T-Shirt Quilt Tutorial - Gail Pickens-Barger

And while we are on the subject of t-shirt, turn your t-shirt collection into a quilt! Above is a dance t-shirt quilt that I did for one of my daughters. I took her dance t-shirts, and basically cut the fronts/backs into same sized quilt blocks.

But before I cut the t-shirts into quilt blocks, I backed the shirts with fuseable interfacing, to have a bit more strength to them. Then used a plastic square for my guide, used my olfa cutter and mat and clear ruler, plastic square and cut out the blocks.

I used the techniques listed in Nancy Johnson-Srebro's book Rotary Magic book, for cutting out the strips that I put in between my quilt blocks.

I also used her techniques in binding the quilt (and my Mom's techniques too).

Here is a link to the craft stylish website, that allows you to put together a t-shirt quilt with non-square t-shirt logos. Be sure to take a good look at that site, if you have non-square t-shirt blocks to put together for a t-shirt quilt. Gail Pickens-Barger
http://www.craftstylish.com/item/45413/how-to-make-an-out-of-the-ordinary-t-shirt-quilt-part-one

and part two of the t-shirt quilt tutorial: http://www.craftstylish.com/item/45990/how-to-make-an-out-of-the-ordinary-t-shirt-quilt-part-two

p.s. The other quilt pictured here, was one I made for Stanley School in Victoria, Texas. Took old t-shirts for the quilt, donated by teachers and students. It was a remembrance quilt, in that the students were moving to Chandler elementary school. This was part of a fund raiser for the PTA/School. Made pillows also, with the t-shirt fronts that didn't fit into the quilt.

P.s.S. Getting ready to do another batch of T-shirt quilts.  Here is a new website about it.  An Aggie T-shirt
quilt.   http://craftsbyabby.blogspot.com/2009/04/t-shirt-quilt-tutorial-planning.html 

enjoy!!!

My how they grow.....

There they are, their first dance recital, then here they are when they are in 10th & 9th grade. Amber did a traditional Mongolian dance at her induction ceremony for the Peace Corps. It was really lovely. Rachel is getting ready to graduate in dance and business and go forth to make her mark in NYC.



Here are some sewing projects, attaching ballet slipper elastic, and ribbons for the first photo. Some creative sticky tape for adhering costumes together.....a t-shirt quilt from dance shirts, then a officer exchange pillow from their Victoria Strutters Jr. High Dance and Drill Team.

pants for the cold......

So, yeah, I bought some denim, and duck cloth (quack) at Walmart yesterday. I have two super Walmarts about 3 miles away from where I live. One has a fabulous fabric/craft department. The other? Looks like it managed in a way that they want to get rid of the department. Always LOTS of $2 and $1 fabrics. I know Walmart may or may not have the best fabric, but you can get some nice finds, if you really dig.

So what is the marker of a good fabric anyway? I'd love to hear from you on this!

Today, I'm going to the "big" city....Beaumont. I'll probably either hit up Hobby Lobby or Superstore JoAnn's.

I was really spoiled in Victoria. A JoAnn's, a Fabric WareHouse, Walmart, Hobby Lobby and a so cool quilt store. The Quilter's Patch. People would come in bus loads to come to this store. The main owners of the store, well I used to work with one of the ladies husband out at DuPont. Always really nice to me! Here is the website:
http://www.quilterspatch.com/

Oh, and let's not forget Sewing Machines by B & B. Great classes! Nice machines. They did a nice job fixing a light on my Singer Featherweight, when I came and took the T-Shirt Quilt class. I also took sewing for the person, who used to sew! Lovely staff there tool!

Here is my question again: So what is the marker of a good fabric anyway? I'd love to hear from you on this!