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Donna: I'm with you. I had a lady last year (or maybe even in 2003) who had a quilt scheduled. She had waited for several months and when we met, she had a white muslin backing with a red, green and white top. She wanted red thread in the red areas, green thread in the green areas, all with white cotton thread in the bobbin. I told her I wouldn't do it and she wasn't happy. I keep a sample here to show what happens with the dots from the top showing. She said she didn't mind but I told her I mind! My reputation is on the line and when she shows that quilt to others, I don't want all those little pokies showing on the back.

I have been able to use a dark thread on top with a lighter Bottom Line thread in the bobbin with no problem but since I mostly use cotton thread, I pretty much stick with the same color top and bottom concept.

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I usually do not match top to bottom. I I haven't had the "dot" problem, but on this last quilt I had a brain-fart and put off-white in the bobbin, and the quilt back is Green. The top is one of the rainbow threads. 1/3 of the way into it, and I know it's for a child (5 y/o). The temptation to change thread color was killing me, and I knew I could not frog it all. I will show it to the customer tonight, and give her a substantial discount. I know she will be thrilled, but I am mortified. A lesson learned....

Cynthia

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It depends on the quilt but I do use the prewound bobbins in a neutral shade with a colored thread on top IF the backing looks good with the neutral bobbin thread. I haven't had any problems with the dot when doing this on my longarm but did experience it with my DSM.

When the backing is a print that really coordinates with the top then I use the same colored thread on top and bottom. The same goes when the backing if all white or all black.

Hope this helps.

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I'm about to do a T shirt quilt for the first time. It has some ruberized areas, but well worn. I've read a lot of tips on doing a T-Shirt quilt so I'm going to try to dredge those up from my memory banks. The T-Shirts are really sweatshirts, nicely backed with a woven stabilizer, very flat, very nice quilt. But some of the tops are white some are black and the backing is a dark blue. I was hoping to do the top with a monofilament (also my first attempts with this thread) and using a neutral grey/khaki Bottom Line in the bobbin, as I'm not sure what to expect using monofilament in the bobbin.

Ideas? Thanks.

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Guest Linda S

I did my first two t-shirt quilts using bottom line in both the top and the bottom. I did have a little breakage problem when I hit the rubberized areas, but otherwise, no problems. Here are a few pics:

DSCN0684.jpg

DSCN0687.jpg

DSCN0676.jpg

Pardon the light bulb on that last one!

Linda

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Linda,

What stabilizer works best on the back of the t-shirts? I have a pile of my son's t-shirts that I'd like to make into a quilt for him, but I don't know the first thing about t-shirt quilts. You've done some really fun ones! Were they all for clients?

Polly

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Guest Linda S

These are my client's quilts. She used a lightweight Pellon interfacing (I think it's called featherweight). You will want something very light but strong. No matter what you do, t-shirt quilts end up being rather weighty. While these look nice (Marlene did a really nice job of piecing them) they were not the sort of thing I'd like to sleep under.

Linda

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Coming from a garment construction background I have to always advise against a non-woven interfacings. I have a client who brought in her quilt that was backed with a lovely woven interfacing. She said that the sewing shop advised this particular product for T-Shirt Quilts. The product is fusable and the weave actually looks like a knit, but stabilizes so that it acts like a normal weave. Pellon products are non-woven and eventually they will separate from the item you have fused them to. Llightweight or no, it is not as nice on your needle as a woven would be. Go to your sewing store and ask them for a woven interfacing, not the stuff that looks like the non-woven fabric sheet stuff.

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I've made a couple of T shirt quilts and used a light weight woven fusible. It looks almost like off white cheese cloth and is nice and wide. Folded on the bolt. Sorry, I don't remember the name. The only thing I did not like was that you must use a press cloth when you fuse or you gum up the iron.

It works great though and very light weight.

My best advise for a T shirt quilt is to keep them small, the first I made was for our king bed ~ it weighs a ton!!

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Guest Linda S

Gretchen - that is my feeling about T-shirt quilts also. They should be small wall hangings or something like that. Although you wouldn't expect it, they are monstrously heavy. I would never want to sleep under something like that but, to each their own. I know they are extremely popular -- I've quilted enough of them already to last me a lifetime and I've only had my machine since late June!

Linda

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