Tuesday, May 26, 2009

I did it!


I'm jumping up and down with joy because I finished the t shirt quilt for my principal and it turned out great. This is the biggest quilt I have ever done so far. It is twin size and super heavy because of the shirts and the interfacing.


I learned a couple of things from my online friends about making a t shirt quilt. The printed part of the shirt likes to stick to the foot of the machine. One person suggested putting a little baby powder on the sticky part and the machine will glide over it easier. Not too much or it will gum up your machine. I'll have to try that on the next quilt.


Another person suggested not interfacing the t shirts. I'm not sure how well this would work for me. The shirts like to stretch, but I think if you sew with the shirts on the bottom and the cotton fabric on the top, it might go ok. With the twisted blocks, the seams are small in the corners so that would be a problem too, but maybe with straight sashing it would work out ok.


Finally, it was suggested not to quilt the t shirts, but to quilt only on the cotton part of the quilt. This is interesting, because then the t shirts will really stand out from the rest of the quilt. Since these blocks are big (12 inches) I'm not sure how well the quilt would hold up in the wash, but with smaller blocks, I think that would work well.


I am going to give it to my principal tomorrow at the staff meeting. I'm a little nervous because while I like making the quilts, I don't like everyone looking at me when I give one as a gift. I'd rather just leave it on her desk and run away but I don't think that will go over very well.


Wish me luck! So I don't pee my pants or pass out when I have to get up in front of the whole staff to give her the quilt.

5 comments:

Carla said...

FABULOUS!!!

Nancy said...

This is a great idea for a gift. I would have loved to have something like that from every school where I taught. I like the all over quilting, and you did a wonderful job. Kudos! :o)

Pat L said...

It came out great! Heavy quilts are so hard to put together, congrats on your perseverance. It is the perfect memento.
Pat L in NY

Quilter Kathy said...

Great job! I'm sure this will be a treasured gift!

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

greatjob!!! Yay you!!