When I started doing quilting for others I thought I would be focusing on baby and toddler quilts. They are quicker and easier - and therefore cheaper. But it seems that the people that find me are taking that in a different direction. I just finished a Full-sized t-shirt quilt. This is the second larger quilt that I have done for a non-family member and apparently there are more people looking for someone to do t-shirt quilts!
T-shirt quilts have been fun and special for me to do.
This is the first t-shirt quilt I did and I was happy to be able to help a friend save some very special memories. It included items from her baby shower, her daughters' coming home outfit, her baptism, several runs that she had done, and other things.
I learned a lot doing this one and I am glad that she was patient as it was a learning experience to say the least, and life was crazy at that point too. It took longer than I expected. I learned what not to do and what works better in with several different things.
With that experience I was able to give the next person a much better time frame, and I know that for base price I needed all the squares to be the SAME size! I would be willing to do different size ones again, but would definitely charge for it!
Stabilizing the t-shirts is critical for some many reasons. But mainly they stretch so much that it is difficult to get an accurate cut or sew straight seams. This is the latest t-shirt quilt I did with the squares stabilized.
With the squares ready, I started sewing them into rows. I had discussed design with the client when I met with them and she had picked out materials. She decided to go with sashing (the purple pieces) and cornerstones (the pink pieces). Straight sashing can be easier, but I like the look of the cornerstones best myself. Getting them to line up can be tricky though.
All the rows are complete. This was before I sewed the rows together. But you could really see it taking shape. I honestly was not sure how the colors she had chosen were going to work out (even though they are some of my favorites to use myself!). But at this point, I knew it was going to be amazing! I sewed the rows together.
And added the border pieces. (Top and bottom only pictured here)
Next is putting the backing down, for this size quilt it is two pieces of fabric sewn together and laid out, then the batting on top of that, then the quilt top on top of that. The most difficult thing is making sure that all of them are as flat and straight as possible. Otherwise you end up with a LOT of ripples and ridges in your quilt. I have found that I prefer to baste my quilts with curved basting pins. They look like safety pins that have curves in them. This is with the quilt basted and ready for quilting!
Rainy summer days... In Oklahoma! Not a common thing, but makes it great for getting some quilting done! Quilting any quilt, but especially one this big, on a small home machine can be challenging. But it can also be rewarding. I am not spending money (nor are my clients) to send it out to have it done. And I am not having to wait until someone else has time to do it. I did free-motion stippling on this quilt and it was the first time I have done that without any guidelines at all. I have been practicing free-motion quilting without drawing lines on quilts that I have been making my kids. But those have been smaller. I am very glad I had done a larger quilt similar to this and practiced free-motion on quilts for my kids! It gave me the confidence that I needed to be able to do this project with relative ease.
After a couple of days of quilting, I got it done! This was really relatively quick! Now I cut away the extra batting and backing (you have to make sure there is extra because the sewing machine feeds it in at a slightly different rate and it will mess of the dimensions if you tried to have them the exact same!) and prepare the binding. This is cutting strips of fabric, sewing them together into one BIG, LONG chain, and ironing it in half. This is where I do things different than a lot of people. I sew my binding to the front first. Then I turn it over and machine sew it to the back. I do this because, first the front looks better this way, and second I machine sew to the back because I am a busy momma with 4 kids! If I were to have to hand sew it, it would take much longer, and I like getting quilts....
DONE!
I am excited to be getting this to the client this week, and right in the middle of the time frame estimate I gave her! It is rewarding for me to be a part of preserving the memories that they have - even if I do not know them, into something that I know that they will treasure. I love being able to create and be creative with quilting. I always hope that my clients love their quilts as much as I have loved making them for them!
First we have to move the canvas - we got 100 yards so this is not small task! The shipping label said 113 pounds. Robert is smart and goes and gets help to move it. 
Katherine was helping us do measurements and getting things as we needed them so that we could try and keep moving as quickly as possible. I had my large cutting mat, ruler, and rotary cutter out with us as well. Boy I am so glad that I quilt and have supplies like this! It sure made the job a lot easier. With the chalk lines it made it easy to know where cuts need to be made and made it much easier to get the angles we needed. The rotary instead of scissors gives a more precise (and quicker line). Eventually we ran out of daylight, completely. And I called it for the night and moved inside to do a few of the cuts inside while the kids got ready for bed.
