Thursday, November 19, 2015

T-Shirt Quilt Gift Certificates for The Holidays

Oh no!  You just now figured out that giving a T-Shirt Quilt for Christmas is the best idea you ever had!  Oh wait...  Christmas is just a little over a month away.  Yeah really.  5 weeks.  In the best of times, it takes five weeks to create your special t-shirt quilt.  What to do?

Give a T-Shirt Quilt
Gift Certificate for Christmas
Give a gift certificate.  This way it will be a surprise - AND the best part is that you don't have to figure out what t-shirts you should use.  Most of the time Mom is in the kids closet trying to figure out what t-shirts mean the most to their child.   Or, hubby knowing this will be the best gift ever, does not have a clue how to get started.  Last year, a husband bought a gift certificate thinking that his wife would get the standard 12 block generous throw quilt.   Instead,  she dug out a big box of baby clothes and !had a quilt made from all of the clothes from when the child was newborn to toddler.

Christmas is just a few weeks away.  You can order your Gift Certificate clear up to Christmas Eve and we will email you a  personalized PDF file that you can print out and put under the tree!    What could be easier?

If you are not sure about a t-shirt quilt.  No worries.  We have several quilts already made that you might consider as a gift for that special person.  Just let us know what you are looking for and we will help you find something.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

2015 Quilt Festival Wrap-Up

The largest convention in Houston each year is the  Houston Quilt Festival.  Quilt Mecca.  That is what the locals call the last 10 days of October each year.  I moved to Texas over 10 years ago, and have been attending Market and Festival every year since then.  What is it?

Well, Market  is a credentialed trade show, not open to the general public.    This is a whole different animal and is for quilt shops, book writers, pattern designers, longarm quilters  and other quilting professionals.  While there are several quilt displays, this is just the preamble to Quilt FESTIVAL.

Aaahhh, Quilt Festival.    This is the best of the best.    I remember my first Quilt Festival in 2003 (the first weekend that we had moved to Houston, the moving truck had not even arrived yet).  I went by myself.  Who cares that I  would not know anyone.    I went up and down the rows of quilts, my mouth hanging open.   Oh my,  the next row, how could it be more awesome than the last row...  I was in awe.    THEN, I discovered the vendors.  OMG...  Quilt shops from all over the country in one place.  Fortunately, my birthday is the same weekend.  I called hubby and told him not to worry about any birthday presents.... I had it covered....

Anyway, update to 2015.  My sister-in-law is visiting from out of town, and we are both taking classes.   This year we are commuting from Cypress to downtown Houston (about 30 miles) each day and learning about HOV lanes and Houston construction.    No worries.  We make it to our 8 am classes each morning.  Note to self -  next year bring DOWN JACKETS as classrooms are freezing.  Oh wait.. folks in Houston don't HAVE down jackets as it does not get that cold here!

Friday, November 06, 2015

70 Uses For Leftover Batting

What to do With Leftover Quilt Batting

As a longarm quilter I have PILES and PILES of leftover batting scraps. I have lots of uses for these leftover scraps, but here are some other suggestions that I have collected over the years. Some may be similar, but that is OK. Since we first posted this about ten years ago, we have had many suggestions for additional uses for batting scraps. New items added to the end of the list, and some of existing suggestions have been updated.


1. Rough cut a 9 x 12 rectangle to use in your Swiffer - bonus, you can turn it over and use the other side too!

2. Cut into 5" squares to use to make coasters

3. I use small odd shaped pieces to dust with.

4 . Use small piece of batting at your sewing table to collect loose threads ( I keep a stack of randomly cut rectangles at the end of my longarm table to collect thread scraps).

5. have another one at the ironing station to collect threads that you trim off while ironing

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

So You Want To Make A T-Shirt Quilt!

So You Want To Make A T-Shirt Quilt!

While T-Shirt Quilts of Texas would love to make a custom t-shirt quilt for you, sometimes you just gotta do it yourself!

Should You Make Your Own T-Shirt Quilt?

So, you know just enough about sewing that you want to try it yourself. Great. Here are some things to consider.

