Thursday, June 3, 2010

T-Shirt Quilt Tutorial #2

Decisions, Decisions......

 
No t-shirt quilt is alike!
T-shirts come in all shapes and sizes and sometimes
don't quite fit the cookie cutter mold that
a pattern would provide.
So that means you have some decisions to make!
And that is where we begin this little tutorial......
I start with my stack of freshly de-sleeved
and de-backed t-shirts and I place my 15" square
ruler on top of the design.
If the design fits I start a pile of shirts that will become 15" square.


This stack of shirts contain designs that
are 15" WIDE but obviously not 15" square.
I put these in a stack where 2 could be sewn together
to make a 15" square.

This stack contains all of those little emblems.
These could be sewn together in groups of four
to make a 15" block.
OR
They could be appliqued onto a larger block or even the border.
I'll make those decisions as the quilt is coming together.

My last stack is the tricky ones.........
Not 15" wide or  15" square.
These ones will have to be "built".
Luckily I only have 3 of these ones!

Stabalization!
This is the
KEY to SUCCESS
with any t-shirt quilt.
Since I am going to be cutting 15" squares I will
rough cut a 16" square and iron it onto the back of my t-shirt.

~A word about stabalizers~
I use the lightest weight stabalizer I can find.
I buy the $.99/yard type by the bolt at Joann's with a 50% coupon

Apply the stabalizer to the back of the shirt
using a hot iron.
~A word about hot irons and t-shirt emblems~
Many t-shirts have an emblem that will stick
to a hot iron and make a REAL MESS
both to the shirt and the iron.
So beware of sticky emblems on the front of the shirt
and STAY CLEAR OF THEM!

After stabalizing the shirt I cut each one into a 15" square.

Here is a stack of properly stabalized 15" square shirts.
There are 40 of them in this stack.
Also pictured is the little bits of leftover scraps
which will go into my charity dog beds
and the stack of wonderful rags!

Next time we will talk about how to handle
these odd sized shirts.

Happy quilting to all............
tammy

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

50 Marathons....can you imagine?

Phew!  I've spent a busy day today
working on t-shirt quilts.

This morning I loaded Maryanne's t-shirt quilt onto the longarm and started the quilting process.

I designed and worked on a couple of embroideries in the morning.
They are drying right now and not quite picture ready yet.

A couple of months ago Cindy brought me 2 huge bags filled with t-shirts so I could make a t-shirt quilt for her husband.  So my afternoon and evening was filled with preparing these shirts to become a wonderful quilt.

I am really excited to make this quilt because it is going to be filled with so many memories.
Here's the story:
Cindy's husband Mike decided at age 40
to run a marathon
in each of the 50 states before his 50th birthday.
Do the math......10 years.....50 marathons....
That's 5 marathons a year folks!
Can you imagine????
Well I'm pretty impressed!

So my challenge this week is to design a quilt to represent
each and every marathon shirt.
I'm thinking that it is going to be one HUGE quilt!

Follow my journey with the tutorials I will be posting in the
next couple of days.............

Happy Quilting!
tammy