T-Shirt Quilt

I have a tradition going, (which sometimes I wonder why I do such things to myself) that when the kids turned two, I made them a quilt and when they turn 12 they get a new quilt. Well a twelve year olds quilt is due in August..... it's the last quilt I'll be making for twelve year olds.

This one is going to be my son's and I was really stumped as to what design to go with. He loves baseball and I was looking for some fabric or something to make it look like a baseball theme, when I ran across t-shirt quilts and thought "that is perfect". I thought he had a lot of t-shirts, that is until I started this project and then ended up running to thrift stores looking for more

t-shirts.

But I think it's going to turn out cute if I can ever get it done. I'll post a pic of the finished project hopefully in the next few months.

So you start with old or "new to you" t-shirts. :-)

Then cut the front of the shirt off of the back and lay the back aside, you may need it later. :-) (that is what I use for the bordering strips.

Then Iron some fusible interfacing/stabilizer on the back so that it doesn't stretch and it's easier to sew.

You then decide how big you need your squares to be, based on the design on the front of the shirt. I tried to look at all the shirts I had and the designs on them and tried to cut them all to the same size if possible. Some shirts were smaller and needed strips added to them so then I decided to cut the squares so that they would all have some sort of border or strip piece around them. :-/ ayy ye yei!

Then you start making sections of strips and squares. I decided half way through :-/ that maybe I should have just made strips that were sewn to the quilt,....I am doing quilt as you go for this quilt, so when I get the top strip pieced I put the batting, and backing on and quilt it and then sew it to the main section of the quilt.... (are you confused yet?)

See the top row doesn't have all the squares yet, or isn't the right length, I'm still working on trying to put a piece in there that will fit. It really makes it hard when the squares are not all the same and the strips are not all the same....I will know better next time, if there is a next time. hee hee

In the picture below I wanted you to see the piecing close up and the quilting that was done on some of the strips. This is definitely an experiment, but it's been fun collecting the shirts and seeing his excitement as it progresses. He loves seeing all the different shirts that I've found.

So if you attempt one of these, good luck. They are really fun, but it's good to have a base plan...Stick with the same size squares and decide whether you are going to put strips between or not. I love the look of quilts that have that piecing in between but have never attempted one before now....And I'm "free-styling" which can

be a good thing or a bad thing. :-)

Have a great week, God bless!