Supplies

  • Basic sewing supplies. Rulers, rotary cutter and mat. Seam ripper. Masking tape.
  • Sewing Machine. Basic sewing supplies (thread, scissors, pins, tape measure and so on.)
  • Rotary cutter and mat. You can use scissors, but you need the rotary cutter to get an accurate cut before piecing.
  • Time. Allow 30 - 60 hours depending on your skill and comfort level.
  • T-Shirts. - The more the merrier. But, keep it under control. BIG is heavier and harder to manage.
  • Fusible Interfacing - This is what makes the t-shirt fabric manageable. Don't skip this step. Whether you or a professional quilter is quilting this, this makes the t-shirt fabric easier to work with. Without it, your quilter has to spend more time making the t-shirt fabric lie flat and even.
  • Fabric. Amount depends on size of quilt. PLEASE use good quality fabrics. Don't spend all the time creating this quilt using low quality fabrics.
  • Apply fusible to back of rough-cut t-shirt
  • Batting/wadding. This is usually a 80/20 blend of cotton and polyester, or some folks will use a 100% poly. Your choice.
  • Iron and ironing surface. We use a professional iron press here in the shop, which only takes a couple of seconds per shirt. You will probably have to use a domestic iron. Just follow the product instructions and apply to back of t-shirts.
  • Plastic Square Ruler. Optional, but very helpful to size your blocks.

Creating the Top

  • Lay out the t-shirt pieces into a pleasing design.
  • If you are using sashing, add that to either one side or the bottom of the shirt squares (except the last on in the row/column).
  • Sew together.
  • Add borders if desired. (We get a LOT of t-shirt tops. Many times they have us select the backing and add a border to match the backing).

Finishing Up

  • Quilting. Next, you are going to turn the 'top' into a quilt. A quilt is defined as 3 layers with some sort of stitching holding those layers together. Probably the easiest way to do this is to send that finished top to your longarm quilter. She will probably have batting and backing fabrics available for your convenience.
  • If budget does not allow for a professional longarm quilter, then you can either quilt it on your machine or 'tie' it. We don't recommend tieing it, as the quilt won't be very stable and won't stand up to laundry over time.
  • Binding. The last step is binding. That is the step to finish all the raw edges of the quilt. Again, your longarm quilter should be able to take care of that for a reasonable charge.
There you have it. T-Shirt quilts in a nutshell.

T-Shirt Quilts of Texas is a full service professional business that can help you complete your quilt at most any stage. We also 'fix' quilts made by non-professionals. If you get started, and don't feel you are going to be able to complete your quilt. Take pictures of your quilt in process, email it to us, and we can let you know if we can help you get it finished.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Houston Quilt Market 2015 - Last Day

It's our last day of Quilt Market, and we struggled to squeeze in some last sights before heading out.  We would have stayed until Monday, but we have  to take a day or so to catch up and get ready for Quilt Festival!   We walked the whole show On Saturday, and had to come back this morning  to make sure we didn't miss anything and tried to visit all of our quilty friends.  Thank you for another amazing Quilt Market, Houston!

We checked several of the fabric vendors and have several new fabrics ordered for the new year, as well as re-stocking many of our old favorites. I think you will find that T-Shirt Quilts of Texas has the largest variety of fabrics to choose from, than any other professional  T-Shirt Quilt company in the country.

Paula Barnes, Betty and Mary Ellen
The first stop we made was at Red Crinoline Quilts, with our good friends from Houston Paula Barnes and Mary Ellen Robinson.  they have a new book just being released.

Overview of Market floor
We walked, shopped and checked out all the new fabrics.  Placed orders with several of the fabric vendors like Quilting Treasures, Moda, P&B Fabrics, Troy Fabrics, We walked, shopped and checked out all the new fabrics.  Placed orders with several of the fabric vendors like Quilting Treasures, Moda, P&B Fabrics, Troy Fabrics,customers.

Selecting fabrics with fabric vendor.
Oh, did I mention that there was a little bit of 'weather'?  Part of hurricane Patricia was blowing through.  Totally missed the storm, as we were shopping  at the GRB (George Brown Convention center) and hanging out at the Hilton.

PS- we have a Janome 350E embroidery machine for sale. One year old. Prefer that someone pick it up rather than shipping it.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Photos on Your T-Shirt Quilt

At T-Shirt Quilts of Texas, we have printed photos on fabric for over ten years.  Nothing new about that.  However, we have found that while we can print high resolution quality photos on fabric and set the ink per product instruction, we find that the resulting product quality is not to our satisfaction over a period of time.  We are creating quilts to last a lifetime, and find that the images on fabric 'might not' last as long.  Not good.
National Honor Society Logo 

While we would follow the manufacturer instructions for setting the ink, there were potential problems that we  could not control.  According to the instructions,  you 'should' be able to include the photo in your quilt and launder it with same results as a traditionally pieced quilt.  We had one gal that repeatedly printed the color pictures on her fancy laser printer at work.  Problem was that it HAS to be an inkjet printer and not a laser printer.  We couldn't convince her of that.   The photos she printed and sent in literally faded from the squares about two weeks after the quilt was quilted and completed.  Again, not good.

