Shadywood Quilts
Professional Machine Quilting
Should I Cut My T-Shirts?
If you have done any Google searches for t-shirt quilts, you have probably found out that there are all kinds of t-shirt quilt makers out there. How do you choose? Well, let me just say that there is a broad spectrum of people working with tees to make quilts or blankets. However, that is a whole other post topic.
Last week I received an email from someone who had been in contact with Project Repat**
"Do I have to cut T-shirt’s
I only want the front of shirts
I contacted project repat and they wanted me to ship with T-shirt’s already cut up"
My reply was "Heaven's No!" We are a full service t-shirt quilt making company, and we do this full time. Just send us your shirts and we take care of everything.
All we ask is that you FOLD the shirts with the side you want us to use. We don't ask you to use tons of masking or painters tape to tell us what you DON"T want, what a waste. If you have any special instructions, just jot a quick note and attach it to the shirt. We can figure it out!! If we do have any questions, we will either call or shoot an email to you to figure out the solution.
That being said, since 2006, we have finished up a lot of projects started by well meaning mothers, grandmothers, aunts and friends. We understand that this type of project is actually a complex project if done right. See Who Is Making Your T-Shirt Quilt.
The real reason that we prefer that you NOT pre-cut the shirts for us, is that when we are prepping your shirts, we pre-cut a generous 16.5" square from your t-shirt before adding the 100% cotton fusible stabilizer (NOT that stiff polyester stuff) to the back of the tee. After adding the stabilizer fabric, we center the image with industrial rulers and cut to the appropriate size.
We don't cut random size images and spread them all over your quilt in some a chaos looking layout. If you have a logo on the front of the shirt with big image on the back of the shirt, we can combine (for an additional charge) the two images together into one block. That way, you are not looking at a 'date' of an event and wondering what it refers to. In most cases, we applique the front logo directly to the corresponding block so that it all in place.
Here are a couple of articles that detail our processes.
** Project Repat -- a notoriously 'cheap' blanket maker. They are known for chopping up the shirts to fit in a 12" block and sewing cheap polyester fleece on the back. Don't even ask how many of 'their' quilts we have been asked to 'rescue', because they were in tears over the results of their treasured t-shirt memories. See Cheap Tee Shirt Blankets
Shadywood Quilts is a full service professional business that can help you complete your quilt at most any stage. We also 'fix' quilts made by non-professionals. If you get started, and don't feel you are going to be able to complete your quilt. Take pictures of your quilt in process, email it to us, and we can let you know if we can help you get it finished.
** dba is Shadywood Quilts, registered in the state of Florida.