I was going to suggest that you just quilt without worrying about commenting--and you did! It is so mesmerizing to just watch the free motion, and honestly, I could watch an hour of just that! Fun quilt!
Thank you for explaining EVERYTHING! I am so tired of experts glossing over the critical details in their tutorials. The whole reason people come to watch tutorials is because they don’t know what to do.
I just finished a couple of T-shirt quilts. I washed the cotton fabric that I used for the borders and backing, used a poly-cotton blend batting (which said it would have 2-3% shrinkage), and I used cotton thread for sewing and quilting. When I washed the quilts, they puckered up; not sure if it was because of the thread or the batting. Lots of things to consider when planning a T-shirt quilt and I'm learning with each one. Some day, I'll get it all right! I didn't really mind the shrinkage because it made them look cozier, and the recipients were happy with them.
Suggestion, lengthen your stitch length..When I prewash, I use as hot of water as possible to create the most shrinking. For sure, flannel for backing will be a larger % than the other fabrics. I find a 45 inch prewash flannel can loose 1 + inch width. Flannel that ends up being THICK is awesome for some clothing, not the finished quilt.
Thanks,Rob. Q: I have 'mixed' fabric types - aloha shirts, T-shirt, pique cotton. Anything jump out at you as being a problem w/ that? Thanks for all you do!
Another GREAT tute. Love to watch your free-motion quilt designs as you sew them. Question: why don’t you use temporary spray adhesive to baste your quilt sandwiches? Much less time involved and likely would reduce incidence of rippling...?
I am really confused about the batting. I hear no batting, flannel in a single layer for batting ,80/20 batting, polyester batting? . They live in LA so it doesn't need to be a heavey quilt . Its a memory quilt for a dear friend who lost her husband who was also a dear friend for more than 60yrs so I want this to be right. One video showed quilt as you go with just verticle or horixontal line through the designs. I got the impression that you don't like going through the designs but around them? They were big travelers and he was a car guy so I have an amazing array of T shirts to use. She doesn't want a specific car or travel quilt but a mixture of logos. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks! I am new to your channel and you do a really nice job describing and showing how each step is done. Thank you!
Getting prepared to make my first t-shirt quilt. Can I quilt 3 or 4 squares prior to putting on flannel backing?Love the look of free quilting and would like to give a little more interest to the quilt.
Hi Rob, Really like your videos....I'm making a memory quilt from tee shirts...I need to know what size/type needle to use...I have the tee shirts as top, I have batting and cotton material for the back...I am wanting to free motion quilt it and I'm having issues with my bobbin thread coming through to the top. Can you please advice me on how to correct this problem. I don't have the issues with other quilting.Thanks, Lisha
I am making one now. This is a oversized queen. It is made of t-shirts from duty ports my son and his family lived at during their time in the Navy. They are from all over the world ranging from Hawaii to Italy. I have finished the piecing. Since it is so big I am thinking I should stitch in the ditch. My question is since I used a 1.8 stitch length will the stitches I am sewing in the seams (I pressed all the seams open) cause the seams to come apart? Also, what size thread did you use?
Wished I had this tutorial sooner. I am nearly fimished wth my tshirt quilt and it has really been a challenge. I completed 2 others and didn't have near the problems. Thank you though for this it was very informative..
What if the logo takes up the whole square? I’m making a T-shirt quilt for someone and a lot of their shirts have the ink part covering the whole center of the rectangle. They are pretty big too, 17.5 x 17.5 so I don’t want to just quilt around the whole thing. What do you think?
Thanks for tuning in, Pamela! That's a great question. Rob was using some of his t-shirt scraps as hamster bedding, and another good option would be donating the scraps to a clothing/fiber recycling organization.
Thanks for your response. You've given me good suggestions. I think I will contact the Vets in my little town and see if the fabric will be useful to them. My plan B will be to give it to Goodwill because my town doesn't recycle anything. Thanks again.
My local quilt shop's long arm quilter says that t-shirts dull the needle very quickly, and that doesn't include the iron on stuff. Have you (or anyone else) noticed that? Ron what do you think of quilting in the areas of the iron ons that have no rubbery stuff...like the words MAN SEWING in the first logo you quilted? Would that work? I think I would want at least some of the decal sewn down so it wouldn't separate. Or am I just overthinking things. That's hard for me to do. I'm a blonde! Haha! Love your stuff Rob!
