Wow! Thank you all for the great suggestions. I did finish the quilt and hopefully will get it posted shortly.

You guys are great!

There's a new magazine on the stands now -- I think it's from Fons & Porter -- called Fun Quilts for Kids of All Ages. It has instructions for a tshirt quilt in it. Good luck!

THe best thing you can do is to remember to use fusible interfacing on the back of each t-shirt. I made 9 of them, each one having 9 shirts. On the back I put a siggy with my Dad's picture and s short story, and the pocket patches (4 each) and some fancy fabric.

THe grandchildren loved them. Lot's of tears.

Hope you enjoy it.

Our lqs has a t-shirt pattern that is super! It has filler blocks the even out the t-shirts.

Visit: http://www.sewmanyantiques.com

Under Yellow Creek Designs is Memories for Sara.... Here is the direct link to the pix:
http://www.sewmanyantiques.com/ycd/memories_for_sara.htm

Joyce

Thank you all very much! I will research all the suggestions and let you know how it goes.

A friend made a tee shirt quilt a few years ago and to this day I think it is the best one I've ever seen. She had many different sizes of designs and colors to work with as the tee shirts came from all over the world. Her son was a traveler. What she did to make the squares and rectagles of designs work together was to add various widths of home spun fabric around each block until they were all of a size that would fit into a row. Some blocks had one round, others had up to 3 rounds. Not all rows ended up to be the same width. The final size was at least a queen size. She then had it quilted in a medium meander. The quilt was stunning. It made me wish I had kept all of my son's tee shirts.

Good luck with your project.

I made several T-shirt quilts when I was just getting into quilting and before I truly knew what I was doing, didn't use a pattern, but hey, it worked! The designs on the shirts were all different sizes, (the first 2 I did for my twin sons--by age 9 they each had over 30 extra t-shirts that still fit! ) I measured each design and determined a few widths that would work together and put them together in columns. I used the lightweight interfacing, cut to the appropriate size then ironed it on before cutting. I also used 1/2 inch seams. Because I was making them for kids (and I didn't know how to do anything different ) I simply backed them in polar fleece, turned them like a pillowcase, and tied them. The boys are 15 now and still love them.... very soft! The only downside to t-shirt quilts? When they're tossed on the bed, it looks like a pile of laundry! HA!
Florence

If you will peek at my profile I have made one similar to CarolD's which is very asymmetrical. Cut sashing to make it all fit together. Used interfacing as she did to firm up the knit fabric for working with it. Found neat bicycle backing fabric and even sewed a silver bicycle 'charm' into the signature.

My quilt, however, is very large as you can see. I think 94 x 104 inches or so....my friend had MANY, MANY t-shirts. The finished product is really cool. He is so proud of it! Actually hung it in his living room - above his bicycle! LOL

A friend of mine from my quilt guild has written a book on making T-shirt quilts. Check her out at amazon.com. Her name is Lauren Kingsland. The name of the book escapes me at the moment but she is the author.

Linda Long has a booklet, usually available through Keepsake Quilting, on making one with blocks all the same size. She has a template that you use to cut around the design. In my profile you will see a T-shirt quilt I did for my daughter where the designs are all different sizes. I didn't use a pattern. I ironed very lightweight interfacing to the backs of the shirt designs before sewing. My daughter laid out the blocks in a design that suited her, and I cut strips of the sashing/background fabric to make it all fit together.

Hi everyone, I've been asked by a friend of mine to make her t-shirts (there are 16 of them) into a quilt. I've never tried this before, although I've been quilting for several years. There are several different sizes and I can't seem to find a pattern.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks a bunch!!