Variations on a theme and something completely different

As mentioned previously I've tended to approach these quilts fairly consistently since the idea is to showcase the shirts (and the related memories).  Most of the time I've not been trying to make an artistic statement.  And most of the time there hasn't been a lot of time. 

This particular quilt is a bit of an anomaly.  A sweet quilting friend had started the quilt as a commission but then became ill.  She asked if I would be willing to finish it for her. It was fun to complete her vision and work with her fun bright colors.  The shirts were a bit odd, a legal professional group and all the same.  But that's ok.  It still turned out fun and the owner was happy.

 

A word about quilting.  My first t-shirt quilt I was very worried that the thread would fray if I sewed through the plastic of the t-shirt transfer too often, so I did my best to not sew through large areas.  I also quilted words into the quilt.  But this one was for my special daughter.  Subsequent quilts I decided the quilting wasn't going to show much and started doing all-over doodle type quilting.  It does make a fun pattern on the back of the quilt.  This is one of my favorites.

 

 

This quilt was made for another friend of my daughter's.  The young lady's sister liked her quilt so much, she asked me to made a couple of baby t-shirt quilts from her daughters' onesies. 

This quilt was made for a woman at my church from her father's t-shirts after his sudden death.  Only 4 of the shirts had transfers on them, so I used the remaining shirts as large color blocks.  I was concerned at first when I realized so few of the shirts had patterns, but I was pleased with how it turned out.  And I know the family loves the quilt and the remembrance of the dad and grandfather.

I made this quilt as a graduation present for a young woman who liked to collect odd shirts and liked super heroes.  Her mom brought me 3 grocery sacks of t-shirts and told me to just pick the ones I wanted.  I think that was the hardest part of this quilt, decided which shirts to pick without knowing which ones she would like.  I won't do that again!  In the spirit of the silly shirts, I used the wildest random fabrics I had in my stash for the sashing and borders, fabrics I hadn't been able to figure out how to use.

 

This quilt was made using a mixture of t-shirts and sports jerseys.  The jersey fabric was a little tricky to use.I discovered some of the numbers weren't fused too well and I had to figure out how to get them to stick without melting.  Which brings up a good reminder - DO NOT IRON on the front of the t-shirt without protecting the transfer - parchment paper works well (the kitchen kind).  For the sashing, the owner and I selected a dark gray marbled fabric that accented the yellow and red with black in the shirts.

Trenton's quilt