Depauw T-shirt Quilt - Work in Progress

Hello!  I've been working on this great t-shirt quilt over the last couple of weeks, and it came to my mind that I don't show my process nearly enough.  So...I'm going to do a little of that today.  I haven't remembered to take pictures of every step, but you should be able to see a bit of how I plan these kinds of quilts.

The first thing I do is cut apart all of the shirts and count the designs available.  Then I measure each design, with a half inch extra on each side, AND the width of the shirt from seam to seam (or sleeve to sleeve).  I write it all down in my planner with a brief description of the shirt.  These measurements give me the range of size I can cut and use for each design.

When I'm done, I put a little letter beside each entry to help with the next step, which is...graphing it out!  I start with a rectangle that represents the ideal size I'm shooting for.  Then, I play a mathtastic game of Tetris, until I find the perfect fit for each piece.  This step is probably the longest step on quilts like this one where each square is a different size.

Notice how I put the identification letter and shirt color in each spot, so that I don't accidentally put the yellows together or the red next to the pink.

Since this quilt worked out to fit well in columns, I cut and sewed one column at a time, so that I wouldn't mix them up could be organized.

Here is a picture of the first 3 columns finished.

Once the columns were done, I cut 10 2.5" strips of gray sashing, sewed them into one super long strip, then cut them down to 5 strips of 74.5" each.  Carefully pinning the sashing to the t-shirt really helps me keep it in line and the stretchy shirts from getting out of line.

This morning, I cut the small inner border that will be the next to go on, then I'll finish the top with a wider print border.  It will finish out at as a full sized quilt when it's all said and done.  I haven't decided on the quilting design quite yet...something free-motion, I'm sure.  ^_^

Anywho, thanks for stopping by and letting me share with you.  Have a great day!

~Summer



I'm linking up today with Monday Making, MCM, and Moving It Forward!