Monday, September 23, 2013

College Dorm Quilt

Have you ever made a T-shirt quilt?
I can finally say that I have!
Last winter my husband's sister asked me to make a quilt for her son for his high school graduation, and of course I said I would!  What a perfect gift for my oldest nephew.  I still remember dancing with him on my hip at my wedding -- when he was three.  Now he's over 6 ft tall, and starting his first year of college.
And his mom kept LOTS of his T-shirts!
Of course none of them were the same size, 
so the layout was tricky.
My girls (& our cat) loved helping figure out
this huge puzzle of a quilt!
I used various Kona solids to make the blocks even.
The largest T-shirt pieces measured about 14 inches, and I added fabric to the other pieces to make 24 square blocks.  Some solid sashing around the edges helped make it large enough for a twin (extra long) bed.
This quilt is heavy!  And was not so fun to quilt!
I interfaced each T-shirt piece prior to sewing them together, which added quite a bit of weight (and took forever)!  But it made the stretchy T-shirt material much easier to work with -- so I can't imagine skipping this step.
I quilted straight lines vertically, about 3-4 inches apart, and then bound it in matching Kona solids, with a zig-zag stitch.
I'm so happy to have this quilt finished!
It was really fun watching my nephew open his graduation present -- he told his younger brother to beware that his mom might have already started stealing his T-shirts, too!
Good thing I have another 4 years until my second nephew graduates from high school.
But then there are 3 more after him, yikes!

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday.

9 comments:

  1. what a great quilt for your nephew and will remind him of the times he wore the various t shirts, good that his Mum had hoarded them. I do like quilts made out of different sized blocks, they are the ones that seem to catch my eye at the quilt shows along with the applique ones.

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  2. Great job, great gift. Well done.

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  3. Yes, they do get heavy! Just wait until they start getting married. I've made 3 double wedding ring quilts for nieces and nephew.

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  4. Way to go! I need to try a T-shirt quilt with the girls' jr. high/high band T's. Do you know, there are 2 T-shirt quilts hanging in the Denver Capitol show - they look great there!

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  5. I've never really been into the idea of t-shirt quilts but I do really really like how your added some more interest by doing a log-cabin-ish thing around some of the blocks. This sort of quilt is perfect for a teen/young adult (much younger than me!! haha)

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  6. I've not made one yet, but great tip on the interfacing! I have loads from my rowing days at uni that I would love to turn into a quilt one day...

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  7. Well it turned out fantastic and you are so brave to give it a go! I am always way to scared to even attempt this sort of quilt!

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  8. Oof, what an undertaking! It looks great, and he's going to love it!

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  9. Your corners are so perfectly matched, I wondered if you had interfaced the T-shirt fabric. You really did a great job of making the odd sizes work together. I hope your nephew loves and treasures it!

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