Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Puzzle Style T-Shirt Quilt

60 x 72

I have been wanting to try this style of t-shirt quilt for years and I finally gathered all of Rebecca's shirts and gave it a try. There are several different ways to do it, but I chose to use this template and planner pages from Lisa Capen Quilts on Etsy. 

I measured the minimum size of each logo on every shirt including the little logos also. I logged that info on the planning sheet by color. Then I loaded the template on inkscape and drew the boxes following the directions in this video. I ended up with this design, filling in the holes with extra t-shirt pieces. If you look closely, you will see that my blocks are hanging off 4 inches on each side. That is how I designed it bigger. But in hindsight I could have use the twin size template instead.
I purchased this Heat Press Machine because I will be making more t-shirt quilts for my kids. It saved me so much time and was well worth the price. I pressed at 300 degrees for 10 seconds using the Teflon sheet and a cotton pressing sheet. I sprayed with water, but I don't know if it was necessary. I had no trouble with any lifting of edges at all. 


I backed the quilt with black minky and used hobbs batting. Oh my goodness, is it cuddly! I am very tempted to use it until my daughter can come home for Christmas!!! 


 I quilted it with a little larger than normal meander and changed the needle to FFG. If I don't document this I will forget by the time I get to the next one, even though that should be in a couple months.  Last and final note - I like the smaller blocks better, trimming close to the logo. Becca wanted 2 quilts because she has so many shirts so I ended up having to stretch the shirts a bit to fit the quilt size. 

Hope this helps you too if you are thinking about making a t-shirt quilt. Remember to measure, measure, and measure again. Once it's cut that it! I only messed up once and fortunately I cut it too big and not too small. Best of luck to you!

Clustered Gems

56 x 64

I had a layer cake hiding in my closet so I went on a search for a quilt to make with it. I found Clustered Gems and decided it would be a good fit. I pulled a few more fabrics from my stash so that I could add an extra row and an extra column. So my quilt finishes a little bigger than the original pattern.


I had some extra pieces left over from the fabric strips I cut so I added them to the back and used the extra blue for the binding. 


 Feels really good to have a quilt finish!