The T-Shirt Quilt Has Been Gifted

A quickie post for you today, dear readers. Over the weekend, I received these pictures of a recent MHS grad who now has a brand new quilt to take to his college dorm this fall.

I am so happy to get pictures like this. To know that the customer is happy with the quilt gives me all the warm-fuzzy feels. This is a whopper, can you tell? His mother brought me shirts in near-pristine condition, and I used some backs of shirts in the borders, so there was quite a lot of work in it. Because 25 shirts make a really big quilt, I used very narrow sashing, and as I revisit it in these photos, I am really pleased with the result.

I don't have any further commission quilts on the horizon, and I'm okay with that. I have so many irons in the fire at present with my own quilts and the long arm, I would be crazy to take on more.

To see some of my posts on the making of this t-shirt quilt, click here and here.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

The Intersection of Literary and Quilting

You may know that I am an avid reader. Fiction, nonfiction - I like just about all types. In the sweltering Ohio summer of 1988, I specifically recall reading The Prince of Tides (fiction) by Pat Conroy. Whoa. What a book. Prior to that, I'd read The Water is Wide (nonfiction) by Conroy. I don't think I put the two books together with the one author until some time later. Then even later, I read My Losing Season (nonfiction). All so very engaging and memorable; why, even to this day decades later, I can recall scenes from those books.

When we were on our whirlwind tour through the low country of the Carolinas, we found ourselves in pretty Beaufort, SC, fully engulfed in site seeing - gorgeous mansions, moss-strewn trees, historic markers around every corner. One little house seemed an unlikely one to catch my eye, but it did, and gosh, am I glad! It was the Pat Conroy Literary Center! OHMIGOSH! I made DH circle back to it so we could visit. What a treat!

We walked through liesurely, each of us drifting to items of interest. I turned into one room, and look at what was on the wall - a T-shirt quilt!

It looks to be a twin size, and features so many perfectly representative shirts from Conroy's life - both literary and otherwise. I snapped the picture and continued to browse through the vast collection of memorabilia - yearbooks, letters, family photographs, military honors, sports awards, and so much more. Some pieces of movie memorabilia were included as well - fascinating!

Then I came back through the central entry area, and saw this woman seated at the desk. I'd just seen her pictured in some of the memorabilia on display, so I felt confident she was a family member. Yep! Pat's sister Kathy! How totally awesome. We talked for a good little bit, and then I asked her about the quilt - you will NOT believe this - she is the one who made it!

So we talked a little longer. *smile* 

She told me that she is not a quilter, and had to figure out things. Like, most importantly, how to get words on shirts that were never shirts to begin with. She went to a screen printer and asked for discarded shirts or seconds, had them turned inside out to replicate the appearance of well-worn t-shirts, and then had the words applied as if they'd been t-shirts all along. Obviously, some items actually were t-shirts; Kathy's intention was to fill gaps in representing her brother's milestones and accomplishments.

Kathy shared one specific story about the '3' that you see above. I am sure I won't do the story justice, but it is one Pat apparently told many times, and one that kept him humble. I will  summarize as best as I can. He frequently told of the time he and his classmates were all receiving scores on some standardized tests they'd taken. He was a new kid in the school, and had not been fully accepted by his peers. His name was announced often with incredibly high scores in literacy, composition, and similar academic areas, while classmates' scores were much lower. Finally, scores for mechanical aptitude were announced, and Pat was nowhere near the top. In fact, he was in the 3rd percentile. THAT was what his classmates remembered about him! In his adulthood, he had an engraved '3' mounted near the front door of every house he lived in.

Great anecdote. I hope I remember it closely enough as to how Kathy told it; I wasn't taking notes, and I didn't jot down anything later. I hope my (feeble?) memory suffices!

Now to the quilt - for a first-ever quilt, Kathy has managed quite a remarkable effort here. I would never have thought to go about creating t-shirts the way she did. If you can click the picture for a closer look, you will see that the blocks are appliqued with zig-zag stitches to the blue background. It's just ingenious how she "figured it out." I commend her for her creativity! And what a great tribute to her brother's life and accomplishments. Wonderful.

I've spent time since the visit perusing the internet for nuggets about Conroy who died of pancreatic cancer in 2016. He has many more books that I need to investigate. I can also see myself re-reading those three I mentioned, especially The Water is Wide. Maybe I will also queue up some of the movies made of his books. I'm sorta' wishing I'd bought at least one book at the Literary Center.

