I’m from the generation of middle school girls who had to take Typing class and Home Economics (sewing and cooking) while all of the boys were taking wood and auto shop. I was a women’s libber even then and truly wished I were in the power tool classes instead. Unfortunately, girls, in those days, were expected to type, so we could be secretaries and we needed to sew well enough to mend and make cheap clothing for our families.
Fortunately, by the 1990’s, typing turned into keyboarding, and I can put words on my laptop faster than I can talk (which amazes my 2-finger-Googling kids who can only keep up by their 2-thumbed texting.) Nonetheless, the sewing lessons were useful for all of the clothes I made for myself in high school and then some curtains and crib bedding I’ve made over the years—but nothing prepared me for Quilting.
My earliest memory of sewing was when my grandmother, Violet, handmade a wedding dress for my Barbie doll. My grandma was from Wyoming where my great grandfather had a homestead in the 1800s. So you see, Midwest values are in my seams, and it was inevitable that I would eventually get around to quilting.
As a lifelong sewer, I decided last November that I would make a T-Shirt Quilt for my daughter, a high school senior who is getting ready to go off to college. I thought it would be a great memento of her high school years, a practical gift that would also keep my baby bird warm while she was away. I decided I would go to the quilt store in town and pick out a pattern, buy the fabric, cut everything out and just, you know, sew it together. Every seam is just...straight, right? How hard can it be?
BA’AM!
If you’re laughing, it’s because you’re already a quilter. If you aren’t sure what’s so funny...pssst, come closer and let me help you.
If making clothes is a craft, then quilting is an Art. Quilting is a higher form of precision sewing that should be an Olympic Event!
Yes, I drank the cool-aide. I can’t help it. And, by the way, A Sewing Machine is a Power Tool.
HERE ARE MY FRESH TIPS FOR BEGINNERS (being that I am one) :
- LESSON: If you’re new to quilting, try to find a shop nearby where they have open sewing sessions where experienced quilters mill around and help people out or find a formal class that meets weekly. Even a few lessons will be very helpful. Quilting is not what you think; the blocks need to be cut precisely and the seams need to be sewn consistently and there are many tricks to make it tremendously easier to end up with blocks that line up. I also found some very helpful quilting segments on U-Tube. Just Google quilting and you’ll get plenty of good videos.
- LINING: For a T-Shirt Quilt, I used 12 inch squares and used a fusible lining made specifically for T-shirts. It’s stretchy.
- PICKING FABRIC: Take your senior student to the fabric store with you, even if he’s a guy, and have him/her give you a feel for the types of fabric they like. That doesn’t mean you have to use everything they pick out but at least you’ll get a feel for the type of fabric they have in mind. Both of my kids picked out fabric that really surprised me. My son, for example, picked out blue surf florals that I never would have thought to choose. I went back later to find complementary fabrics because he never would have lasted the hour I needed. On the other hand, my daughter has a great eye for design, and she picked out all of these fabrics just perfectly. The binding in this quilt is actually a fabric with a bunch of inspirational words on it, and I never would have thought of that fabric for the quilt. With so many different T-Shirt colors in the mix, she tried to pick fabrics that at least “went” with the T-shirts. If there are one or two shirts that stick out like a sore thumb, consider letting it go, but make that decision before you cut it up like I did--my daughter's out a lime green shirt that’s now cut up into just a square. (Sorry pumpkin. I’ll make a pillow!)
- PLANNING: After I cut the T-shirts, I laid them out on the floor and tried different configurations of fabrics around the blocks until I got it right.
- DESIGNING: I made a scale model of the pattern on a graph paper with colored markers to finalize the size of the borders, accent blocks and binding. From those measurements, I estimated how much fabric of each sample I needed. I over-bought fabric, but not by much. I’m sure there’s an easier way to do this, but I don’t know what it is. I figured I would find something to do with the extra. (The red ended up in a Valentine’s Day garland.)