What we have found, is that most t-shirt quilt owners throw their quilt into the laundry using harsh soaps.  Not surprisingly, that even though we followed the manufacturer instructions, we found that the images are fading much faster than expected.  So, we changed how we do things.  We no longer print the photos on fabric, and have decided to let the experts take care of this aspect of the process.

T-Shirt Quilts of Texas Logo
What did we do?  We have partnered with VistaPrint to print high quality images directly on t-shirts. While Vista-Print only offers shirts in white, gray and black, you can be assured that the resulting product will hold up like the rest of the t-shirts in your quilt.   Of course, you can use any of the many online outlets that let you use your image to print on a t-shirt.  Different companies will offer different color t-shirts if that is what you would like. See the header on our homepage.  It was created at CustomInk so that we could get the orange t-shirt to match our logo.
Customer Image added to T-Shirt

Note-  If you have more than one image to print, just print it on the backside of the same shirt for a discounted rate. 

We are happy to provide this service for you.   We do have to charge for this service due to the time involved.. But, if you are feeling courageous, just click the VistaPrint link. You 'should' get a ten dollar credit towards your purchase.  If you are already a VistaPrint  customer, then go ahead and design your t-shirt online and have it shipped directly to us.  Or, order it ahead of time and include it with your shirts that you send to us.

Monday, October 12, 2015

Choosing Backing Fabric for a T-Shirt Quilt

The term tone on tone refers to a printed fabric that is made by combining different shades and tones of the same color.
Tone on tone fabrics often appear to be solid when viewed from a distance, but their printed motifs become recognizable on closer inspection.  Tone on tone fabrics  add subtle, visual texture to a quilt without the busyness of a multi-color print.
Personally, I rarely use a solid color fabric, because tone on tones serve the same purpose and do not appear as 'flat' as solids. Black is the exception, we do use a deep, dark saturated black as an accent border.

Friday, September 25, 2015

6 Tips For Selecting A T-Shirt Quilt Maker.

You do a search on Google to find someone to make a t-shirt quilt.  My goodness, there are so many websites, so many styles, so many prices.  How do you know who to select?  What questions should you ask?  How do you select a company to make YOUR custom t-shirt quilt from YOUR treasured t-shirts?

Thursday, September 24, 2015

T-Shirt Quilt Style - Order or Chaos?

There are two major styles of T-Shirt quilts.   What I refer to as  'Order' and 'Chaos'.  OK, that seems like an extreme comparison, but let's look at the difference between order and chaos as pertains to t-shirt quilts.

First of all, I grew up looking at quilts that two of my great-grandmothers and my grandmother made or were working on.  In high school, my favorite classes were  geometry, accounting, physics and silver-smithing   (I went to a great high-school- we also had  archery and canoeing as phys-ed options).   I was a computer programmer in the corporate world.   I like lists. I like to read Science Fiction.  OK, yeah, I am a geek. But, all of these studies involve science and ORDER.

How does that pertain to quilts you ask??

Traditional Style Quilt
T-Shirt quilts fall into these same categories.  A traditional quilt is generally created using uniform sized blocks that are laid out in columns and rows.  Traditional  t-shirt quilts will appeal to most people because their sub-conscious wants this order and the 'eye' wants to see things in an ordered way.
Random or Chaos Style Quilt
A random quilt can be done in many ways.  If you have ever looked at the random styled t-shirt quilts, you will either love 'em or hate 'em.  Couple of reasons for this.    It takes a lot of skill and creativity to lay out a random style t-shirt quilt in a pleasing manner.  Most people don't have that skill. There are a few t-shirt quilt providers out there that have formulas for creating these quilts, but, the problem is that the color  and value of the t-shirts is not taken into account.  Sometimes, the formula works, but more often than not, the resulting quilt just looks like chaos.

