Who Else Has T-shirts by the Dozen Just Waiting for the Perfect Quilt Setting?Create a Unique T-shirt Quilt That Someone in Your Family will be Proud to Show Off Instead of the Same-ole' T-shirt Quilt Like Susie Down the Street MadeFrom: Penny Halgren Dear Friend, If your house is anything like mine, there are t-shirts all over the place. There are drawers jammed full of shirts, closets with stacks of shirts on the shelves, boxes of t-shirts in the rafters of the garage, and even a basket of t-shirts decorating the bedroom - all just waiting for the perfect setting in a quilt. For years, it seemed like every time we turned around there was another t-shirt. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, school clubs, community events, places we visited - just endless. Each one of these shirts holds a memory by itself. In just one small stack, we have:
Well, you get the idea - hundreds of t-shirts and sweat shirts. All just waiting. One day I got ambitious and cut the pictures and sayings out. I even cut out the other blank side of the shirt - just in case. Some of the shirts have printing on both sides, offering even more opportunities. I keep looking at the stacks of shirts, wondering how I should put them together in a quilt. I've spent some time scouring the internet and books in quilt shops, looking for something interesting to do with them, with no luck. Most of them are just t-shirts with sashing - pretty boring in my eyes. At first I thought I would just make a rag quilt - layer them, and then somehow stitch the blocks together. The problem is that they aren't all the same size. I didn't just take my square ruler and hack them all into 12 inch squares. No. I carefully cut each one so the picture or saying was centered in the cut square. So, some of them are 12 inch squares and some are 8 inch squares, and others are some other weird size. In addition to the size differences, there is a difference in the materials - some are t-shirts and some are light weight sweat shirts. And then there is that small issue of some of them have printing on both sides, and others have print just on one side. The question is whether I should match the front and back - printed or not - on the front and back of the quilt, or should I just put the printed portions on the front of the quilt? All of these questions and no good answers. Because I really would like to do something different. After all, we worked hard for those t-shirts, so they deserve to be displayed in a unique way. After I cut several of them out, they hung on my design wall for months waiting for inspiration. Finally - discouraged - I took them down, and stacked them on a shelf in my closet. This Resource Brings us Hope for Fun and Unique T-shirt Quilts I had about given up, when I ran across this brand new quilting resource - Terrific Tees - I Can't Believe it's a T-shirt Quilt! written by Roberta De Luz.
As Roberta tells the story, her "dear friend mentioned that she had many T-shirts from the Bay to Breakers race and asked if I could do something with them. Of course I could! What I didn’t tell her was that I had no idea where to start. "When she handed me all those wonderfully artistic shirts, I knew I needed to do something special. Knowing the beautiful setting of the race and what a great city San Francisco is, I started to think that this quilt deserved more than just a basic straight setting with some sashing. "I wanted to make the quilt as memorable as the event. The quilt became a map of the race and a collection of snapshots of the city." Thanks to her work and imagination, we now have an extensive guide to making a creative t-shirt quilt. Terrific Tees will help you find your way in making your quilt as special as your t-shirts. Your tees will help you design your quilt. Most of the quilts in this book use traditional piecing and block patterns. The relationship between the subject of the tees and the quilt design is what makes these quilts so successful. Take the Bay to Breakers race quilt for example, she uses Flying Geese to point the way as you wander from t-shirt to t-shirt. And now I have hope, and you should, too. Just take a peek at the cover of this fun quilting resource, and you will smile. You've never seen T-shirt quilts like this before! The beautiful settings and elegant pieced and appliquéd borders will inspire you to get going on your own t-shirts and start turning them into quilts your kids will show around the neighborhood - whether it's around your street or in their college dorm or apartment. Working with the four complete projects plus the gallery of 9 additional quilts and 11 additional settings, you are sure to learn the secrets of successful quilting with T-shirt fabric. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to discover those secrets. I was in a quandry about just layering and quilting the shirts or using some light interfacing on the back. With this resource, I will know exactly what is best for my t-shirt quilt.
In addition, it had never occurred to me to use traditional quilt blocks as a basis for making this quilt. Just looking at the few samples, it is easy to see how traditional quilt design can make these t-shirt quilts a zillion times more interesting and quilt-like than any other t-shirt quilt I've seen. Whether you are making charity or raffle quilts, quilts for dorm rooms, or a quilt for around the house, you'll find some wonderful, creative ideas between the covers of this resource. Are You Ready for Some Fun? Terrific Tees is a brand new resource from our friends at C&T Publishing. As a matter of fact, it's so new, your quilt shop probably doesn't even have it on the shelf yet. Several months ago, members of TheQuiltingCoach.com followed along as Penny made a t-shirt quilt for her father's 89th birthday. Here is a taste of what they saw: Penny's Inner Circle Project My t-shirt quilt is a true quilt of love. My 88 year old dad fell two weeks ago and broke his leg. The bone is recovering well, but his mental condition varies from day to day. Sometimes we visit, and he is fine. Other times, he is living in his own created reality. One thing is clear, he wants to get out and back home where his kitties are waiting and he knows where everything is and who is around.
In the meantime, his eyes light up when I talk about his grandchildren, who live across the country. When quilting daughter, Stephanie (graduate of the University of Southern California), and engineer son, Bubba (graduate of the University of Michigan), were young, my mom and dad took them on a trip on the Big Red Boat. Wouldn't you know that it was just ahead of Hurricane Hugo. The boat docked early, they scooted to Orlando to Disney World, where they enjoyed the rest of their vacation. But being that close to a Hurricane and living through the outside edges of the wind and rain was quite an experience for all of them. My t-shirt quilt is for my dad so his grandchildren's love will envelope him as he recuperates. This quilt was a project in www.TheQuiltingCoach.com, and all of the "How-to" information is included in the wealth of great resources available to members.
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