I definitely go through needles quickly. I do many of these - I've shipped 3 in the last month and have one on my machine now. I use an industrial Juki, and yes, I'm using a needle per quilt, if not more, depending on the size. Otherwise I get all kinds of thread issues when I'm quilting them. As for quilting inside the emblem where there is none of the rubbery stuff - you can do it, but it's going to take a lot of thread breaks and starting over if you can't move between the letters or whatever the design is. I've always avoided them because of the holes as he was talking about, and it is terrible on the needles! I've never had an issue with leaving the interior of the designs unquilted, so you may just be over-thinking it!
Interesting FYI as I sew, wearing down of needle or breaking is not the same as the getting dull...so I keep a metal nail file at the sewing machine, just a gentle roll around and I am good to go. I find my pinning pins will become dull too when using certain fabrics, I don't fix on those..
Do not peel off stabilizer, that is the quilt's 'rest of it's life'. No do not use water soluble. Like washing away the glue that holds your fabrics together.
If I use other cotton fabric to frame the t-shirts do I need to wash that fabric? I have unfortunately all ready cut all the fabric and t-shirts and I am starting to put together before I saw this video. Did I just make a horrible mistake?
I was going to suggest that you just quilt without worrying about commenting--and you did! It is so mesmerizing to just watch the free motion, and honestly, I could watch an hour of just that! Fun quilt!
Thanks for tuning in, Joy! Glad you enjoyed the quilting! :)
Thank you for explaining EVERYTHING! I am so tired of experts glossing over the critical details in their tutorials. The whole reason people come to watch tutorials is because they don’t know what to do.
Sew happy I discovered your videos. You packed so much info into this video and addressed many of the questions I had re t-shirt quilting.
Thank you for this tutorial, I think I will give this a try! You made it look easy!
Thank you!
Happy Birthday for the other day Rob hope you had a good day.
I just finished a couple of T-shirt quilts. I washed the cotton fabric that I used for the borders and backing, used a poly-cotton blend batting (which said it would have 2-3% shrinkage), and I used cotton thread for sewing and quilting. When I washed the quilts, they puckered up; not sure if it was because of the thread or the batting. Lots of things to consider when planning a T-shirt quilt and I'm learning with each one. Some day, I'll get it all right! I didn't really mind the shrinkage because it made them look cozier, and the recipients were happy with them.
It sounds like they turned out great, Phyllis. Thank you for sharing tips from your t-shirt quilting experience! :)
Suggestion, lengthen your stitch length..When I prewash, I use as hot of water as possible to create the most shrinking. For sure, flannel for backing will be a larger % than the other fabrics. I find a 45 inch prewash flannel can loose 1 + inch width. Flannel that ends up being THICK is awesome for some clothing, not the finished quilt.
Looks great!
Great video rob. Love the vibe of the show
Are you more comfortable on free motion over Long Arm quilting. If you do Long Arm, would love to see some work with one.
Thanks,Rob. Q: I have 'mixed' fabric types - aloha shirts, T-shirt, pique cotton. Anything jump out at you as being a problem w/ that? Thanks for all you do!
Great advice. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Rob.
Another GREAT tute. Love to watch your free-motion quilt designs as you sew them. Question: why don’t you use temporary spray adhesive to baste your quilt sandwiches? Much less time involved and likely would reduce incidence of rippling...?
Instablaster
I worked on wildfires for over 30 years and have many, many, many fire t-shirts.
I am really confused about the batting. I hear no batting, flannel in a single layer for batting ,80/20 batting, polyester batting? . They live in LA so it doesn't need to be a heavey quilt . Its a memory quilt for a dear friend who lost her husband who was also a dear friend for more than 60yrs so I want this to be right. One video showed quilt as you go with just verticle or horixontal line through the designs. I got the impression that you don't like going through the designs but around them? They were big travelers and he was a car guy so I have an amazing array of T shirts to use. She doesn't want a specific car or travel quilt but a mixture of logos. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks! I am new to your channel and you do a really nice job describing and showing how each step is done. Thank you!
You mentioned holes if quilting over the logo. What if you are doing an all over quilt design?
Getting prepared to make my first t-shirt quilt. Can I quilt 3 or 4 squares prior to putting on flannel backing?Love the look of free quilting and would like to give a little more interest to the quilt.