Literary interests and quilting interests intersect here today, readers, and I am thrilled about it. What a great vacation memory.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

T-Shirt Quilt Finish

Finishing feels so good.

You know the feeling of finally finishing a job that has been looming over you? For me the relief is palpable. As a teacher, I felt this when I finished grading a particularly large set of essays or finished a semester or school year. In the quilting room, finishing a customer's quilt ranks up there with a similarly huge sense of relief.

The high school graduate who will be receiving this quilt has been exceedingly active in sports, theater, clubs, and civic activities. His mother provided me with a great variety of shirts in very good condition. The quilt top went together quite easily, and has been ready for quilting since the end of February.

Look at the size of this quilt! Twenty-five shirts makes quite a large quilt. This is spread out on a queen-size bed, and the overhang is sizeable. It measures roughly 95" square.

Our school colors, you may have guessed, are purple and gold, and we are the Tigers. I was very fortunate to find some great gold fabric for the sashing strips. And how fantastic is that purple tiger-stripe fabric? I used it as cornerstones, borders, backing, and binding. And I used nearly every inch of it. What a game of puzzling it together! Gracious, was I creative!

So I am posting very late on Sunday evening, but I do want to get a post up for today. And tomorrow you will get the weekly update for the Spring Dreams Sew Along. Maybe a little later than early morning - perhaps around noon.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

T-Shirt Quilt Commission

It's been over a year since I last did a t-shirt quilt. The one I just accepted is from a repeat customer. The first one was for her college graduate a few years ago; this one is for an upcoming high school graduate. May 1st is my deadline; I have determined that I will not procrastinate on this job.

I spent a good few hours cutting all the shirts, and prepping them with interfacing. Such a time-consuming part of the process, but so very necessary. All the shirts were in great condition - barely worn, in some cases - and I had a nice variety of colors. Above, all 25 shirts are placed the way we want them. I fired off a few pics to my customer for approval and she gave me the go-ahead.

The quilt will be quite large with 25 shirts; I estimate in the range of 95" square. With blocks that are 15" square, I won't need a terribly large sashing. I prefer to keep that thin in favor of a heftier border.

I found these two fabrics last month at the McArthur Quilt Shop. I will use the gold as sashing, with the purple tiger stripes as cornerstones and border. It also will be the backing. 

Next up is construction. It will all be rather straightforward. Bulky and huge, but definitely standard construction.

In addition to spending time on this project, I have been working on something else. Sharon and I have cooked up a little sew-along with our friend Dee who lives approximately three hours from us. As long-time friends, we are going to sew together in a virtual manner - you know, Covid has taught us all new ways of spending time together. I will share all the details tomorrow.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Quilting!

I am truly enjoying the Tin Lizzie. If only I had made the move upstairs sooner. Oh well. That's water under the bridge, and from this point on I will just be happy that I am at last using the long arm and getting some of these quilt tops quilted.

Back about a month ago when I made two separate trips to McArthur for repairs to the machine, I picked up backing fabric for three quilts that I had on the my immediate radar for quilting.

The black fabric on top has already been used for the t-shirt quilt I worked on last week. It isn't "matchy-matchy" with the top, but this worked, in my opinion, because it looks like the lining in a suit jacket. And that is a lot like the back of a quilt, don't you think? The top is a jumble of different t-shirts with no particular dominant color. I used gray and black for the sashing and cornerstones. This black and gold paisley just seemed like a good, understated backing.

The photo above shows the quilts as I was preparing to take it off the frame. The backing is rolled onto the bar. It is weird to think that black can have different "colors" but there is a definite difference in the backing black and the border/sashing black. However, I believe they work.

The gold fabric in the picture up top is currently on the quilting frame for a second t-shirt quilt (third overall quilt). It is the only one of the three backing fabrics that is a true backing. At a width of 108 inches, I was in good shape with loading and quilting this. No work!

Above is the bottom end of the quilt with the gold backing rolled onto the back bar. It has the look of batik, but is regular cotton with that mottled look.

I wrote and saved the above yesterday, and after quilting for about 45 minutes today, I finished off this t-shirt quilt.

Coincidentally, Sharon O. called while I was quilting. If you recall, she is my benefactor. She gifted this quilting machine to me and after two years, I am at last using it! How I can ever thank her for this wonderful gift, I don't know. Perhaps just being happy in using it will show my gratitude. And I am. Blissfully happy. Truly.

