I just finished making a commission t-shirt quilt for a friend.  Leslie has t-shirts from her world travels. In asking what she envisioned the quilt to look like, she said she didn't what a straight block quilt.  Her t-shirts were various sizes and she just didn't want boring. She also didn't want a t-shirt quilt where nothing separated the t-shirts. 

So . . . to the drawing board I went.

I had Leslie sort her shirts into piles of 1 thru 4, with the 1's being shirts she definitely wanted in the quilt. I then measured the motifs of the 1's and 2's.  I made all my measurements in increments of 3 inches for easier planning.  I then sat with graph paper and laid out various options. 

My first few attempts didn't use enough of the shirts! To get more shirts in, it was too large for the wall she wanted to hang the quilt on. I adapted my drafting to put some t-shirts corner to corner.  Then I drew a few options where a portion of the t-shirts were next to each other.  I was able to get many more shirts into the design.  I even incorporated some of the smaller 3's and 4's into the quilt!

I wasn't sure Leslie wanted the t-shirts next to each other even if just a portion overlapped.  I decided to add a flippy border around each t-shirt. A great idea but the lighter blue next to the shirts looked washed out and didn't highlight the t-shirts at all!  A double flippy border was the answer.  I have never done a double flippy before, but why not.  I used the sashing fabric as a 5/8" flippy and the lighter blue as a 1/4" flippy.

A flippy is generally a 1" strip of fabric ironed in half to result in a 1/2" inch strip of fabric.  You insert the strip between the two fabrics you are sewing together.  When you open the seam, you have a "floating" 1/4" of fabric.  You can iron the flippy to lay either way you choose to highlight your quilt.  Using two together was new but I thought would work well.

The result was awesome!  The quilt is a little "fat" or thick where all the flippy seams are next to each other.  A lot of steam from the iron, got them to lay as flat as they were going to. I quilted the t-shirts by going around the motifs and stippling in the sashing.  An overall quilting pattern was just not going to show off the t-shirts well at all.

Leslie hasn't seen the quilt yet.  I will be sending it to her shortly.  I will add her comments when I hear back from her.  

You be the judge - was the effort worth it?

Hi Cindy,

I got the quilt!!! It's BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to get it hung on the wall. I love the colors and outline borders you used. Did you wash the T-shirts before putting them in? The white looks so white!

Thanks again. I LOVE it!
Leslie

Cindy Hopper