T-Shirt Quilts

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Comment by Kim Hyatt on November 14, 2009 at 6:30am

I have a collection of t-shirts from donating blood to my area blood bank. I think I have enough to make a quilt...when it's finished I would like to give it to the blood bank as a wallhanging for one of their locations. I've seen alot of articles on making t-shirt quilts, but have no idea which method is best. I've never worked with t-shirt fabric so I'm a little hesitant to start.

Comment by Cottonwood Quilter on November 11, 2009 at 5:26pm

Hi Charlotte, great to see you hear, I know the two of us can learn a great deal here. As for the stretch with T-shirts, I bought a very light cotton with an iron on side, I have used it for other quilts like an embroidered dime blocks that I had done and it really worked well. I am anxious to start my Tshirt quilt for my DSIL, but will be awhile, too many irons in the fire right now, all I can see is butterflies!!!
Glad you joined this group, you will enjoy it, and maybe some of the members would like to join our Love of Art Quilt Group, as both are very informative.
Have a great evening Ladies!

Comment by Charlotte Gustavson on November 11, 2009 at 5:13pm

Thanks, ladies!

Comment by Kim's Kwilting on November 11, 2009 at 3:55pm

Hi,
I don't use any backing on mine. If the tee's are thin then i cut them double thickness so they won't be so flimsy and see through. I've made 3 this way and it works just fine. Kim

Comment by Annie Zipser on November 11, 2009 at 3:27pm

Hi Charlotte,
Welcome to the group. Check out Chris' T-shirt Quilt process..it's in the discussion section of this group and I believe she goes into which interfacing she uses. I used a very lightweight one for my quilt and wish I had used a slightly stiffer one.
Annie

Comment by Charlotte Gustavson on November 11, 2009 at 2:42pm

Hi, All! I just joined your group. Somehow I got talking to my Art Quilts group about making a T-shirt quilt and Cottonwood Quilter told me about this group. I didn't know you were here! LOL
My first look at your quilts was to see Shirley's finished music themed quilt. I wasn't sure which I envied more: the quilt or the actual Ts! ; )
I have a bag of Ts from my neighbor and finally looked at them today to find that he gave me music themed shirts in bright colors (he's color-blind, so he usually picks out anything turquoise because he can see it! lol). I just had a whole discussion on the other page on how I can create this T-shirt quilt and give it *Art Quilt* flair! Now I'm anxious to get it started.
I just watched a Fons & Porter video on making a T-shirt quilt. They were using tricot as their backing. That sounded a bit stretchy to me (kinda like the double-knit fabrics from the 70's.Yikes!) One of you mentioned a Pellon stabilizer. Is the one you mentioned a stiff one or a stabilizer that you'd use for making clothing? (Like the stuff inside your jacket lapels or collars)
Just a note on why people don't want to pay for quilts: Since they don't make them, they have no idea how labor intensive they can be. They can go into any department store that sells bedding and get something that looks like it was hand quilted, although poorly, for under $100; some for a lot less. They don't realize that the stitching is poorly done on those quilts because it's more than likely done by children in some third world country. You can't compete with that. You would have to sell your wares somewhere there's a quilt shop and people know the value of hand-made merchandise.
Sorry! That was one of my pet peeves that just got loose! LOL
Looking forward to getting to know you all!

Comment by Kim's Kwilting on October 30, 2009 at 2:37pm

I price mine by square inch and by number of t-shirts. Also if i add items on top of a block like gloves, hats, costume parts etc. i charge 5.00 each.

Comment by Annie Zipser on October 30, 2009 at 2:29pm

I have no idea how one would price a T-shirt quilt...or any other quilt...and have it be a price that is what the quilt is worth and what people are willing to pay. I have heard many different ideas on pricing....from them it would seem that all our quilts should be priced over $1000 (at least the bed sized ones).

Comment by jbt on October 30, 2009 at 7:24am

I am donating a Tquilt to a silent auction for my DD high school fundraiser. I was asked to estimate value, so I went to the campusquilt site, for 12 panels w/sashing they would charge 195.00. I suggested that be the value, my DD said it should be at least 250.00. Then a person who saw the quilt and said that's really nice, he would pay 100.00 for it. I am not going try to guess what the final bid will be. Have a great day everyone.

Comment by Annie Zipser on October 19, 2009 at 1:54pm

On the T-shirt parts, I matched the threads as well as I could and just stippled...in a not particularly organized manner.

I did a lot of stitch in the ditch on the rest of the quilt.
Thank you for your compliment.

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