Author: Teresa

Quilts, good books and dogs. Plus a cup of tea. Life is good.

Mosaic T-Shirt Quilt Revealed!

December 27, 2013

mosaic tshirt quilt

FINALLY!

I can post a picture of the full-size mosaic t-shirt quilt I made as a Christmas present for my friend’s daughter, who is a Georgia Tech cheerleader.

The Too Cool T-Shirt Quilt by Andrea Funk was my inspiration for this quilt.  You can buy a copy of her book here if you want to DIY.  Be forewarned that this style of quilt is a LOT more labor intensive than a traditional grid-style t-shirt quilt.  That’s why they cost more (in case you are looking to hire someone to make it for your special someone).

How mine differs from the book:

~ Every bit of t-shirt fabric is backed with fusible interfacing.
~ Batting is Pellon’s Nature’s Touch, which has a soft hand.
~ Each block is individually quilted in a meander style (per customer’s request) with top thread color changed to mach the t-shirt.

A friend who makes t-shirt quilts like this on a full-time basis (she is a franchisee) warned me that the quilt would be extremely heavy to quilt because of the fusible interfacing.  It was.  I quilted it over a weekend and by Sunday afternoon, my hands were so sore from gripping the fabric that I could hardly write my name.  (Note to self:  remember this is why you prefer stadium/throw size and smaller quilts!)

I’m not going to give away any secrets in the book;  but one tip I will share is that if you think you’ll make more than one quilt in this style, it’s a great idea to invest in your own set of acrylic templates.  If you are like most quilters, you probably already have the square rulers in your stash (4-1/2″, 8-1/2″ and 12-1/2″ – perhaps the 16-1/2″ too).   I found a local supplier, Professional Plastics, who was willing to cut the remaining templates to size for me (about $50 including tax).   The templates were ready for pick-up the next day.

My end-of-year purchases included completing my set of templates for the mosaic style t-shirt quilt (so I can keep my other rulers separate) and a bolt of woven fusible interfacing (Pellon SF-101).  Another friend has promised to bring me a batch of sorority shirts  for me to make into a throw size mosaic t-shirt quilt when I return to work in January.

Baby Quilt Backings – Microfleece

December 14, 2013

Ever have what you think is a brilliant idea that definitely doesn’t work when it comes time to execute?

Well, that happened to me on a recent project involving backing fabric for a baby quilt.  The quilt top incorporated fussy cuts of different fleece fabrics the customer had supplied.  I thought it would be a great idea to use the leftover fleece as the backing fabric.  WRONG!  So, on to Plan B.

Due to a tight deadline, I had to shop my stash to come up with alternatives for the customer. She settled on a dark blue micro-fleece.  It’s a double-layer soft fleece that almost resembles velour.  It felt wonderful to my hand;  however it was reputed to be a true PITA to sew because it stretches so much.

I am happy to report that the micro-fleece sewed like a dream with only minimal stretching.  How’d I do that?

Machine:  Janome 6600

Stitch:  Straight,  3.0 length
Foot:  Accufeed/walking foot with open toe
Foot pressure setting:  #2 (I reduced the pressure by one number)
Needle:  70/10 or 80/12 Microtex
Thread:  Coats & Clark cotton covered polyester 35 weight machine quilting thread
Batting:  Quilter’s Dream 70/30 batting

I was also able to machine stitch the binding using the little Clover clips rather than my normal glue basting method.   No mess and no sticky fingers!

Perhaps the stars were in alignment, but this combination worked so well, I wrote the settings in the little notebook I keep by my sewing machine.  This little fleece is more expensive than the standard fleece you find in the stores, so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for a sale.  I will definitely use this with other baby quilts.

 

 

 

Stitchy woman

December 11, 2013

No, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth…

I’ve been busy finishing up customer Christmas gifts.  I know the recipients will LOVE their quilts.

Everything will be delivered/shipped by Saturday a.m., so I can enjoy at least one weekend before the Christmas craziness to get some presents bought.

To the folks who followed a FB share here hoping to see pictures of a mosaic t-shirt pillow – I apologize.  After that FB share, the recipient’s mom asked me to take the blog post down so things could remain a surprise (she’s got 4 other kids, all of whom have seen the pillows so good luck with that my friend! :-)). Blog posts and pictures are coming after Christmas, I promise!