October 2014 SAMQG meeting was "Demo Days" in a round robin style where there were 4 stations set up and 4 guild members each demo'd a technique or style or method used in their quilt-making.
First up, Sara E. Sara was showing us how she prepped and "moderned up" T-Shirt Quilts.
First up, get your shirts together. And grab some of your favorite fabrics. (Anna Maria Horner fabrics shown above.)
CAUTION: When cutting out the "motif" from the front of your shirt, do it with scissors and be mindful of the shirt back. In lots of cases, the shirt back has a bigger logo on it or at the very least, you'll want to use that fabric to fill in gaps in your final quilt design.
Ok, now get down to making a regular shape with straight sides. It doesn't matter what the shape is.
Grab a piece of fusible pellon interfacing larger than the t-shirt design. Place the shiny/fusible side up facing the WRONG side of the t-shirt.
Sandwich the shirt + interfacing in between two layers of parchment paper. When you press the shirt to the interfacing, the extra glue will NOT get on the iron or board. And the parchment paper makes it super easy to peal off. This was a GREAT tip. Thanks, Sara!!
The shirt itself is prepped and ready to rumble. All you do now is take it to the cutting mat to decide on your final straight-edged shape, while cutting away any excess interfacing.
From there, Sara picks a fabric from her stash to start adding the sides of the t-shirt motif in a way that would do a "wonky log cabin" block. Pick a piece, stitch a seam, press, pick another piece, stitch a seam, press, repeat.
Thanks so much, Sara! Those were some great tips. And the wonky or improved version of building up t-Shirt quilt blocks is wonderful.
Forgot my applique ironing sheet when I was on vacation and thanks to Sarah tip about the parchment paper, picked up a roll at the grocery store. Worked just as good if not better and a whole lot better than buying another applique ironing sheet. So glad I saw that demo. Have a t-shirt quilt I need to make and will use the rest of the tips soon.
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