Over the last week, I've had the pleasure to start working on another custom T-shirt quilt. This one is especially fun, because it's using all child-sized shirts...and lots of them! I have 51 designs going into this one to make a generous twin-sized quilt.
As always, I start my T-shirt/memory quilts on paper. I measure out the designs and the width of each shirt to give me the range of size I can use for each design. Then I break out the graph paper and start figuring out the math....it's like playing a game of tetris. I usually erase lots, and often it takes a couple days before I can make it "click". I love this part, even though it's probably the hardest part.
Once that's done, I only cut and sew one column or row at a time, marking them off on both of my sheets as I go. It may seem redundant, and time-consuming, but if I don't do it like that...I'm bound to either mix something up, or lose my place.
It seems like I always have at least one column that needs to be all the same width. This quilt will have 2, but here's the first one completed.
Then here's where I left off yesterday...2 Columns down!
So, that's what I'm working on right now! I'd love to hear if you're working on anything or if you start your T-shirt quilts with a different method.
Have a great day!
I'm linking up today with Let's Bee Social, WOW, and Wednesday Wait Loss!
I have made one tshirt quilt. I kind of followed a pattern, but the tshirts, of course, were many different sizes. So I cut them out larger and then I would kind of "shave down" to fit a particular block in the pattern. I did have a similar graph that I worked off of. It seemed like I kept moving certain ones around. I finally just "winged it"! Your blocks look nice and centered. I'm sure this will turn out wonderful!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Danette! There's definitely a learning process to it all. The first couple I did...I definitely winged and they were so stressful! This keeps me sane. ;) Thanks so much for stopping by today!
DeleteThanks for sharing your process! I've never made a tshirt quilt but I'm sure one is in my future. I'll remember your technique and be sure to "Tetris" it before I cut. Thanks for sharing on Wednesday Wait Loss.
ReplyDelete