that one now - she is actually purchasing all of the materials and paying me cash for my time. So I am pretty happy about that

My question is when you all make tshirt quilts do you "piece" the tshirt blocks to make them all the same size? I look at pictures and its really hard to tell because the pictures are not up close.

The lady gave me 20 shirts and asked me to shirt blocks with sashing in between... like the "Traditional Styel T Shirt" quilt on this link http://goosetracks.com/TshirtQuilt.html (about half way down the page - this is the example that she gave me)

Her shirts are all different sizes and I think they will have to be pieced to keep the logo centered. Her shirts are not as similar as the one in this picture.

Do you guys piece them - or just not worry about the logos being centered?

I don't like them pieced and I don't like the logos off center either.... ugh

Please let me know your thoughts

Thank you!

show her the pics of the "variable" style and explain why you think she should allow that type of construction. I wouldn't care for the off center or pieced options either.

I've made 1! After I had cut/mounted all of the shirts I laid them out on the floor. Sat there and thought....holy crud what have I gotten myself into. Then I took a breath and arranged them the way I wanted.

Once arranged I:
sewed sashing onto each block within a row to make them all the same height. This meant some had wider sashing than others because some Tshirt fronts were small. After I sewed each row whatever height the tallest shirt was in that row I laid them out again.

Then, I took and looked at the columns. I had to then make the squares within the columns the same width. So, I looked at the widest one in a column and were that wide.

Now I had sashing on all 4 sides of each shirt, but they worked going across in rows and up/down in the columns.

Then I sewed a narrow strip of black between columns/rows. This helped the sashing not all run together. I also put a black narrow border around the outside of all the blocks.

I love it! I'm so proud that I was able to figure out this overwhelming task. I can't post a photo now. I'll come back later and do that so you can see what I did.

I'm sure there are easier ways, but I wasn't able to find anything as my shirts too were all different sizes to start with.

Be sure to look online at the t shirt quilt companies. The prices will astound you. Campusquilts is one of them. Whenever my Guild does an event in the community, we are constantly asked if anyone makes t shirt quilts. If you figure out a way and are happy making them it can be a money making venture.

I've only done one but the gal wanted them all the same size so I picked the biggest logo, cut it out with a decent space on all edges (centered) then made a paper template, I laid the paper (see thru) over all the other shirts to mark my cutting lines. some had more shirt around the logo and some had less but the pieces were all the same size, then added sashing, it was exactly like she wanted it. BTW, I only used interfacing on two that were very thin, the rest of them I did not and it was fine, just don't stretch. good luck

Occasionally I have had to piece blocks so that they are all a uniform size. I use fabric from the back of the tshirt so it's an exact match and the piecing is not that noticeable.

I cut my shirts to 14 1/2", so they're all uniform. Some logos take up all of the space, and some don't. Some are closer to the top of the square, than the bottom, but they're all centered. I've put various kinds of sashing in, depending on how large the client wants... usually a 2" sashing. My grand daughter didn't want sashing, and it was the hardest to figure out, as I cut out each logo and had to fit them together. I've had to do some piecing, but I, also, use the back of the tee shirt, and it's hardly noticeable at all. I quilt around the logos and do free motion quilting in the open spaces. The quilting also helps to detract from the piecing.

You can make a quilt with different size t-shirt, just line up the horizontally (same size) in a row. the vertical sashing will be straight across but the vertical will not line up. Wish I had taken a picture of the Betty Boop t-shirt quilt I made. A picture is worth a thousand words. I would try different layouts and take photos and see what she prefers.

Thank you for your responses...
This is what I did for my niece...from the back or the bottom. Put the bottom on the top to have the logo centered.

This is very close to what I did for my neice as well.. except the bigger logo filled up the area the smaller ones were way at the top so the bottom 3/4 of the block would just be tshirt - so cut the bottom and put on the top to even things out and put the logo in the middle

So if one logo was 10" and the other was 4" the smaller just had more sashing?

I agree.. this lady doesn't want any batting so I was not going to do as much quilting.

I am starting to see that. I have one in process that a lady is going to pay me for and another lady just sent me a message about making 2 for her for christmas presents. But I want them to like what they get.. hence my questions

I've made 4 t-shirt quilts, one for each of my grand daughters when they went away to college. I use my 12.5 inch ruler and made them all that size. You can see through the ruler and it's easy to center the logo. I ironed on a fusible light weight facing on each t-shirt. (ironed on the facing before cutting the squares. I also used a 2.5 inch sashing plus a border. I put 4 across and 5 down. It uses 20 t-shirts and they turned out to be a perfect size for their beds in the dorm.