- CUTTING: Measure twice, cut once. Measure twice, cut once. I made a few mistakes and had to re-cut. If you’re going to try quilting, you’ll need to be prepared to take out some seams and try it over again. Be patient. I call this my learning quilt. I can see the errors, but they aren’t bad enough to really bug me. Just know that Quilting is a perfect art and you aren’t going to be perfect for a while; that’s what makes Quilting so Awesome! It’s SOOO CHALLENGING! Did I mention to Measure twice, cut once? Yeah, you’re really going to want to do that.
- THE TOP: This is the T-shirt topside of the quilt. I sewed the top over a weekend, but that was only because my kids were gone, and I didn’t do anything else but sew. Don't feel bad if it takes weeks or months. I just got addicted and just kept going until my back was tired. It was a really awesome day J.
- BATTING: I chose a medium weight cotton batting. We’re in California so anything heavier than that is overkill, but my daughter applied to colleges in Washington and Oregon. I decided on the medium weight because it would be more versatile and she has a down comforter for the really cold stuff if that’s where she ends up.
- BACK: I used a fabric called Minky for the back. It’s sooooo soft. I had never heard of Minky but it is just so incredibly soft and dense. My daughter picked out a rich navy blue minky and it feels very luxurious. It comes in a large variety of colors, shades and some patterns.
- QUILTING: If you’re impressed with the top stitching in the photo, the Quilting, itself, and you think I am such a wonderful seamstress, it’s because you probably don’t know about long arm quilting. There is a cottage industry of quilters who do the “quilting” with more complex patterns than a novice like me could take on. There are so many cottage quilters who either sew these patterns with their own machines or they invest in CNC computer quilting machines. These machines are about the size of a pool table and very interesting to watch in action. I found a husband and wife home business where the machine had taken over their dining room. They had a book of computerized patterns to choose from and my daughter picked a nice open swirly pattern. To me, some of the tighter, more intricate quilting patterns make the blanket a little stiff for my taste. I like a more open pattern to allow the fabric to puff and breathe a bit. To clarify, there are cottage quilters who also custom quilt the old fashioned way, non-computerized and it’s wonderful. I was trying to get this blanket quilted during the holidays and everyone was booked up except this quilter who had the computerized machine. I was very happy with the price and the result. She charged me $75; I was told that $100-150 is typical but it all depends on the size of the blanket and any issues the quilt has. Here’s what I brought to the quilter: I brought the completed TOP (the T-shirts) that I had sewn together; the cotton pad, twin size, still inside the bag (I didn’t need to cut it or anything), and the Minky backing that I purchased. Most quilters need the pad and the backing to be anywhere from 2-4 inches longer and wider than the TOP so the quilter has extra fabric to pull and stretch while working it. Ask the quilter how much they need before you buy the backing. I handed it all over to the quilter unpinned, uncut, unopened, and when I picked up the quilt, all the pieces were sewn together with the extra backing/pad still sticking out. I trimmed it before I put on the binding.
- BINDING: I didn’t know how to do the binding, and I didn’t know I didn’t know how to do the binding until I had already sewn the front side all the way around. By then, my daughter was curling up with the quilt when I wasn’t working on it, and I was worried about there being pins still stuck in it…and I didn’t want to take out ALL of those nice neat stitches! Uggggg. Only then did I go on U-tube to figure out how I should have done it. I took out about 10 inches of the seam, inspired to do it right, and then threw my hands up, deciding it wasn’t worth it. I had had enough. I tried to make a mitered corner as best as I could, but there wasn’t enough fabric folded under to make it really work. At the end of the day, the corners bug me, but not that much. It’s done and my daughter loves it! That’s why I call it my learning quilt. Normally, the binding is only about 1/4-1/2 inch at most, but my daughter wanted the binding wider because she wanted to see more of the inspirational words on the fabric. This binding is about an inch.
THE MAGIC QUILT: It’s hard to get teenagers excited about anything, but seriously, she loves this quilt. How do I know? She uses it on the sofa. She uses it at night. She takes it to her dad’s house. She took it on a weekend snowboarding trip with her friends. When my son was home from college for Christmas (who by the way didn’t want a quilt before he left, but now he does), he used it whenever my daughter wasn’t using it. Every time I tried to take the quilt to work to show my friends, one of the teenagers was snuggled up with it! I finally had a chance to use the magic quilt myself, and it was the best nap ever!
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