Quilting Memories


I've been working on a project for what feels like forever now and no, it's not our wedding scrapbook (although that took me more than 3 years to finish).  Jordan and I have been planning to make a quilt of all our college t-shirts!  Well, technically Jordan wont be doing any sewing, but he did wear a lot of the shirts and helped me figure out the placement of the "squares".

I've always thought that a quilt would be lovely to have some day. Jordan and I participated in so many different things while we were in college and all the while I've had this idea in the back of my mind.  Personalized quilts are so exciting but they are most definitely a lot of work!

If you've read this blog before, you know my knitting/crocheting friend, Wendy.  Wendy is such a talented person and makes some amazing things!  You can peruse her work and fancy creations by visiting her online shop, Peas & Carrots.  Trust me, you will end up marking everything as a "favorite" if you're a fan of Etsy.com.

Wendy graciously decided to help me out with our t-shirt quilt and brought some great ideas!  We've been talking about this quilt for months and I love that I get to catch up with her regularly!

 This is a funny scratch design that I found from one of our first visits about the quilt.  We've come a long way from this little piece of paper! 

As you can tell from this scrappy design, I know very little about quilting!

With Wendy's guidance, we've talked a a lot about the different kinds of quilt options that are out there.  Below is a picture from google images that was a great inspiration.  This quilt is very Greek heavy but the overall look is what Jordan and I both liked.  



One of the biggest task we had to do was narrow down the shirts and decide which ones we wanted on the quilt.  We had 2 buckets FULL of old t-shirts from our college days in the attic so we had to pick our favorites and mock out where on the quilt they would look best.

It took Jordan and I a couple of hours to figure out what shirts were his favorite and which ones were my favorite.  Luckily, our organizations did a few events together in college so, in some cases, 1 shirt could represent us both!  We also kept rearranging the shirts so we had the best color layout.  We didn't want shirts that are the same color to be too close to each other.  That was easier said than done.

 
In the end, this was the tentative design we came up with.  I love the hodge podge of colors and designs!  Some of the shirts were pretty well worn, but I think that adds to the character of the design.  After all, these shirts have been through the wash hundreds of times and worn so much!

Several weekends ago, I had the opportunity to meet Wendy at her house for a quilting workshop!  She is so generous with her time and patiently walked me through the first steps of the quilting process.  We made a supply run to get fabric and interfacing.  Interfacing is basically a paper that you iron on to the back of a t-shirt to give it a more sturdy feel.  Here is a great YouTube video to walk you through the process if you're interested.

Here are a few pictures from the process!
Top: Finished t-shirt squares with interfacing ironed on!
Bottom: Shirts that still need interfacing done.

Top: The process of ironing on the interfacing was pretty cool.  In this top picture you will see a piece of fabric over the design.  This just helps to protect the logo.  Underneath the shirt is interfacing paper that is fusing to the t-shirt material.
Middle: This is the square ruler and rotary cutter we used to cut the shirt into a perfect square.
Bottom: end result of a finished square!

Wendy is a machine!  During our quilt workshop day, she not only walked me through the supplies and measurements but she taught me how to do the interfacing so that we could get an assembly line going.  We got about half of the shirts done but the afternoon was fast approaching and I had to scoot out.  Well, Wendy kept chugging along and got all interfacing ironed on to all of the shirts!  Wow.

Below is a picture of all the large shirts laid out and cut into perfect squares.  It looks even better now and I'm so excited to see the finished product when we are done!  This is the first of probably a couple posts about the quilt so I'll be sure to update you all as we go!



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