Quilt as You Go T-shirt Quilt

[corning]

These are notes several of us have come up with in our quilt guild. Not a published pattern.
Quilt-as-You-Go T-Shirt Quilt
Supplies:
9 – 25 T-shirts front and back
3 yds. Sashing fabric cut into 3” bias strips
1 package Hobbs fusible batting. (You can use regular batting and adhesive spray. DO IT OUTSIDE)
1. Use shirts of similar size. Determine the size of square to use by measuring the largest design.(12 ½” up to 16” )Try to center. (My designs were all high on the shirt so centering didn’t work.)

2.Using a square ruler and your rotary cutter cut the front and back of shirt at the same time. If you want to use a design on back too you should cut the shirt apart and cut squares separely.

3.Cut your fusible batting into the same sizes as your t-shirt squares.

4.Layer the back of your t-shirt block, right side down, center fusible batting square on your block, then put the front with the design, right side up on the top. Make sure your layers are smooth.

5.Using an iron, no steam, and a piece of cotton as a pressing sheet, go up and down on the top. DO NOT glide the iron as it will cause wrinkles. Once you have gone over the top, carefully flip over and iron the bottom the same way. (Very forgiving, lift up and press again if you get a wrinkle.)

6.You will now need to quilt the block using the walking foot. Walking foot is important to feed the top and bottom evenly. Use a grid design. Here are 3.
A. Use 16 squares
B. Quilt on each diagonal and then at the half marks
C. Quiltdiagonally and then 2” on each side of those lines

7. You may want to retrim your blocks, then decide on your layout.

8. To join blocks, use two 3” bias strips the length of your blocks. (For a 14” block, cut two pieces 14” long.) Press the strips in half lengthwise.

9. Lay strip with raw edges together on top and a strip on bottom of the right hand side of the first block. Pin together with lots of pins. Sew along edge at ¼ to 3/8 Inches sandwiching the t-shirt block between the strips. Press

10. Take next t-shirt block and butt edge up under the strip against the other block. Pin the strip over the block and into the strip beneath. Make sure the pin is holding the folded edge on the top and bottom. Stitch on the front side in about ¼ inch from folded edge of strip catching the back at the same time. Now top stitch on the other side.

11. Rows will be joined together with the same method using strips. Strips will need to be the length of your row. (This can get quite heavy. Use lots of pins, checking front and back.)

12. Ready for binding method of your choice.

Hints: I had a lot of shirts that were more polyester or nylon than cotton. I wish I had put interfacing on them to make them easier to handle. I also used some denim on the one for DH, some pockets, and appliquéd pieces over some holes on the one I did for DS.
Good luck! PM me with any questions

SharonS

[ollie1shoe]

thanks so much sharon for taking the time to post this so accurately i am defitnetly going to try this the next tshirt quilt i do the way i did my queen size one was really a task as i put the designs on front and back of quilt so basically i made 2 quilt fronts as it is reversible but oh such a heavy quilt to handle under my small sewing machine it just wasnt made to do a quilt this thick and heavy thanks again glenda

[rosebud3]

btt to review instructions.

[tmoyers83]

I understand the 3" bias strips but after that step I am lost as to how to use them. Do you have any visuals that you could share as to how to use them to put the quilt together? Also is batting not used in the making of this quilt?