A New T Shirt Quilt

My latest T shirt quilt came from the cousin of my friend/neighbor/orchestra coworker.  The cousin wanted a quilt made, and the job was passed to me.  Word of mouth really works to drum up business!

The customer had originally planned on making the quilt herself, but found herself a little lost on the process-- apparently she's a sewer but not an experienced quilter.

She had gotten as far as cutting and stabilizing the shirts, but was at a loss as how to proceed from there.

So it was a trade-off for me when I received the shirts:  I lost a little design control over the project since the shirts had already been cut BUT it saved a ton of time to have that already done for me.

This was a very well-loved, and rather well worn, collection of nature themed shirts.

I was a little concerned that the finished quilt might look a little shabby due to the age and wear of the shirts, but in the end I think it came out really well (and the customer emailed me after receiving it and she was absolutely thrilled with it).

The customer requested that I use earth toned batik fabrics which I think was a good idea.  One of our local quilt shops (Happy Apple Quilts) has an extensive selection of beautiful batiks, so it was a great excuse to visit them.

It's a twin size quilt, measuring about 64 x 90".

There are 16 blocks and they are 16" finished.  I used the batiks to fill in and get the blocks to the proper size.

I then added border strips at the top and bottom to achieve the right length.

There was even enough batik fabric left over for a pretty little table runner, now available in my Etsy store.  Click here for the listing.