Julie DSSA - A Finished T-Shirt Quilt

This was actually one of the longer named t-shirt quilts, but “Julie Last-Name-Redacted, Diplomatic Security Special Agent, Dates Redacted” didn’t really fit in the blog title. (And actually, nothing was redacted on the label, but you don’t need to know her last name. Although actually redacting it on the label would have been hilarious. Maybe only to me.)

THE PATTERN

Anyway! This is almost a simple grid style t-shirt quilt. However, we had some small front logos and a couple sleeve logos that she wanted to include as well, and so we did some pre-planning to make sure we could get the proper number of squares, in the right size, and keep the fronts that came with a back next to their back.

I succeeded, of course - puzzling things together is my favorite part, even when it’s not a puzzle style t-shirt quilt!

I had one empty spot for a small logo, and when I went back through the shirts, I found a little USMC on a pink sleeve and added that in.

Which segues nicely into…

THE FABRIC

Julie wanted something pink and feminine for the sashing and cornerstones, after 26 years as a Marine and Dept of State security professional. After debating colors back and forth, we narrowed it down to a soft floral from Echo Park for the sashing and Patrick Lose champagne glitter for the cornerstones.

I like that the floral has hints of the shirts’ dark blues and greens, while still being obviously girly!

So even though most of the shirts are very masculine (very angry doggies) the overall quilt feels a lot less Marine Corps and a lot more personal.

The binding is also the pink floral, and the backing is a lovely soft blue minky (in wide back!)

THE QUILTING

Julie asked for the Soho quilting, which is a double loop with a hook - a nice basic design that lets the shirts be the star of the show.

68x84” (twin size grid t-shirt quilt)

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Loudon - A Finished T-Shirt Quilt

A graduation t-shirt quilt, and I was able to hand-deliver this one! When I received the shirts, I started laughing, because my sister lives in Loudon County, and there’s even an Ashburn shirt in there. She swears she didn’t recommend, me, though. Which, I’m not sure that’s a selling point. Anyway, I knew I would be visiting my parents outside DC in mid-May, so I made sure to (mostly) finish this one in time to take it with me.

THE PATTERN

Of course, by bringing it with me to finish the binding, I failed to think through how on earth I would take pictures of a king size quilt. So you get to play I-Spy with my niece, nephew, and mother’s hands holding it up off their balcony area.

Anyway, this is a grid-style t-shirt quilt, with 50+ shirts! The big shirts were easy to cut into the square size, but we went through several swaps to get all the long-half and small-logo pieces into a full block size.

In the end, I think we came up with a great layout - it worked out almost perfectly for a dark/color checkerboard.

THE Fabric

The fabric that the mother chose is so calming! It really lets the shirts shine as the stars of the show. The sashing is Vaporous Solid by Art Gallery - and yes, it has the same lightweight hand that AGF prints have. The cornerstones and binding are Panache Woven White-Gray Checks.

The backing is Yarn Dyed Manchester in Steel by Robert Kaufman, and it’s also very lightweight! I think these fabrics made this the lightest king size quilt I’ve ever made.

THE QUILTING

The mother went for simple and calming again with the quilting design - straight lines! I started with them spaced every 2”, but it looked a bit too wide, so I added another line in between. Luckily lines are an easy thing to add for density!

Baby onesies and toddler PJ pants! There’s definitely a bit of everything in here.

101x101”

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Roll Tide Roll - A Finished T-Shirt Quilt

This was a quick and easy t-shirt quilt, for the niece of someone I’ve done some longarm work for, quilting some vintage tops made by her grandmother. Since my client and her mother have those quilts, making this t-shirt quilt added a fourth generation of one family!

THE PATTERN

It’s a grid style t-shirt quilt, and it was a super simple one. She had eight shirts, and wanted four pockets as the ninth square. The colorings of the shirts even worked out to four crimson, two grays, and two lights, so the layout was easy peasy. (I suppose I could have also gone the other way, with the crimson in the corners and the colors in the inner spots…but I like the initial layout best!)

The only thing that ever so slightly annoys me is that the pocket centerpiece matches three of the four corners, but the crimson comes from a side piece instead of the corner. Oh well, not every layout can be perfect!

THE FABRIC

The fabric is an older light gray that I had in my stash, for the sashing and binding. We debated matching the binding to the cornerstones, but ultimately decided that it needed a slightly calmer edge around the quilt.

The cornerstones and backing are…not subtle. Hey - Roll Tide Roll! (It’s licensed pop art style.) She was quite pleased that I was able to find it - I have a small bit leftover from my own Roll Tide quilt, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to find it again. Sometimes licensed fabric goes in and out of print very quickly!

THE QUILTING

The quilting continued the non-subtle theme, using Animal Crackers from Urban Elementz. I offset the even rows, and I think it works much better that way!

And apparently that’s all the pictures I took, so…

53” square

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Choir Trips - A Finished T-Shirt Quilt

Oh hey - in between the Fat Quarter Shop stuff and the Connecting Threads/Quilts of Valor stuff, I’m still making t-shirt quilts! (Actually, that’s about all I’m making right now, but my blog and my actual finishes are not synced up right now. Woo graduation season!)

THE METHOD

This one is not a graduation quilt, actually, despite it being choir trip shirts from 2013-2023. It’s the mom’s shirts, celebrating her “retirement” as a choir trip mom. This is a church choir - I’m not sure if it’s singing as well as handbells, but definitely handbells. (Obviously, as you can see from the graphics!)

I actually went on handbell choir trips when I was young, but this was well before the t-shirts for every event days. (Band trip next month is two days, two shirts. I guess it makes packing easier!) I do still have scraps of the fabric my mom used to make the pinafore-style dresses we all wore…ahh, the late 80s.

Anyway, this mom wanted it grid style, with the fronts of the shirts cut as if they were, well, fronts of shirts. So the pocket is intact on the upper right, just like as if she was wearing the shirt.

They are in chronological order, which sometimes can be a bit dicey with color placement. However, since the shirts have a common color theme, it worked out well!

Of course, there was no choir trip in 2020, but she gave me a church t-shirt and a couple masks, and we made a block that memorialized why there was no choir trip in 2020. This is the first time I’ve used face masks in a t-shirt quilt - I actually took them apart, pressed them flat, and stitched the straps back on to make them look like actual masks. Not my favorite method - but it looks good on the quilt!

THE QUILTING

For the quilting, we texted back and forth on a number of designs before finally settling on this - Snowflake Fun in the blocks and Music Notes in the border. Yes - typically I do an all-over design, but Patricia is designed to do block specific work like this, so might as well use her to her full capacity!

THE FABRIC

The sashing and binding is Moda Marbles in Windsor, the cornerstones are Sheet Music by Cathe Holden. The backing is a blue vine wide backing from Joann’s, which I can’t even link to anymore. *cries* I mean, I could, but everything says “check your local store for inventory.” And if your local store is anything like mine, well…

68x84”

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