Winter Projects – I’ve Finished The First One

Crafts, homemade, Rag Quilt, Reflections

I had two big winter projects planned and I’m happy to say that I have finished the first and I’m working on the second.

For two years my youngest daughter, Lindell, worked in promotions for iHeartRadio. Last fall she told me she had a bunch of t-shirts that she received while working at iHeart that she would like made into a quilt. I told her I would be happy to do it, but it would not be until after the holidays, and she would have to pick out some flannel that she wanted go along with the t-shirts. I would make them into a rag quilt. For a tutorial click here.

It was early December when we shopped for the fabric but it wasn’t until after Christmas that I began cutting up shirts and laying things out.

iHeartRadio has several FM radio stations in Detroit, all broadcasting out of the same location. She worked for all of them. The t-shirts she received were from various promotional events she attended. Some of them were printed with a logo on the front and event sponsors names on the back and also identified her as “Staff” (“Camper?”).

I set them out in several different designs trying to find the right balance.

Each t-shirt block is backed by two layers ( blocks) of flannel. I stitched an X across each block to hold the three layers together.

Each of the flannel blocks is also backed by two layers of flannel.

On this kind of quilt the seams are sewn on the outside. Once they are all sewn together the seams are clipped about every 1/ 4 to 1/2 inch then when the quilt is washed and dried the clipped seams create a ruffle.

I continued to lay the pieces out on the floor in between steps to make sure things were coming together the way I wanted them to.

If Trooper was around when I Iaid it out on the floor he would immediately go and lie down on it. I often put a blanket down on the floor for Trooper to lay on while I brush him, so I guess he thought he was going to get brushed. This was ok because the very last step was to wash the quilt.

One of my biggest challenges was deciding how to include this pocket from a hooded sweatshirt that said “UNEEK Detroit”. It’s size and shape were unlike any of the other blocks so I had to come up with a unique way to use it.

I went with my first thought, to make it into a unique shaped panel at the top of the quilt, because I needed/wanted the extra length in the quilt. I stitched the pocket to a block of flannel with a unique pattern. The other option that would have worked was to make it into a pillow instead of putting it in the quilt.

I was quite pleased with the end result and my daughter was thrilled with it. I had to lay it out on the table for the final pictures since it was already washed. The table is not big enough to get the whole thing in on shot – sorry.

For the back side my original plan was to have a symmetrical design with the blocks but a mid-project change in the blocks on the front messed up that plan. Oops! None-the-less Lindell loved it and was eager to take it home and wrap up in her beautiful memories.

What’s keeping you busy these days?

Below is a sneak preview of my second winter project.

Be sure to follow this blog to see how this one comes together.

Thanks for reading and remember Make It A Great Day! 🙂

28 thoughts on “Winter Projects – I’ve Finished The First One”

  1. Pingback: My Second Winter Project Is Finished | Don't Eat It! Soap and Skin Care

  3. [I am almost a week behind in Reader and scrambling to catch up.] How nice of you doing that quilt with all the promotion tee-shirts Ruth. And you made them yourself – how creative. My boss had several quilts made while I still worked on site and he went through a company called Campus Quilt. He had collected about a hundred tee-shirts from various 5K run events he had been in many years ago. He did that one first and picked the material for in between and the backing. Then, because he is a labor lawyer, at the end of every contract negotiated in his working years, he asked to get a tee-shirt from the opposing union. So he had several quilts made from those tee-shirts and used them as wall hangings around the office. The tee-shirt quilts are a great way to memorialize fun events and preserve memories.

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    1. WoW! 100 shirts would make a heck of a quilt but so much better than those shirts just sitting in a closet taking up space. I’ve seen pricing from $75 for a small up to almost $200 for a queen size to have them made. It may sound expensive but knowing time and work that goes in to it I would say it’s worth the $.

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      1. I was still working on site when he brought in all these tee-shirts and said his wife gave him an ultimatum – he goes or the tee-shirts go as they took up too much space. We boxed them up and he picked his backing and trim color/fabric and waited a while for the first one to come back. He had different sizes and shapes and really liked them. I would have never thought it possible to make a quilt from tee-shirts. It looks like you put a lot of work into this quilt for your daughter.

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  8. You did such an awesome job on this !! Its harder to handle a big project like this. It looks amazing. Lindell can be wrapped in memories, and feel the love you put into making it .I love it!! I love repurposing garments, everything is fabric to me. It’s hard to clean out closets because everything could potentially become something else ( another one of my eccentricities 😉)

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    1. I’ve never done regular quilting and I know some people do t-shirt quilts more like regular quilts. I find the rag quilts easy because the seams are hidden after it ruffles up, so if they are not perfect it is not noticeable. The clipping of the seams can be a pain but I bought a small pair of snips that made it really easy.

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  10. Very nice!!.. I made one out of Orlando Magic basketball shirts that my son was obsessed with early in his years. He’s now 37 yrs and still love that team. He really loved the quilt but couldn’t find a pic as of yet of it since its been years since I made it.

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