MTS

Fabulous idea!

The method would be the same as for fusing t-shirts to stabilize them so they can be pieced. And I think it's fine to use regular quilting cottons for the rest of the quilt even though the fabrics will be of different weights and thicknesses.

However, when quilting, I would suggest that you absolutely DO quilt over the sweatshirt area to "keep it down," especially for after washings. I think if you just stitch in the ditch around the square, it would not keep it stable enough.

The quilting, over the entire quilt, will make it more ...I can't find the right word. I want to say more cohesive and joined (but I'm not talking about the aesthetics).

Please do post a picture when you're done.

(I don't have the guts to cut up my 20 year-old Valle Nevado t-shirt, which I treasure. And it's not like I'm ever going to fit in it again.:wink: )

rosalia856

I have made many t-shirt quilts. I find using fusiable web as a stabalizer keeps them straight when cutting. My DH cut a 12"&14" square out of clear plexiaglass. I marked the center and I line up my t-shirts in the middle. This gives me the best idea of how it will look on the quilt. 14" seems better for larger t-shirts. Children I use 12" or smaller. I use corner stones and sashing between . I then knot them,but I knot them and tie them from underneath. That way the strings are underneath and doesn't distort the design. It is a little more work ,but I perfer to do mine this way. I agree most shops do not like to quilt them and usually won't say how they will turn out. Don't give up making them . People usually just want the memories recorded the best way you know how. Do your best workmanship and it will be rewarding

frugalfabrics

The two that I made were for my niece and nephew as graduation presents. Their mother had collected their shirts for their entire sports career (since they were 3 and 4 years old). It was so hard to choose which shirts to use, since there were so many. But she handed them all over to me and told me to go at it...there were a few specific ones that she knew she wanted in it, but she let me pick the rest. Had a blast doing it...and it's so much easier when you get to make your own creation.

I also tied mine since they both ended up being queen size and I didn't want to attempt to run them thru the machine.

Here's a pic of one of them:

madamheather

I make T-shirt quilts in my business. I do not stitch over the emblems because they are rubberized and the machine needles do not like them at all and if your needle breaks on them, it leaves a nasty hole. I just do meandering stitches around them and down the sashing. I find that if they are stretched on a frame, they do much better. No matter how accurate you cut your shirts, they seem to hae a mind of their own and do not lay as flat as regular fabric.

OnTheGo

Here's 1 I made for my daughter from her sorority tees in 2007. I used fusible batting that looked like felt on all pieces, sashing, cornertsones & all. Then I sewed it together in sections, leaving an inch or two extra backing around each square. It's better to leave extra that you can trim away than end up with too little. I put the blocks face to face and sewed a seam that would be like an open seam on the back, then triimmed off one side of the extra backing. I folded the other side (about 1 inch) over and turned under the raw edge & hand stitched it down. The extra backing made the binding, as well...just fold over and hand sew it down. I did not quilt it. I did top stitch on the sashing as I finished each block...before putting it together.

Tropical

Frugalfabrics, Thank you for your instructions on how to make the t-shirt quilt. Sometimes you don't know you need something until you see it. I now a a great quilt idea for my 10 year old granson. I'm making graduation quilts for his two older brothers and I can't expect the 10 year old to wait until he is 18 to get a quilt, too. So thanks, again and Happy Holidays.

pam7858

I too put lightweight fusible interface to the back of shirts. It keeps them from stretchong. Some I do as unform size with saashing, some I do as odd size shirts with fabric in between. I did strip piecing from shirts as a bereavement memorial. To see more ideas go to www.tshirttreasures.com

Scakes

Thanks a bunch for this link. Good job.

qwltnfool

I've made 8 T-Shirt quilts over the past 10 years or so. They have gone thru years in a guy's room at college (the ultiimate test IMO) and have withstood the 'heat'. I use a gold grid fusible that I get at Hobby Lobby. To me the hardest part is graphing the design and ironing the fusible onto the shirts. The shirts get fused, cut to size and then they are treated like any other quilt block with sashings and/or cornerstones, quilting. I have a long arm and do my own quilting - usually go around the logos but have gone thru them as well. There are specific steps that I follow when making a t-shirt quilt and fairly standard block sizes that I use for most of them. The hardest one took me 12 hours just for graphing because of all the sizes of shirts given to me and all the small logos used. You can see some of mine in my blog, www.irishlakequilter.blogspot.com - a very outdated blog at that - but it does have some of my t-shirt quilts on it.

frugalfabrics

You're very welcome..I've printed that off for many of my non-sewing friends that want to attempt to make one...it's so much easier to hand them directions than try to explain it to them.

And it helped me out when I did my 2nd t-shirt quilt...just pulled out the directions to refresh my memory on what I needed.