The 3-D T-Shirt Quilt

A few months ago I agreed to make a t-shirt quilt for long-time family friend, Shirley. I babysat all 4 of her kids when I was a teenager, and the youngest- Elizabeth - is turning 40 this year. (Groan! It can't be!)

To commemorate the occasion, Shirley, having saved some of Elizabeth's most treasured childhood mementos, asked me to make a quilt. My surgery of May interfered with my plan to have this done by June first, so I am chomping at the bit to get it whipped out this month.

This is a poor picture, and I will take a better one later, but for illustration purposes, this will serve. The first block of the top row is the dress Elizabeth wore home from the hospital as a newborn. That will be applied to the block in 3-D fashion, and will spill over into the sashing strips below and beside the block. The block at the other end of the top row is a doll that Elizabeth loved, so I took all the stuffing out of it and appliqued it to a block. Close-ups of the dress and the doll are below.

The first block of the second row and the first block of the bottom row are both cut out from the back of cheerleading jackets. I was nervous about the fraying that might occur, but I stay-stitched before cutting and they held up just fine. the third block of the third row is a cheerleader uniform top. I cut it out with the 15" ruler, but had to applique it to a block since it was sleeveless. All in all, these have worked out better than I had anticipated.

The last block of the bottom row has a pocket. The shirt didn't have much design, and so I used the empty space to create a place to put the remaining items that Shirley gave me.

On of those items is this little back-pack. Shirley asked if I could save the head of the doll. Here's how I have done that. I cut it out with enough of the pack fabric surrounding it, and then zigzagged some t-shirt remnant to the back. It isn't pretty, but it works.

Shirley also had saved that one ballet slipper which will also go into the pocket. I think it will be necessary to add a snap to the center of the pocket; it seems to gap a bit, and a snap would solve that issue.

Still to do - add a 5" border. I have 4-5" blocks of other significance to use in the corners of the border, and then I will be ready to make the quilt sandwich. How I will tackle the quilting of this 3-D quilt, I am quite uncertain. All throughout the creation of this quilt, my philosophy has been "I will figure it out as I go."

Happy Quilting, Friends!