Hi Rob, Really like your videos....I'm making a memory quilt from tee shirts...I need to know what size/type needle to use...I have the tee shirts as top, I have batting and cotton material for the back...I am wanting to free motion quilt it and I'm having issues with my bobbin thread coming through to the top. Can you please advice me on how to correct this problem. I don't have the issues with other quilting.Thanks, Lisha
I am making one now. This is a oversized queen. It is made of t-shirts from duty ports my son and his family lived at during their time in the Navy. They are from all over the world ranging from Hawaii to Italy. I have finished the piecing. Since it is so big I am thinking I should stitch in the ditch. My question is since I used a 1.8 stitch length will the stitches I am sewing in the seams (I pressed all the seams open) cause the seams to come apart? Also, what size thread did you use?
Wished I had this tutorial sooner. I am nearly fimished wth my tshirt quilt and it has really been a challenge. I completed 2 others and didn't have near the problems. Thank you though for this it was very informative..
Hope this helps for all those future t-shirt quilt projects, Linda! I'm sure the t-shirt quilt you are working on now will turn out great!
Would that slip mat be helpful for straight line walking foot quilting too?
Would love to see the finished product!
What if the logo takes up the whole square? I’m making a T-shirt quilt for someone and a lot of their shirts have the ink part covering the whole center of the rectangle. They are pretty big too, 17.5 x 17.5 so I don’t want to just quilt around the whole thing. What do you think?
Alot of concerns covered & addressed...Great vid!
You’re great i like your channel I wanna buy my first sewing machine what do you recommend
Thanks for the video, Rob. Appreciate all your tutorials. What kind of needle are you using for quilting on t-shirts? Thanks again.
What size blocks do you usually go with?
I wish he was the home ec teacher back in highschool haha
I use fleece for backing any suggestions
What kind of machine do you use? I need one to freehand quilt. I’m learning so much from your videos ❤️
You can free motion with any machine
Great tutorial Rob, very helpful. Any suggestions on what to do with the leftover t-shirt fabric?
Thanks for tuning in, Pamela! That's a great question. Rob was using some of his t-shirt scraps as hamster bedding, and another good option would be donating the scraps to a clothing/fiber recycling organization.
Thanks for your response. You've given me good suggestions. I think I will contact the Vets in my little town and see if the fabric will be useful to them. My plan B will be to give it to Goodwill because my town doesn't recycle anything. Thanks again.
My local quilt shop's long arm quilter says that t-shirts dull the needle very quickly, and that doesn't include the iron on stuff. Have you (or anyone else) noticed that?
Ron what do you think of quilting in the areas of the iron ons that have no rubbery stuff...like the words MAN SEWING in the first logo you quilted? Would that work? I think I would want at least some of the decal sewn down so it wouldn't separate. Or am I just overthinking things. That's hard for me to do. I'm a blonde! Haha!
Love your stuff Rob!
I definitely go through needles quickly. I do many of these - I've shipped 3 in the last month and have one on my machine now. I use an industrial Juki, and yes, I'm using a needle per quilt, if not more, depending on the size. Otherwise I get all kinds of thread issues when I'm quilting them.
As for quilting inside the emblem where there is none of the rubbery stuff - you can do it, but it's going to take a lot of thread breaks and starting over if you can't move between the letters or whatever the design is. I've always avoided them because of the holes as he was talking about, and it is terrible on the needles! I've never had an issue with leaving the interior of the designs unquilted, so you may just be over-thinking it!
Interesting FYI as I sew, wearing down of needle or breaking is not the same as the getting dull...so I keep a metal nail file at the sewing machine, just a gentle roll around and I am good to go. I find my pinning pins will become dull too when using certain fabrics, I don't fix on those..
How do you feel about basting sprays? Do you suggest using it with a tee shirt quilt?
Do you leave the stabiliser in situ or remove before quilting? Could you use water soluble stabiliser?
Do not peel off stabilizer, that is the quilt's 'rest of it's life'. No do not use water soluble. Like washing away the glue that holds your fabrics together.
If I use other cotton fabric to frame the t-shirts do I need to wash that fabric? I have unfortunately all ready cut all the fabric and t-shirts and I am starting to put together before I saw this video. Did I just make a horrible mistake?
May I ask what the gloves are for? I've never seen anyone wear gloves to sew before
They just help you have a better hold/grip onto the fabrics
Got a T-shirt quilt to make never made one. It's a little intimidating!
Rob, will you do a photo quilt?
That's a great idea, Frances! We'll pass the suggestion onto Rob. Thanks for tuning in! :)
Ummm ... where do i get that t-shirt?!
Hi Lala! You can find all of the Man Sewing shirts here: www.missouriquiltco.com/shop/browse?q=man%20sewing