Thursday, December 28, 2017

The Quilt

It was early November when I started this project.

I had heard about tee shirt quilts several years ago, and I knew we had a collection of Jake's rock concert tee shirts from his high school and college days in a crate in the attic. I finally decided this was the year to make that quilt.

I am not really a quilter, so of course I didn't really know how to do that so I went on line, where, of course, you can find everything you need to know about anything. I found several good tutorials, then began to plan my quilt. 

Wash the tee shirts, separate the shirt fronts, and sometimes the backs, from the rest of the shirt. Use a template to make the final cut, centering the graphics. 

Lay the panels out to create the design and number of blocks. 

Oh my, this is a bigger project than I imagined. Can I do this on my sewing machine, or do I need the services of a long arm quilter machine? I checked into that - too expensive! I'll just have to see how it goes.

Take measurements, then off to the fabric store for flannel for the backing and iron on interface to stabilize the tee shirt fabric. I chose a flannel fabric that looked very much like shirts Jake wore during the Grunge Era when he was in high school.

The process of assembling the quilt top went well, but I was still worried about how I would make the "sandwich" - the top, the filler and the backing.


We worked on the dining room table, Tom lending assistance to get everything lined up and pinned together with safety pins.


 Sewing the leading edge was fairly easy. Tom helped manage the bulk of the rolled up quilt. I just did "stitch in the ditch" quilting, sewing over the seam lines.
 It was trickier stuffing the roll under the sewing machine arm, but with the walking foot on my machine I saw that I could reverse direction once I got to the middle without the layers bunching up. Relief!

Then it was time for applying the binding. No way could my hands handle hand sewing a blind stitch around this 90 x 65 inch quilt, so I used the machine and top stitched.

 And sometime in the week after Thanksgiving, the quilt was complete! Yay! I had been rather wrapped up in it. :-)

 I kept it a secret from family members until the revealing Christmas Day. Jake had already received a fleece lap blanket from Jill, so as he opened it, everyone joked, "Oh, another blanket". 
 It took him a bit of time to find a corner to peek in and see anything but flannel, but as soon as he got a peek, he said, "Oh, it's my tee shirts!" and jumped up to unfurl the whole thing.
 Of course he loves it. But he also knew all about tee shirt quilts. He informed me that "it's a thing."  I guess he knows people who have them. 
Now he does too, and he was perfectly fine with my rescuing his shirts from the attic and cutting them up. 

17 comments:

  1. It is simply wonderful. Another way that you are so resourceful, Linda. Love it! :-)

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  2. What a thoughtful gift and it turned out amazing

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  3. It turned out wonderful Linda! I'm saving a bag of my son's old t-shirts to make a quilt. You did a great job on it and Jake looks so happy!

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  4. I do believe that’s the happiest I’ve seen Jake. He’s clearly excited about his mom & dad’s handwork, done just for him. Indeed, it was a special gift.

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  5. what a fun idea and the finished project looks great!

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  6. You sure did a fantastic job making that T-shirt blanket. No wonder Jake looks happy to receive it.

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  7. That was a big project and turned out very well. I like the look on Jake's face.

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  8. Good job! Looks like your machine worked great for the quilting part! :)

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  9. I bet this brought back many fond memories for him. Well done! I have always wanted to make a quilt like this with tshirts my hubby has in a box. Maybe this year is the time to do it.

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  10. Wow! Great job on your first quilt! And such a big one, too. Jake looks so happy :)

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  11. That is a fabulous idea and you did a great job. Probably the coolest looking quilt I have seen and what a memory trip for Jake.

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  12. Wow. What a lovely heirloom to leave those you love. Your determination and creativity can now live on for years!

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  13. That is an amazing quilt!! Jake looks so happy. I love the flannel you picked for the backing. It looks very warm, and comfortable too. You do such a good job of every project you start.

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  14. What a wonderful present for your son! You did a great job on it. I've never tried quilting, although I used to sew a lot of clothes.

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  15. You're the coolest mom ever! What a special gift. Who knew that T-shirt quilts are a thing?

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  16. OH MY GOSH! You are absolutely amazing, Linda! That is a HUGE quilt. I always wondered how you stabilize the t-shirt material. That is so much work! AND it's totally gorgeous!!! Wow!

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  17. Would you come to Hawaii and be my neighbor and teach, motivate and share all your cooking with me?

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