Okay. Now to get to binding. Then I have one more t-shirt quilt to load. It will get that remaining backing fabric in the top picture. Stay tuned for updates on that!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Coaching, Round 2

I suppose you've heard the adage "give a man bread, you feed him for a day; teach him to plant, and you feed him for a lifetime?" Well, that principle applies to my learning lately, as I had a second opportunity to visit my friend Terry for further long-arm coaching.

Many of you know that I have been in possession of a long-arm machine for nearly 2 years, yet I have not quilted a single quilt on it. This sad fact has many extenuating explanations, yet truthfully, most of them stem from my own poor excuses and, as one shop-owner/quilter told me, being "chicken."

You can click back here to read about my being gifted the machine from another sweet friend, Sharon O.

Is it becoming apparent that I am surrounded by sweet friends?? I am so blessed by them.

In mid-August, I asked Terry if she would quilt two quilts for me, as I had immediate needs for both, and didn't see myself getting to the point that I could successfully do them on my machine. Instead of offering to quilt them, she offered to teach me how to quilt them. Inspired!! I think she sensed that I was, truly, "chicken" or at least intimidated.

The first quilt was done a week ago, and I haven't fully revealed it yet as it's a wedding gift for my nephew. I wrote about it here.

This week, I quilted a t-shirt quilt that is being raffled to help fund a scholarship sponsored by my DH's fraternity alumni. I shared my shirt-gathering adventures here. Obviously, I don't have to keep this one a secret.

In doing two quilts in two weeks, I have gained such confidence. It definitely has motivated me to do what is necessary to get mine up and running. I have big plans for doing just that, which I will share as it all gets going.

So back to the quilting, I did 'freehand loopy meanders' over the entirety of this quilt. It seemed like a good idea at the beginning to make the quilting dense, but as I neared the end, I was wishing I'd been looser with the stitching, as I ached through the neck and shoulders; I just wanted to be done! It is far from perfect, but for a t-shirt quilt, it is certainly acceptable, and I hope whoever wins this raffle will use it at tailgate parties, picnics, and ballgames at the 'Shoe.

A few blocks were noteworthy. This one had a 3-dimensional rosette attached, so I made sure to stitch around it.

Another shirt was done in pink rather than scarlet; I am assuming it was in conjunction with breast cancer awareness.

I have so appreciated the opportunity Terry afforded me to do this practice quilting on her machine. As I said, it has truly given me the kick in the rear (which I needed!) to begin using my own!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Ohio State T-Shirt Quilt

In between all the fun and games of summer, I have been grabbing some odd moments here and there to stitch. My quilting room productivity has dropped off, but the fun hasn't!

Yesterday I (mostly) finished this t-shirt quilt which is being donated to my DH's fraternity alumni association's scholarship fund. I say mostly finished, because today I will add a small border of the same fabric as the sashing strips.

Over the last several months we have been collecting used t-shirts at Ohio Thrift, Goodwill and other used clothing stores. Most of our finds were red shirts, and we really had to be persistent in order to locate gray, white and black shirts for variety. The very last two we found are in the center of the top row.

This particular block is a design I've never seen before. THE Ohio State University. All Buckeye fans know to emphasize the THE. Interestingly, just last night on the late news, I learned that the university has applied for rights to THE in its marketing. Now I've heard it all. *grin*

With just about all the t-shirt quilts I make, I use a cornerstone block to help keep my grid straight. I did not do that on this quilt, so I have a couple rows that are off a bit; I've been telling myself it's just a t-shirt quilt, and therefore it does not require precision. Still, I regret that I didn't go ahead with the cornerstones. Oh well...

I like the variety of designs we amassed for this quilt. At $2-3 dollars per shirt, we bought 20 total shirts, and used 19 of them. We got lucky when we found one shirt that had a useable front and back. That's rare, believe me.

Now to attach the borders, and set about quilting. I do not know when DH's fraternity plans to raffle this quilt, but I suspect it's soon, so I need to stay on it.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Another T-Shirt Quilt

You've been hearing about my efforts to whip out three t-shirt quilts for commissions I have taken on. The first, Caleb's, was finished a couple of weeks ago. The first of the Hardy quilts was finished last week. I finished off the second Hardy quilts this afternoon with a valiant effort on the borders.

I say 'valiant' because I did not have very much of the red fabric, so the borders ended up a bit narrower than I might otherwise have made them. I used the navy corner blocks in an attempt to save on fabric, and I am quite glad I did. The quilt needed the added interest of those navy corners.

