My First...

I love finishing 'My First...' no matter what it is.  The first time I finish a new workout, the first time I try cooking a new dish, and of course, the first time I try a new technique or design with my quilting. Today's 'First' is my SIL's T-shirt Quilt. It's a technique that I've been very curious about and have wanted to try, but just haven't gotten around to (or really have many tee's to try it with).  It's opened all new doors for me as I think about my children's fave t-shirts that they've grown out of.  Like family photo's, it's crushing to leave them in a box in the closet rarely seeing the light of day. Now, these tee's can breath new life and continue to provide warmth, both physically and emotionally. Okay, now I'm just getting sappy, so here's the fantastic quilt.

I looked on-line for layout ideas and found myself continually returning to a more abstract, modern layout. I decided cut them based on the size of the print on the tee and then fit them together like a jigsaw. Overall, this approach worked pretty well.

I was unaware of just how much interfacing goes into this and ended up making several trips to the store for more.  I think next time I'm better off buying a whole bolt. Eventually it will be used, right?

I struggled a little bit with how to quilt it. My original plan was to do a basic meander across the whole thing with an invisible thread. However, on my sample the invisible wasn't so invisible on the white parts of the tee's and it kept getting caught up on my machine so I was unimpressed. Onto the next idea of using white, but I didn't care much for that because it showed too much on the t-shirt prints. Finally, I settled on a modern bubble pattern in the sashing to frame the tee's. It went with the bubbly backing and I found a thread that matched perfectly.

When attaching the binding, I added a tag for the date and who made it. I tried making my own tags, but I think the blue is too light and difficult to see. I'm going to try making some more because this was way easier than making a whole label and it accomplishes the goal of naming and dating my projects.

Are there things I'd do differently? Sure, aren't there always. But, I am so very happy with how this turned out. It's soft, warm, not too big but still a good size, and it really showcases all of her hard work in running over the years.

Finally, I made a bag for it using the sashing and backing fabrics. It's actually a pillowcase pattern (if she wanted to have a pillow with it) because I love how simple that pattern is and nice it looks when finished.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finished Friday. And now, it's off to enjoy more of our whirlwind trip to visit family. Having a blast, although I haven't been able to hunt down any quilt shops yet. All in good time.