Here's my t-shirt quilt.
To make the very narrow strips: cut 1 1/2" strip, fold in half, sew unfolded edge to one side of blocks, then go back and sew on folded side. This makes a narrow strip on the quilt!

One layout shows before I put on the sashing. So I had a variety of sizes to work with! The other is the completed quilt.

gingerd - your quilt is just gorgeous! great job on the smaller logos you did center them, but used the "background" fabric to center them instead of material from the same tshirt[ATTACH=CONFIG]532143[/ATTACH]

This isn't my niece's this is #5 and I did piecing to center the logos. the sashing is not sewn on in the picture - its just laying there. I am just on the fence about if thats the best way. This quilt is past the decision now, but I am thinking about the next one.

I've made an awful lot of t-shirt quilts, and never worried about the logo being centered, or pieced it to center the logo. As long as the logo is in the square, that's all that matters. Nobody is going to care, trust me. I've never made one where the logo is centered in every square, and I've never had a recipient say they didn't like it.

Thanks much! I'm pretty proud of it as I felt totally out of my element after all of the shirts were cut and laying on the floor.

I used the sashing fabric to get the blocks the same size. I don't care for the ones where the t-shirt icon is small and a huge amount of t-shirt fabric is around the icon. That's just me.....

Just wondering what fabrics you all use for sashing. Since the T-shirts are a knit, does that not cause a lot of bumpy unflat looking top. Would a flannel work for the backing. What type of batting if any ? Sorry so many questions, am a pretty newbie to quilting.

I use regular cotton for the sashing. No, it doesn't make it look bumpy or un-flat. If I DO have to add any fabric to the block to make it bigger (or to "center" the logo, as you want to do), I use the back of the same shirt so it will match perfectly. You pretty much can't tell you've added fabric if you use the knit from the same shirt. I use any kind of batting - my go-to batting is either W&N or Quilter's Dream Cotton.

So if one of the logo's are big - 15" and one of the others that they want to use is smaller, let's say 10" you would just piece using the back of the same tshirt - correct?

meyert that's the way I take what she said about using the t-shirt fabric!!

Post when you're done. We'd love to see your work!!

I've made 1 tee shirt quilt. What I did was cut the front and the back apart removing the neck and sleeves, then took each large section and applied fusible interfacing. I cut out the design centering it leaving a inch or two all around. The rest of the tee shirt I cut into long 2 inch strips. I used these strips to trim around smaller squares or make quilt block designs. By doing this I spread the colors throughout the quilt top . When putting it together I used sashing if 2 inch black making the colors pop and a 4 inch border of the same. I had 10 large shirts and made a quilt top to cover a full size bed. The family was thrilled with the gift.

Yep, that's what I do. The colors are the same and the seam almost disappears.

gingered that is the nicest t-shirt quilt I have ever seen!

I came across the idea to cut your T-shirts and mount them on fleece.

t-shirt quilt
 

I've done a few - not what I call fun. My grandson's quilt had 4 odd-sized shirts so I made them into the center, then the rest went around the outside. Ended up having to make cornerstone blocks to fill it out. Personally, I think you can do whatever you want but if your customer is being specific, sit down with her and go over options before you start cutting. That way, she'll be comfortable with the design too. Here's his quilt - the 2nd pic is the back to give you a better idea of how I did the center 4 shirts. Oh and this was done using Quilt-as-you-Go technique in case you were wondering what those narrow sashings were.

Good Luck !!

Kayaker26 thank you so much! It's the first one I've done. It's warm and huge!!

Vicki G I love your quilt! I haven't done the QAUG. I need to try that!

So much depends on the shirts. I made one that included shirts 'from the ages'. These were sized from smallish kids thru high school team shirts. Once they were cut out (and backed), I just had the keep playing with a layout until it felt right. I used a couple of the off spaces for small blocks of fabrics and logos that were memorable for this person. Trying to sash out some of the small sizes would have just looked odd. I have one coming up that is going to be all the same size band/concert shirts. I plan on sashing to make them all the same size (they should all be within an inch of each other. It truly depends of the shirts you are given to work with.

they way i made mine was to add three inch complimentary borders to each logo. then i laid them out anf fiddled around until it was pleasing. because each block had a good three inches to work with, i could cut and trim to fit. then i added a piece down the one side to bring everything into alignment.

i loved how it turned out. so often they look a little...i dunno. metered or something. i feel like this one looks like a quilt that happened to use t-shirts.

breathe deeply and have fun.

aileen

[ATTACH=CONFIG]532350[/ATTACH]

thank you.