Saturday, September 19, 2015

It's Even Better to Finish Quilts for Young Friends

Two easy finishes! Both the t-shirt quilts are done and gifted.

Colorful t-shirt quilt sashed with baseball prints. Wide green border, striped binding.
Baseball t-shirt quilt

Because each shirt was cut to the size of the printing on it, there were some "shortages" when it came time to sew them together. Those areas were filled with t-shirt tails. The green square printed 2006-2007 in the quilt below was short on two sides. Those two tails are very successful {in my opinion.}

T-shirts sashed in black and white fabrics.
Black and white t-shirt quilt

A meandering pattern was the easiest way to avoid the "rubbery" parts of the t-shirts. (Poking needle holes in the rubber just makes it peel off.)

Baseball t-shirt quilt detail

Even the bindings came from stash. {Keep that fabric moving, is my motto.} The lengthwise stripe on the baseball quilt was very easy; just cut WOFs. The zigzag ran WOF so I cut binding lengthwise on a half-yard. Many joinings. Barely enough to bind the quilt. But worth it to me.

Striped binding on two t-shirt quilts

However, the level of my stash has not been noticeably reduced. Doggone it.

Enjoy the day,
Ann

14 comments:

Monica said...

No, the stash never gets smaller. I used to hope to at least keep it from growing, but that plan has been a failure too.

Your quilts, though, both came out great! I really like the tie dye tails as well. I'm sure they were well received!

Ann said...

Isn't that the truth. Although I have managed to keep it from growing.
The quilts were so much fun and went together quickly. I'm so please with my shirt tail idea. It added their same colors to the quilts. The fabrics I added were great but the quilts didn't need more of them. The shirt tails were similar to improv fillers.
And the kids love their quilts. Hooray!

Kaja said...

These are fun and I think using the shirt tails as fillers was very clever - they worked perfectly and I think help a lot with the scrappy but coherent look you have achieved. I'd never thought about quilting the rubbery bits but it's a tip I shall tuck away at the back of my mind for the future.

LA Paylor said...

these are well done! It's not easy to make these look balanced but you did. LeeAnna

Ann said...

Thanks, Kaja. The shirt tails were a random idea when I needed some filler but they did work well. I think it's because they are the exact same colors/shades as the large t-shirt blocks.

Ann said...

Thanks for the kind words, LeeAnna.

Janie said...

Those quilts are in the true spirit of quilting, meaningful and making due and while you're at it some improv.. Great work Ann.

Ann said...

Thanks for writing, Janie. Great insight: I wanted to make these gifts but also didn't want to buy more fabric. Figuring a small way to improvise the setting was a good challenge for me, too.

Birgitte said...

What a smart idea to make quilts out of t-shirt prints! Then each quilt is unique. Beautiful!

Ann said...

Thanks, Birgitte. It's not my idea; I think people have been making them for 20+ years. And everyone probably started because their child wanted to keep the shirts. :-) They are always unique and well-loved.

Mel said...

Ann--I love the slices of bright tye dye in the one quilt--really adds a great pop of color throughout. So much fun!!

Ann said...

That was fun although I thought it might be too bright. But he had two tie-dyed shirts in the top so it ended up blending in some odd way.

Unknown said...

What a fun quilt! Great idea!!

Ann said...

Thanks, Maartje.