Although this pattern was just published on BOMquilts.com in 2014, its classic shapes and design are definitely baby-pleasers. Not to mention how quickly it goes together! Go ahead, give it a try and see what you think! Free pattern available at BOMquilts.com!
Baby Bunting designed by TK Harrison for BOMquilts.com
Don’t wait until the last minute to make your holiday gifts! Many quilt shops are selling off their 2014 holiday quilt fabric at great discounts to make room for their 2015 stock. Here’s a quick and easy – and delightful! – wall hanging project sure to cool you down.
“Snow Days Snowman Quilt” from BOMquilts.com
Sometime in November 2014, one of my daughter’s friend’s mother asked if I would make a t-shirt quilt for her graduating daughter (whom I’ll call T). I was still having side effects from the failed MS therapy so was not ready to commit to doing anything that required a timeline. I had so much to do already and no gumption to do any of it. I did not relay this info to the mother because I had no idea when I would come out from my funk and be rearing to quilt again. I basically ignored the question.
In January 2015, I found out our friends were coming near where we live and wanted to get together for lunch. They also wanted to see the t-shirt quilt I was making for their daughter and son-in-law. Except, all I’d done on that quilt was stabilize the t-shirts and cut them to-size. And buy the fabric. I had to work fast and furious, over the course of a week, to get that quilt top finished. And I did it!
A week or two later, I found a paper sack on my cutting table. I knew I didn’t put it there so started asking around the house. Finally, my daughter said her friend’s mom sent the bag home with her, to give to me. As I peered inside, I saw t-shirts. This was the t-shirt quilt I ignored. UGH
Another week or two later, I decided to take a look at what T’s mom sent. As I pulled out the t-shirts, they weren’t what I expected. T has been in the one-act play group at school and I expected her play t-shirts. What I got, instead, were camp t-shirts. Summer camp t-shirts. Church summer camp t-shirts. I pulled them out of the bag, not paying attention to anything on them except for the years. I had t-shirts from the summer of 2007 through 2014.
And once again, I did nothing more with them.
Until I realized I didn’t have a whole lot of time to finish the quilt top and it was way past time when T’s mom could hire someone else to make the t-shirt quilt.
I start going through the shirts and really paying attention to them because I need to figure out what will and won’t work for the quilt and the sizes they need to be.
While reading the shirts, I came across this on a shirt:
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now have in the flesh, I have by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Galatians 2:20
This is what I call a “God Moment” in my life. You see, I was confirmed at the end of my ninth-grade school year and each of the confirmands in my grade had to choose a Bible verse that they felt suited them. Then we had to memorize it and recite it to the congregation during our confirmation church service. THIS was my Bible verse. I can still recite this verse from memory – and its meaning continues to speak to me, about me.
There was absolutely no doubt in my mind, after seeing this verse on one of those t-shirts, that I was meant to make this t-shirt quilt for T.
I purchased a used Tin Lizzy Eighteen longarm and frame about three years ago. It has sat in the boxes until about three months ago because we didn’t have anyplace to put it up. Once the quilt studio was finished, my husband’s first task was to get that longarm set up so I knew how much room was left in the studio for all of my quilting paraphernalia.
We knew that I may not be able to run the longarm because of the side effects of my MS so hubby set it all up and then searched high and lo to find instructions and ideas and everything-under-the-sun about topics such as threading the machine, what quilt thread worked best, etc. etc.
Once I helped him with a few housekeeping instructions, he’s not a quilter so I had to explain some terminology and longarm quilting advice.
Once he had that info, he went to town! He finished quilting a baby quilt and was SO VERY PROUD of his accomplishment – as well he should be! With only a few errors, he got on a roll and never backed down – even when I shared my seam ripper with him for some boo-boos 🙂
Without further ado – here he is with the 40″ square baby quilt he quilted:
And when one of our daughters pointed out that ‘read men don’t quilt’ I had to follow that up with the names of male quilters that I virtually knew of and she backed down. ;-) ©2015 TK Harrison ~ All Rights Reserved.
I have been making a queen-size t-shirt quilt for a friend’s daughter and son-in-law. Queen-size as in it covers a queen-size bed and has about a 10″ drop all the way around it. It’s not only the largest quilt I’ve ever made, it is extremely heavy! My longarm quilter, Meloney, did an amazing job of quilting it with small-ish curlycues – which is where the extra weight, compared to a larger longarm quilted pattern, comes from.
Unfortunately, she encountered an issue that I have to correct – *none* of which is her fault. A few of the t-shirts are very saturated with screen printing. So much so that she couldn’t even consider quilting on those shirts without causing damage to her longarm.
She made a suggestion as to how to correct the issue and I asked another respected quilter what her suggestion would be – and both agreed with each other so that’s what I’ll do. You can see the issues below. The white is the backing on the quilt and then the t-shirt photos follow the white quilted fabric photos.
 
The correction will be done using a simple needle and thread and just tacking the t-shirts down (and hiding the thread in the batting), in as many places as necessary to keep the three quilt layers together for the long haul. I love it that the fix is simple and love it even more when I can correct an issue without compromising the design of the quilt!