T-Shirt Quilt Finished

This quilt is finally done and in the mail. Wow. It's taken longer than any other t-shirt quilt I've made. {Guess I'm out of practice.}

She wanted many t-shirts incorporated. They each represent an important memory. After choosing the twelve main blocks she then selected 20 pocket logos for posts. Did you notice the lower left block is actually two t-shirts sewn together?

Megan t-shirt quilt

Text bites and images from  the remaining shirts and leftovers from shirts already used were scattered across the surface and machine appliqued with matching thread or invisible nylon. These are usually placed in bare areas of the larger blocks and extend into the sashing. Two of them are actual pockets cut so the pocket still works. With so many layers, both sewing and quilting must be slow and careful.

And look at the binding. It's an older 30's reproduction plaid on point that I loved but never used. I think it goes very well with both front and back. Who'd have thought? {I love mixing styles unexpectedly.}

Megan's t-shirt quilt, detail of binding,
backing and free-motion quilting

 Quilting the border seemed daunting originally. How would I highlight the huge circles. I worried too much. It's a combination of spirals with echos to get to a new area. I used purple thread. The pink and blue threads were too severe on alternate colors. Purple blends pink and blue; perhaps that's why it worked here.

Border folded to half circle

We considered cutting the binding at half and three-quarters of the circles by the simple expedient of folding the border back.

Border folded to 3/4 of the circles

The half circles may be my favorite but overall, the border seems too narrow for the quilt. The partial circle is neither here nor there.

Quilt Details

Size: 77" x 96"

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose 100% cotton

Thread: Various cotton, Metler neon polyester, YLI invisible nylon

Quilting: Walking foot and free motion on a domestic machine

Enjoy the day,
Ann