Too Cool T-shirt Quilt

Finally I have pictures uploaded, so I can reveal my baby girl's t-shirt quilt made from all her sorority t-shirts she collected in college.  I bought the book, so I'd know exactly how to make it.  Although, a little math is really all you need.

I had originally planned to make the traditional t-shirt quilt that is backed with interfacing and bordered with cotton fabric.  We decided we liked this layout instead.  Because I had already cut most of the t-shirts based on the other style, it took a little thought to make this work.  I didn't get the layout exactly like I wanted, but I like it nonetheless.  And so did Britt, and that's all that matters.

I love the different size blocks.

Gabby wasn't quite sure what I was doing, but she wanted to be in on it whatever it was. LOL

I loved being able to use the pockets too.  It took up the added space without using blank blocks, and some of them are just really cool.

I chose an all over meandering pattern.  I took it to Blessed 2 Be Quilting in Portal - just north of Statesboro.  They did a fabulous job!  They knew when to cross the actual print and when not to.  I'd definitely recommend them.

So a couple of notes about this type of quilt.  It is not backed, so you treat it just like any other knit fabric you would stitch.  I used a walking foot, and that made a huge difference.  The quilt is heavy without the interfacing.  I can't imagine how heavy it would have been with it.  I used warm and natural batting, a cotton backing, and a cotton binding.  I also used a polyester thread rather than a quilting thread to stitch the blocks together.

Also, I did not use her instructions to bind.  I used the same method for binding that I use for all my other quilts.  I used one long strip and folded it in half.  I stitched the raw edges and folded it over to the back.  I hand stitched it down.  I was a bit nervous to hand stitch this quilt, but it went very well.

I made some mistakes on this one, but now that I have one under my belt, I feel very confident in the next one.

As for the book, if you are an experienced quilter, you may not agree with some of the instructions.  I basically used her method to cut the blocks but we laid them out on the floor in lieu of drawing out on graph paper.  We needed to see the layout and we couldn't get the visualization without physically laying it out.  And quite frankly, Britt had an idea of how she wanted this laid out.  We also didn't have enough of certain size blocks and I didn't want to make the quilt larger just to accommodate symmetry in the block sizes.  I found the instructions a little confusing too.

From there, I just proceeded the way I do every other quilt until the end.  I did use a temporary binding and would highly recommend you don't skip this step.  It keeps the quilt top from stretching during quilting.

I would recommend the book if you want to make this type of quilt.  It's worth it just to get the proper layout.

Thanks for stopping by.  Feel free to ask questions.
Angela