I will backtrack a bit to provide history on this t-shirt project. I took possession of Caleb's shirts sometime in the winter. The tub of Hardy shirts came a few weeks after that. I waited until school was out to begin working on them. Basically, it boils down to devoting the month of May to working on these quilts. Rarely have I ever exercised such focused determination to complete commissions; I can be quite the procrastinator.

I've laid this second Hardy quilt on top of the first. The red and blue one is made with all the little boy t-shirts that were in the tub. I cut those squares at 12.5" and because there were fewer small t-shirts, the resulting lap quilt measures 48" x 61".

I have one more t-shirt quilt to make, but as yet do not have all the shirts I will need to complete it. My husband's alumni fraternity organization will be given this next quilt for a fundraising raffle. The quilt will have an Ohio State theme.

Next up for the three I have finished is prepping them for quilting. I have backs ready for the first two. I imagine I can find a suitable backing for this last one, and then I will be headed to that Tin Lizzie! Agghh! It's getting real here, ya' know?!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Another T-Shirt Quilt

In previous posts I have alluded to several commissions I have taken on, all of which are t-shirt quilts. A week ago, I finished the quilt top for Caleb. Not wanting to lose my mojo, I immediately began the next one. I had a full tub of t-shirts from a woman who'd been saving them all throughout her son's school years - roughly the late 80s through 2000. I divided the shirts into 2 quilts - little boy shirts will be made into 12" blocks; big boy shirts into 15" blocks.

Yesterday I finished off the quilt top made with the 15" blocks. This is a big one with 25 blocks; the finished size is roughly 89" square. Because I knew the quilt would be big, I used narrow sashing strips (cut at 1.5") and the border was cut at 6". I am thoroughly loving how it turned out.

On a double bed, this monster quilt has a long overhang. Looking ahead to the finish, I have fabric selected for the backing, so this quilt will go in the queue for quilting - hopefully as early as next month.

As I finished this quilt top yesterday, I was delighted when my final measuring worked out perfectly for the borders. (I really don't like the math involved in border calculations!) I admit to celebrating a bit when the last one was sewn on. That's a really good feeling.

Thursdays are now the new sewing day for Sharon and me. The summer schedule has been established! She had a great one-day project yesterday, which I intend to share here tomorrow. Hope you'll come back to have a look!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Caleb's T-Shirt Quilt

Every once in a while a young person (besides your own children) come into your lives and becomes an 'extra.' For my DH and I, Caleb is that young person. He was a runner on my husband's cross country and track teams back about 7 (plus/minus) years ago, and has been a fantastic friend ever since. He regularly stops by to see 'Coach' and he even stayed at our house to dog sit when we went away last year to Siesta Key.

Caleb recently brought me a bag of his old running t-shirts to be made into a quilt. I spent yesterday stitching them up. Have a look.

This is the first of 4 t-shirt quilts I intend to make. And I hope I can be as speedy with the rest as I was with this one. Caleb's went together especially fast because I already had a good stack of fusible interfacing cut to the correct size. I did not spend excessive time fussing about the sashing strips and cornerstones - I used fabric that I had on hand. The black and gray make it look masculine, so I think it works just fine.

I was so pleased to have a finish in just one day's work. That is unusual for me, even with a simple quilt like this. Now to quilt it. On that machine I have been too timid to use. Stay tuned.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Odds and Ends

The jobs in the quilting room have been either secret or small lately. It's that time of year, you know. I have bits of things to share, so I will combine a few in today's post.

First, I helped Claudia for a bit on Friday afternoon (last week) on a t-shirt quilt she is making. It will be a nice-sized quilt, and she is currently in the process of making the last of her blocks. We discussed the size of her sashing strips, the usefulness of cornerstones, the width of the borders, etc.  She has become so knowledgeable in her new-found hobby! I am quite proud of her fantastic progress.

Next, I will give you a sneak-peak at some Santa-sewing I did on Sunday afternoon. I can't wait to share the entire project with you!

And last, for today anyway, is this cheesy picture of yours truly just after DH and I finished putting the long-arm machine together. We have both remarked that this was not nearly the intimidating job we feared it would be. Now I just need to find a few free minutes to play around with it!

For now, that's all I've got. I did sew with Sharon yesterday, so I have some progress on my December UFO to share. It is going to be so nice not to have to think about UFOs for awhile! Yes, I do still have more, but I probably won't even think of working on one for several months! This year of UFOs has done me in!

Happy Quilting, Friends!