T-Shirt Quilt Step 1

      I have been wanting to jump into the quilting world for sometime now, and since I don't think I have the patience for tiny squares and triangles, I decided that larger blocks would be a better bet. And where to get the larger blocks? My old college t-shirts that are too sentimental to go to Good Will, but are honestly ever-so-slightly too small to wear. However, I only still have four left. So where in the world was I going to get enough to make a quilt from? A few months ago I peeked in the husbandman's t-shirt drawer, and low and behold, there are stacks for t-shirts I haven't seen him wear in years. After several weeks of badgering, I have finally convinced him to hand over his oldest college t-shirts!

     Now, I have no idea how to quilt, and all the t-shirt tutorials I have found included complicated things like sashing, and were a little too even for something that is supposed to be as informal as a t-shirt. So I'm going to wing it! So these are my first few steps to making a t-shirt quilt. I'll share more as I get steps done.

       Take an old t-shirt, and cut the neck ribbing off. Then cut off the sleeves, and down the sides and across the shoulders.

   
     Then measure around you text or image. Each block for me is a slightly different size, because I just cut a border an inch thick around the focus point of the shirt.

      Or at least, I tired for an inch, I didn't always have quite enough room, so I got as close as I could.

      And just that easily, you have a quilt square! I'm trying to use mostly squares that have interesting fronts, but I know I won't have enough shirts for that, so I''m also cutting out the back of each shirt into a similar sized piece to use as fillers.

    
     I have been told by expert quilters that when working with knits, you need to get iron-on interfacing, and apply it cross-grain to the knit square or it will stretch out of shape very quickly. So as soon as I get some other projects finished, I'm off to go find cheap interfacing. Any suggestions? Any quilters out there who know what to do next?