Tshirt Quilt Designing and other Ramblings!

Someone, I don't remember who, asked how I design my tshirt quilts. It is really pretty simple. I have the tshirts out and my 12" and 15" square rulers out. I measure the design on the front and put down a measurement that looks pleasing...making sure that I have about 2" all around the design. That way I know that the measurement is good for that tshirt. I write a small description of the tshirt down and then put the measurement next to it...making sure to mark an H for height of design and W for width of design above the colums...I learned from experience that I can easily mix up those measurements and have to redo the design!! That can be a fatal mistake if I cut tshirts and then find a mistake and have to redesign!

As I'm working my design on graph paper (second photo down) I try to find tshirt measurements that are the same height or width and put them together in rows or columns Once I get the design down on graph paper I rewrite the tshirt measurement page into the rows and the correct measurements making sure to INCLUDE THE SEAM ALLOWANCE!!! That is the right side of this pic...the left is the part where I had to adjust measurements to make them fit! (Usually I do a first row so I know the width of the quilt...In this case I took all the 6" squares and put them across the top...including 2" sashing (I always use 2" sashings)

Is everyone still with me? I sure hope so! LOL

This is a picture of my 2 drawings on graph paper. The first being my first draft and the second being the one where I adjusted it by moving the 3rd row down to the 4th row. Each square on the graph paper is 2" finished. I write a description of the tshirt in each square so I know what I am working with. This includes tshirt color if I have a lot of the same type of tshirts. For example: in this quilt there are several cheerleading tshirts so I had to write the design AND the color as well if it's front/back if I used both sides. I do this because the front and back might not be the same size cut. It helps keep me organized.! As you can see, this quilt is going to be done in neat rows but the tshirts are different in widths, adding variety to the quilt!
The next step is to take my electric scissors and cut the tshirts up the seams and saving what I need. I have to be careful here if it's a large design because I have to have it the right size for the quilt!!! (this step used to be scarey...but it's not anymore!) Here are the tshirts for the design above! The next step will be pressing very lightweight fusible interfacing to the backs and then trimming to size using my papers above. Then I sew each row together and VOILA...a tshirt quilt top! Ready for quilting! I hope this helps those of you who asked for the directions.
NOW...I really should get off this computer because I have a friend coming from CA tomorrow and I need to get the house cleaned! I also have to get the binding done on her quilt! YIKES...I forgot about that! We are going to a retreat and learning reverse applique. We are being rebels though because we don't like the project (it's too folk arty for us) but we do want to learn the technique. We will just take scraps and learn how to do it. We also want to finish last year's project! LOLOLOL...yeah...you read that right! FINISH LAST YEAR'S PROJECT! It's nice to go to this one though because we don't have to schlep our machines!

I AM SO EXCITED to see her! We met on Alex Anderson's message board and are SOOOOOO much alike! It's been a year and we can hardly wait! GIRL WEEKEND!!!!! WOOHOO!!!

Have a great weekend everyone! I've kept in touch with the blogs and sometimes it gets overwhelming! ;0)

Hugs,
Laurie
PS(My daughter is doing very well! She's had a SUPER attitude! Thanks for the prayers!)