Sound Bites & Snap Shots

Wouldn’t you know I was working on the last shirt quilt when a request to make another one rolled in?  Out of the blue Bill got a text from a former colleague asking if I would be able to make a quilt for her daughter.  When I met with Cindy, she presented me a garbage bag of Indiana University t-shirts.  She gave me license to do what I could with the size and the layout, hoping just to be able to gift it to her for her birthday in mid-September. 

There must have been at least thirty shirts to work with.  They were various sizes and some had art on the front and the back. I had to get creative to use as many as I could while maintaining a consistent size block.

This yellow block was actually the front and back of a tank top. After cutting the shirt apart, I sewed the front and back together and added the side borders.

The Kilroys shirt was also a tank than needed corner pieces.  Wasting nothing, I stole the purple fabric from scraps of a coordinating shirt.   

I used the front and back of this black shirt to create the Little Five block 

and added side panels to the Fall 11 was a tank top.

This was my favorite block because it was pieced from two distinct shirts yet it made a complete sentence. 

Finally, at the end I added a label with Cindy’s inscription to her daughter, Lynnsey, “Feel the warmth of my love, Mom.”

Other quilt details…

Each block was interfaced before being pieced together to form a quilt that measured 90” x 90”. The blocks were 14” finished and the outer border sashing strips were 7” finished.  The batting was 100% cotton and the backing was a single piece from a wide width grey paisley. The quilting is a crosshatch at 2.5”  intervals.  Finally, I machine bound it and finished it with a zigzag stitch.  The quilt was completed late Wednesday but I ran out of time to take it outside for a photo shoot yesterday.  Today it is raining.  Unfortunately, I had to deliver it this morning before it got a proper photo session.  Oh well. 

Having just completed a mammoth quilt, the baby sized one in the queue ought to feel like a walk in the park.  There will be more show and tell to follow.