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!!!

Another batch of t-shirt pillows!

Here is another batch of t-shirt pillows!  Doing this for a church fundraiser.  If you want one, email me, and I'll get your vitals!

Sewing and Gardening

Will and Steve built my Rectangular Garden the other day. I finally got my soil in, and now have my little plants planted.  Planted carrots, variations of lettuce, spinach, pepper plants, gourds.  Used the Square Foot Garden Method for planting.  My gourds are the first things that are coming up.

You can also see the fence that my husband, my son, my oldest daughter help to install.  All three really know how to use tools.

Below are the Senior Scholarship T-Shirt Envelope Pillows.  Yeah, they are finally done.  Sure did take a while as, I didn't have much snipits of time.  That is why I like to work on them early in the spring.

I'm thinking about making a t-shirt quilt here in the near future.

Flanged Enveloped Backed T-Shirt Pillows - Again!

The other day I timed myself on each step that it took, to make a flanged enveloped backed t-shirt pillow.

After washing the t-shirt and smoothing it out, and then cutting up the sides of the shirt....after all of that, it took over an hours time to put together the t-shirt pillow.  What was amazing to me, was that the ironing part of constructing the pillow was the longest part of the process.  I timed the construction process, so I could know how much time it took, and if I was ever asked to make these pillows for the PTA again, I could figure out how much to charge for my time.

Course, that is IF I could get one hours of time in one sitting.  That never happens, and if you do this in one session, without getting up and stretching, you might be a little stiff!  Sewing Yoga anyone? 

This assumes too, that you have ALL the proper tools.  Rotary cutter and cutting board, plastic square to go by, a cutting ruler.  If you don't have that, it would take much more time to get an accurate square.  Plus, I had to figure out, how to "center" the design.  Basically had to add 3-4 inches to the top of the square, in order to have the Bulldog t-shirt design be centered on the final product.

Centering the clear plastic template and deciding how much to add to the top of the pillow.
Cutting out the initial square.

Adding a strip of material to the top of the pillow front.

Easy once you've figured it out, not so easy to start the first pillow though.

Gaileee