T-Shirt Quilt... HELP this is my first attempt at one.

[Beverly C.]

Let me start this by a cute funny story. My niece (who I'm also friends with on Facebook) asked me recently if I still did quilts. My thought in my brain was is she obviously hasn't been reading my posts and comments. Chuckle. 90% of my friends on Facebook are quilting buddies and that's where my interest is most of the time. I thought it was cute and funny.

I said yes. She asked me if I could do a t-shirt quilt for her husband and it was top secret. (internally I was Crap, haven't done one of those before.) But I'm game to give it a go.

So, I ask my quilting buddies on my favorite website a shout out. What do you do with the fabric of the t-shirt, because of the stretch? What is the best method and what is your favorite product to use? I'm assuming there has to be a stabilizing that needs to happen, but ones that is in place, does it accept quilting fabric sewn next to it. I want to have a little fun with the piecing too.

Any hints on quilting t-shirt fabric too, or does it handle like the same after the stabilizing?

Samples of your quilts are welcome. Ok, just bring them on because I'm in the idea stage and lets have fun with this.

Thanks,
Clara

[Nancy R.]

Hi Clara -

I haven't made a t-shirt quilt myself, but I've heard that a good stabilizer is fusible tricot. It controls the stretch while leaving the fabric soft and flexible. As for quilting, I've heard that they quilt up just fine but, depending on the t-shirts, you could have trouble quilting over the rubbery stuff they use for the emblems. And if you quilt over the emblems I think you need to be careful to not make mistakes because the holes won't close back up.

Nancy

[E.M. T.]

I' ve made several...and can't add anything to Nancy's comment except that I used regular Pellon's lightest
fusible interfacing rather than tricot....it can be applied to counter the direction of stretch so that when
you join it to reg. cotton there is less chance of distortion. Prep is important to getting a good fuse...
wash, no softener...watch out for sweat and food stains...and I kept the quilting simple but dense enough
that stretching would be minimal later with use.

[E.M. T.]

I just used the lightest weight fusible I could find and it worked perfectly well. I did quilting on the blocks, and used cotton for sashing, borders, etc. My first one was very traditional. The second one, much less so. My daughter requested a satin sheet for the backing and although I warned her it would make it slide off the bed, she wanted it anyway.

[E.M. T.]

Clara
I used Pellon fusible knit interfacing and was happy with it. I put a old 18x24 cutting mat in the t-shirt to cut the shirt to size and then ironed on the fusible. On the quilting I used a mono poly with a meander. The quilt was for my father who was in a nursing facility after a stroke and receive there heavy duty washing and held up great. This is the only one I have made but would do it again.

[E.M. T.]

These are great tips and awesome samples. Want to see more t-shirt quilts please.