?? and whining

[Suzie W.]

I had a potential customer stop by yesterday and brought a T-shirt top and backing. The blocks are huge but what was really a shock to me was that they had pieced the backing identical to the front and wanted to make sure thy were matched when I quilted it! Luckily for me the backing was the same size as the top. So I took her back to where I had a t-shirt quilt loaded and explained why I needed atleast a 4" border and why it would be nearly impossible to match blocks front and back when I can not see them. She understood and didn't make an issue after that. I told her she could find someone else--think she had already tried that. I have never been faced with this before---have any of you?

She then told me another T-shirt top was being made with football jersey fabric and wanted to know if that slick material would be a problem. It has already been interfaced. I told her I had not done one like that but I would find out. She wants to use poly batting. So what is your experiences?

Then the rest of the day went down hill from there when I put a first row of panto on a memory quilt with a knit shirt and blouse type shirts with a fleece backing. It looked horrible. So spent the entire afternoon frogging till eyes went crossed and got a nice headache for my trouble. I still have a half a row to do this weekend and then I am going to do a large meandering instead. I feel like yesterday was one of those "just stupid days".

[Oma]

There, there, there (I'm patting you on the back now)...things will be better today. Hope it's a good one for you.

[Kay Anderson]

Suzie, it isn't whining, just a statment of fact. We all have days that go like this. It just happens, as quilters we are expected to be able to do anything our customers can dream up. If they only knew how hard that can be sometimes. I've had some impossible requests...we all get them.

[ffq-lar]

I feel for you! Most customers understand after it's explained to them--they don't know the set-up for loading and quilting and just forge ahead.

I had one similar to this that I turned down as well. She ended up having it tied. The seam intersections were so heavy and doubling them up would have meant the hopping foot would have distorted it like crazy! The nice woman said she hadn't seen a Tshirt quilt like hers before and thought she had invented something special! No, the reason she hadn't seen one like it before is because they are a huge struggle to quilt!

[susanramey]

I had a customer bring me a piece T-shirt quilt for top and backing, but luckily didn't want it to match up. She did baste open all of the seams which made it a little easier to quilt. It was very heavy and I didn't like it at all. Glad when it was out the door.

[BunkHouseQuilts]

I have used football jerseys in a t-shirt quilt with no problems. However, it was pieced by me, so I was in control of the fusing, piecing, etc. I have used cotton and poly batting with no issues.

Good luck, we have all had days like this and probably will again. Who among us has not frogged till we wanted to croak?

[LFQuilts]

Likewise, I've had no problems with incorporating football jerseys in t-shirt quilts. Like Ann, I was in charge of the fusing/piecing, but things worked out fine.

Lynn

[Ferret]

You can match those blocks up front and back. I did it for one of my quilts. It wasn't fun. I added borders to the backing and loaded it as normal. I added the wadding and floated the top. I started lining up with the bottom of the first row and poking a pin right the way through to the backing at an intersection so I knew where it was. It's a fiddle but with a lot of pinning it worked. I don't think you could then do a panto because of the pins, but given I don't do them I'll leave that issue with the experts. If I were to do this for a customer they would be paying by the hour, and with a very wide estimate of how many hours. It did look good when it was done though

The football jerseys wouldn't worry me. Again if they tried to wriggle I would be pinning them till they stayed put. I pin baste. I would baulk at the poly wadding. That stuff is slippery. The quilt top is heavy and slippery I really don't need that much fun and challenge in my life. I would suggest wool if she really wanted the loft but 80/20 would be my suggested wadding.

Ferret

[Joyce]

Guess that maybe I'm dumb and lucky, and have done many tee shirt quilts and never had any isues.

[NanaFuller]

I have a new appreciation for my former quilter once I started doing my own. I only thought I squared up my backs... I only thought my borders were measured properly.... I only thought I cut all thost pesky threads LOL...

[quiltingjoyful51]

I use poly all the time in t-shirt quilts. I also quilt the football jerseys without problem on my Millennium. I had lots of problems on my non-stitch regulated machine. The hopping foot helps to prevent the shirts from slipping around. I have made about 150+ t-shirt quilts.

[RoseCity Quilter]

tLOL, in my line up I have a double sided T-shirt quilt! The back is larger than the front and I told her I could not line them up, still nervous about it.....

[Sandra Darlington]

My choice of batting for tee shirt quilts is Quilters Dream, Dream Green batting. It is thin and light weight and also strong. I think it drapes nicely, too. My most of my customers like it because it is less costly than some of the others, or they are commissioned quilts and the customer really doesn't have an opinion, so just leaves it up to me.

I did one for a customer a few months ago who brought me the tee shirt top, the fleece backing and then insisted on 100% cotton batting and thread because she wanted to use only natural fibers. Hello...????? What is fleece? LOL -- Whatever!

[o2b Quilting]

I just finished one that used stretch denim in the sashings. Way tooooo much fabric in the borders and some extra in sashings in spots (besides being a stretch fabric). To top it off she used a very thick minkee type fabric for the backing. I raised the hopping foot, crossed my fingers and proceeded very carefully. Biggest issue was the borders. It turned out fine but I sure don't like stretch denim for quilting!!

[Suzie W.]

Thanks for all your support and ideas and laughs. Much appreciated.

I gave the customer several suggestions of how things could be done a bit differently including tying the quilt. She is going to talk the ideas over with her mother who does the piecing. Hope she picks the tying.

On the other quilt, I finished frogging with eyes intact and then did meandering overall. It look a lot better with the exception of one knit block--may decide to frog it again.... I am really hoping the quilting fairy visited last night!!!