Friday, December 02, 2005

My First Commission Quilt

About a month before we started The Artist's Way journey, I was asked to make a t-shirt quilt for my friend. I picked up the t-shirts, and they sat there for a long time. I had seen a number of t-shirt quilts at a quilt show I had recently attended, but I was not excited about them. Either all the t-shirts were cut the same size, with no regard for the design on the shirt; or they had been cut different sizes and then fabric strips were added so they were all a uniform block size, based on the largest t-shirt design. Frankly, I thought both ideas took away from the unique designs of each of the t-shirts.

Then I read that you should just experiment and see what happens. So I did. Now, after I got started I thought, "Maybe experimenting with someone else's irreplacable Peachtree Road Race t-shirts is not the wisest idea," but I had already started. So I kept going. I cut all the t-shirts to the size that the design dictated. Then, I laid them out on the floor to make a design that I liked. Most t-shirts are white or gray, so I needed to be careful about the color placement. I then decided that I didn't want the borders to be straight. So I allowed the t-shirts to hang over the borders. Then one t-shirt said, "I really should be a circle" to me, so I made it a circle. And here is the result...

Here is my favorite "block" of the quilt...


When I went to quilt it, I did not want to take anything away from the t-shirts. Afterall, my friend had run a lot of miles to earn all of these. I quilted in the ditch, which was not close enough together. So I picked a motif on each shirt and quilted it. Here are two shirts...

I quilted the outline of Georgia on this one.I quilted around the shoe on this one.

I delivered the quilt today. I got paid more than I asked, which made me very happy. I also had a lot of fun doing this quilt.

5 comments:

Debra Dixon said...

If I were making a t-shirt quilt, I'd use your idea! Looks great and absolutely love the abstract design. Thanks for sharing this idea with us. Feels good to get paid too, huh?

Jules said...

Feels GREAT to get paid.

Tracey said...

Oh WOW. That is the most beautiful T-shirt quilt I have ever seen. Jules, you did a *fabulous* job!!

Pat/SWquilter said...

Jules, I have a number of t-shirts that I keep hanging on to - thinking I should make a quilt out of them, but just haven't ever liked the t-shirt quilts I've seen for the same reasons you mentioned. Your commission quilt gives me hope that I'll someday get my t-shirts made into a quilt I will actually like! Great job!

Jane Ann said...

Congratulations, Jules! Wonderful design and wonderful experience, from the sounds of it.