Tee shirt Quilt

I made this quilt before Christmas for a customer. 

It was a whole lot of orange. 

They are Philly Flyers fans. 

Not just regular fans... like super duper HUGE fans. 

This quilt was a gift to their son for Christmas. 

It was going to be a twin, 

but when she dropped of the tee shirts to me

she had a story about almost every single one.

So when I went to make it 

I felt I had to include all the shirts that she had 

special memories of. 

anyway, I was a little hesitant to make this quilt.

1. because I have never made a tee shirt quilt before. 

2. It was a  ton of orange. 

3. I had never made one of these before..(oh did I mention that)

I ended up Loving the process of this quilt. 

and let me tell you it was a process. 

it first began with cutting all the shirts apart. I think there were some 50 to 60 shirts. 

then I ironed a very very light weight fusible web to each. 

then I cut out all the shirts with special  rulers I had made. 

I took a list of sizes i wanted down to the local hardware store and 

he cut them out of plexiglass for me. 

that was about $30 for 10 rulers. 

not bad considering what you spend on 1 ruler... 

anyway. 

If you do ever make a quilt like this, I strongly suggest backing each shirt and the cutting it 

out. If you do not it will be awful to sew,

It will not be straight. No matter what you do, it will not be straight unless you take the step

to iron on the back. 

this process of ironing and cutting took me 2 full days. 

I am talking 8 hours a day people. 

 

then came the job of laying it out. 

It turned out to be a tiny bit smaller then a queen size.

It was HUGE. (did I say that) 

It actually sewed up very quickly because they were such large blocks. 

I did row by row and then sewed them all together. 

I used a light cotton batting in between. 

I recommend a light weight batting 

because this quilt is extremely heavy.

I toyed with the idea of free motion quilting this, 

but I am very glad my Mom talked me out of that. 

I ended up hand tying it with pearl cotton. 

I backed it with  Kona White and added a panel 

of the extra shirts I had. 

I bound it in black. 

 I thought it probably needed a label. 

So this is what I came up with. 

 I loved making this quilt. I am finding such joy in making quilts for people. 

Especially when there are stories that go along with them. 

My customer was overcome

she was speechless when she saw it. 

I almost had her in tears... 

Her son Loved it when he opened it on Christmas day.

that made me smile. 

I need to make a quilt like this for my kids. 

and my friend PAUL. 

(he has more tee shirts then anyone I know)