Quilting and Patchwork

T-Shirt Memory Quilts

by Mary Emma Allen on August 30th, 2005

My cousin showed me a quilt the other day that she was helping a friend finish…a T-Shirt Quilt. It was very interesting and personalized for her friend’s son.

This quilt was made of pieces cut from the son’s favorite t-shirts over the years. My cousin said her friend previously had made a similar memory quilt for her daughter, utilizing t-shirts associated with various sports events the girl had participated in.

I thought, “What a neat idea for quilts for my grandchildren.” They have favorite t-shirts they’ve outgrown.

You can simply use a collection of t-shirts which bring to memory various events over the years or choose t-shirts depicting activities or sports the youngsters played.

My cousin’s friend cut large (12×12-inch) squares from the backs or fronts of t-shirts where there was a design. These were from various events in her son’s life. She also cut smaller pieces and placed them around the outside as a border.

She sewed these squares together and then filled with polyester and backed with a solid colored fabric(you could use prints) that picked up a color from the t-shirts. Then she tied instead of doing machine or hand quilting.

This was a very attractive quilt saving the memories of her children’s lives. You could make quilts with smaller squares from t-shirts of younger children. There are so many variations once you get your creativity flowing.

©2005

(If you have questions or ideas to share, e-mail me at: me.allen@juno.com. Simply write “Quilt Blog” in the subject line.)

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POSTED IN: General Quilting/Patchwork