make a t-shirt quilt

My friend did this out of her old T-shirts from high school clubs and events. I have a ton from church and school that I would like to put together as a way to save these memories and get me to stop wearing T-shirts so often. :D

After years of cross country, track, and marching band, I have plenty of t-shirts. And as I get ready to finish college what better way to preserve those memories than through a quilt?

I will add photos when I upload them to the computer. I’m so happy to finally have finished this goal. I gave it to my friend and she was just thrilled!

Yay!!!

Since my last update, I have “tied” the quilt by sewing buttons all over it, I have sewn strips along all four sides that will serve as borders, and I’ve started the hand sewing. I’ve gotten around 2 and 1/2 sides of the quilt and I still have to:

*Hand-sew around the remaining 1 and 1/2 sides
*Roll down the quilt to get rid of any cat hair
*Trim loose threads
*Double check all the buttons to be sure they are secure

I have until Saturday early afternoon when my friend arrives, to finish. I’m really under the gun at this point, but it seems like a reasonable goal. I’ll be sewing tonight when I get home, and hopefully I’ll get it mostly done tonight, then I can do all the little touch ups tomorrow night and then have it wrapped up and finished on Saturday morning!

Wish me luck on the home stretch!!! :)

Now I will move on to this project after work today. I have the rest of the week nights of this week to finish it, as the recipient will come to town on Saturday and I need to give it to her then. I should not have trouble finishing it, as I just have to tie it (although I’m using big buttons instead of normal ties), and then sew on the border around the edge (actually, that reminds me that I have to decide what to do for a border). I should not have trouble finishing it and I am sooooo looking forward to giving it to my friend and checking this one off the list!

I’m sure I’ll post updates to spur me along as I get closer!

So, I spent all day Saturday with my mother and we finished ironing the t-shirts onto interfacing and cutting them into uniform squares. We also cut out the bits of fabric to go in between the squares. We sewed the entire top of the quilt together and it looks great! My mom gave me a whole bunch of lightweight denim that she had hanging around to use for the back of the quilt. On the way home, my husband and I stopped at a fabric store and bought the batting, a pillow form (for the couple of extra squares that we couldn’t squeeze into the quilt – I am going to make a throw pillow with those) and a whole bunch of oversized buttons in a variety of colors that I’m going to use to tie the quilt together. My friend is coming up in just 19 days, so I am getting anxious about getting it done (since I have so much else going on as well at the moment!), however the hard part is done, so it should go smoothly and quickly from here on out. Watch for a message soon saying that I’ve finished! :)

I got together with my mom and my grandmother last weekend and we cut out all the t-shirts and ironed them onto interfacing and then cut them into perfect squares. I am going down again tonight to cut out the material that goes in between as well as plan it out and sew it. I hope to be pretty well along when this weekend is over!

I have a plan to get together with my mother this weekend and get a good start on the quilt. The biggest problem for me is that I don’t really know how to get started. My mom is an expert seamstress, so she will be able to get me well on my way. Once I’m started, I’m sure I’ll be able to sew it up quickly. I’m looking forward to finishing and to giving it to my friend as a gift in 30 days! :)

A couple – very good friends of ours – moved out of state a couple of years ago. When they were leaving, they had a huge bag of t-shirts that they didn’t want to throw out and I offered, as a housewarming gift to them to make a t-shirt quilt. Well, now it has been so long that I am kind of avoiding them because I’m embarrassed that I haven’t sent them the quilt yet. It’s really bad and a friendship should not be ruined over this. I made a new year’s resolution to finish it this year. I know they are looking to buy a house now (they were previously renting), so maybe I can finish it as a housewarming gift for that place. :/

Over twenty years of skydiving I collected many t-shirts. I saved these t-shirts over the years, not really knowing what I would do with them. Each one held a bit of memory of my life.
Now I know why I saved them.