Heritage tee shirt quilt

I was approached by someone at a company to make them a tee-shirt quilt to celebrate their 50th anniversary.  Then COVID hit, so that was put on pause.

They reached back out to me this spring.  They wanted it to be large and it would be hanging.

 

 

Because it was so large, I had no where to take pictures of it! It is 56 squares large, so 105" wide by 120" long!

Since they were going to hang it, they asked for grommets to be put on it so they could hang it.  I have done grommets before, but my husband had not, so he learned something new :)

The quilting is kind of hard to see as it was laying on the bed.  So here are two of the blocks.  I basically went around the designs to make them pop.

 

Tee shirt quilt DONE!!

 And here is my sisters Tee shirt quilt all finished!

I made most of the blocks 14", but the middle row had blocks that were about 17" tall.  Also on the left side I sewed the green and orange blocks as a mini side row, because they were slightly longer.

I kept fronts and backs together, per my sisters request.

I love working on tee shirt quilts!

Binding

I showed the time lapse video of my long arm, but I also like to get a shot of the quilt on the machine (especially when it's a big quilt and I can't get a full picture on my own).

I chose to use a grey thread for the quilting and a grey fabric for the binding.

Here is Earl NOT helping me trim the quilt.

 

tee shirt quilt 3

The shirts my sister gave me, there were some that had small squares on them the fronts and a few that had designs on the sleeves.  So rather than sew them together to make blocks, I used them as a row, a really skinny row.

I love how this quilt is coming together!

 

Tee shirt quilt 2

 I finished cutting and trimming all the tee shirts and have it put up on my design wall! 

It's quite big!! It fills up almost all of my design wall (top to bottom!)

 

Tee shirt quilt 1

My youngest sister asked me if I would make a tee shirt quilt for her, so of course I said yes!  The first part seems to take the longest, cutting the shirts apart and ironing on the interfacing.

I have started cutting them apart and putting them up on my design wall.

Tee Shirt Quilt done!

I decided in the long run to add the smaller blocks to the top of the quilt.

I added a 2" sashing because I didn't want the quilt to get TOO large.  I measured each row, and for the most part each of them were close in size! I did end up having to add a little sashing to the top of some of the rows.  Then I added a full row to the top & bottom of the little blocks.

I also added a slightly larger border to the bottom, I figured that if I felt it was too long after quilting I could trim it, same for the side borders.

When I quilted it I actually did it upside down, because the of the back.  (there is a picture further down), but I had one small block left over and I used it in the back, I wanted to make sure the whole thing was on there. (If you don't know, when long arming you need to make sure your backing is a few inches larger in width & length to be able to attach it to the machine.)

Here is the finished quilted quilt!

 

 

And this is the back.  I don't think I have a close up of the fabrics I used, the left & right pieces have donald duck on them.  My FIL loves him.  I had actually bought the fabric for the back a few years ago to make him a quilt.  I think it works well for the back!  You can see the one extra block on the bottom right.  The bottom left is the label I used.  I tried something new.

It's cricut infusible Ink.  I usually have done corner labels and write them with a pen, but after a few washes, it ends up coming off :/ infusible ink will NOT do that!  Next time I will use my heat press to do this, you can see where I kind of moved the transfer sheet with the iron.

 I should have made it a small block on the backside, but I folded over the edges and stitched it right on top.  But like I said it's my first time, gotta start somewhere!

If you are interested in a tee shirt quilt I have more information here

You can connect with me on facebook or send me an email.

Tee Shirt Quilt 3

Here is the next row.  I added slightly wider sashing between the blocks so they they would be approximately the same height as the first two rows.

I got real excited because there were some thinner blocks here, and you could really see them "floating" with the shadow!

And here are all 4 rows done.  

I also had some smaller blocks that I originally was going to intersperse throughout the quilt, but decided it would add too much length.

So then I had thought about adding them as a row by themselves, but then I was afraid it would make them the quilt too wide and not long enough.  I think what I might do is add them to the top or bottom.

Tee Shirt Quilt 2

Since my blocks weren't all the same size it took some work to add them to each other.  I started with the row that I thought would have the largest blocks and be the longest. 

I made the blocks that were the smallest and added sashing to the sides so that they were all the same width.  Then I added a small sashing 1.5" to each block.

Then I did the same thing to the next longest block, changing the size of the sashing to try to make sure that it was the same length as the first row, again, having the design wall was SO helpful.

Tee shit Quilt 1

  So I have started another tee-shirt quilt.  This one is for my father in law.  He used to help out at a Drama Camp each summer, so most of these shirts are from that.

I decided I would try a new to me technique, and make a shadow on each block.  I have seen it done, but not tried it yet.  I chose to use strips that were 1.5".  The only "struggle" I really had is that most of the blocks were different sizes, so I had to do a lot of measuring to make sure the black was the right size. 

Next time all the blocks will be the same width & length. 

I LOVE my design wall.  And it helped me so much when making this quilt.  I was able to put the blocks up as I worked on them, but also be able to rearrange them so they were in a design pattern that I liked. 

Tee shirt quilt finished!

I am so so happy with how this tee shirt quilt came out!! 

I decided to use the same fabric for the sashing for the binding. 

Tee shirt quilt - quilting

I got the tee shirt quilt on the long arm!  I chose to quilt it with a meander and grey thread.

I managed to get it quilted in one night!

Up next, trimming and binding!

tee shirt quilt 4

I am loving how this is coming together!! I have the two pieces almost all done so I can sew them together! Then I need to add strips to the top and sides, and then quilt it of course!

Tee shirt quilt 3

Things definitely changed from my last picture!  I have started adding some sashing to the blocks.  I also added a few smaller blocks to make it look a little more irregular.  I am definitely enjoying how it's coming together!

tee shirt quilt 2

I knew the customer wanted the blocks to not be in straight lines, so this is my first go of trying to arrange them so that they didn't look like they were just in lines.

Tee shirt quilt 1

I was hired to make a tee shirt quilt.  She wanted a "puzzle" type quilt.  Which was a first for me (but totally doable!)

I cut out and interfaced all the shirts in one night (I love my heat press!).

Then I spent another few nights trimming the shirts.  I started with them all being the same size width, and I left some of them longer than others.

This is my first picture of just laying the blocks out to try to figure out how I was going to put them together.

Tee-shirt Quilts

Tee-shirt Quilt

A friend lost her dad a few years ago.  Her mom gave me some tee shirts that has been her dads.  And I made them into a quilt.

Here are some pictures of the quilting I did

I also pieced the back (but not from my stash)

I am linking up to Midweek makers

I am linking up with Monday making

Finished Quilt

I finished the memory quilt (and washed it).  I love how it turned out.  I took some pictures outside.

Quilt layout

I finished sewing the flannel to the back of all the blocks, and put them up on the design wall.  I laid them out to see how it I liked it.  I rearranged a few things before I got to this final layout.