At T-Shirt Quilts of Texas we are known for our high quality 'TRADITIONAL" quilts and proud of it!  We have years and years experience looking at the shirts that you provide, and coming up with a pleasing and satisfying layout of the shirts.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Using a T-Shirt Quilt For Fundraisers

Great Auction Ideas

Many organizations use T-Shirt Quilts to help raise money. A great looking and well made T-Shirt quilt will typically draw in donors. There are two typical scenarios for raising money with a T-Shirt quilt: the auction or the raffle.

Auction

Whether your auction is 'silent' or 'live', it is not always the best way to raise the most money for a T-Shirt quilt. Typically, a T-Shirt quilt sold at auction does not bring in as much money as a quilt that was raffled. Also, consider that only ONE person is paying (donating) money in an auction. Although we have word that one quilt we made was raffled for a little over $31,000 for the Ronald McDonald House  a few years ago.   Many schools report that  they can count on at least $2500 for the quilts that they raffle.

Raffle / Tin-Can Raffle

Having participated in many fundraisers with our local quilt guilds over the last 20+ years, I have some experience with what results in a successful raffle of a quilt. Of course, check with your state or locals laws about 'raffles' or 'donations'. As I understand Texas law, we (a non-profit organization) can hold one fund-raiser each fiscal year. That being said, our local quilt guild sponsors a quilt show every other year, and part of the fund-raising efforts include a quilt raffle of a quilt, AND a Tin-Can Raffle. I'll go into both.

Quilt Raffle

You provide the t-shirts pertaining to your school or organization, and we give back a finished quilt for you to auction. This entails selling tickets over a period of time, then culminates in a drawing - usually at a gala or some other event.

Tin-Can Raffle
What our quilt guild finds as a very successful money raiser is the Tin-Can Raffle. The Tin Can Raffle consists of many baskets/packages that you can win with the purchase of raffle tickets. You drop your raffle tickets into your desired item's "tin can" and one winning ticket is randomly
pulled at the end of the night.

Consider the option of a gift certificate for a second 'tin-can' raffle.  Rather than a quilt that has generic t-shirts from the charity, the gift certificate allows the raffle winner to select their own t-shirts to include in the quilt.  We have had a number of raffle winners come and buy additional quilts.

Planning For Upcoming Event

Planning 

It will take more time to gather all the needed T-shirts and to have a T-shirt quilt made than you might expect. Give at least 4 weeks to collect the T-shirts and 6 weeks to have a quilt made. Don’t forget that you need to add in time to display the quilt before the event or gala.

Quilt Topic

A T-shirt quilt used in a fundraiser needs to appeal to those attending the fundraising event. A Mickey Mouse T-shirt quilt probably would not fetch as much money as the high school quilt using t-shirts from the school or charity doing the event.  Be sure to carefully consider your audience.

Type of Event

Since a T-shirt quilt sold at silent auctions generally doesn’t bring in as much money as a quilt that was raffled or at a live auction, you might limit quilts that are donated for auctions.   Of course a raffle is a little more work than an auction. If you  purchase a T-Shirt quilt for your event, then the only way to recoup the cost of the quilt is to sell a lot of raffle tickets, or have a good auctioneer!

Type or Style of T-Shirt Quilt

The style of T-shirt quilt will also determine the amount of money you can raise with it. A T-Shirt quilt from T-Shirt Quilts of Texas are proven winners.  The conservative style  appeals to almost everyone.    Random style quilts are confusing to most bidders and seem to be a jumbled mess.  Most bidders want to see something that pertains to 'their child'  for something safe to bid on.  One of our more popular events is an Auburn Alumni annual gala.  They usually select a 'throw' sized quilt, generic shirts (meaning not a particular focus), but represent the school with commonly seen t-shirts and Auburn orange and blue colors.

Are you contemplating a new way to raise funds for your organization? Consider using a T-Shirt Quilt as part of your plans. Shadywood Quilts does make a limited number of quilts each year at a discounted rate for non-profits.

How can we help you make money with a T-Shirt quilt? Give us a call; we would be happy to consult with you.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

What is Difference Between Quilt and a Blanket?

So, you want to have a T-Shirt Quilt made from your shirts.  How do you select from what seems like hundreds of tee-shirt or T-Shirt Quilt makers?

Rather than looking for a 'local' t-shirt quilt maker - lets figure out  whether you are getting a quilt or a blanket.

What is a T-Shirt QUILT?

First of all, you need to understand the difference between a QUILT and a BLANKET.    According to the dictionary: 

quilt
kwilt/ noun:quilt;   a warm bed covering made of padding enclosed between layers of fabric and kept in place by lines of stitching, typically applied in a decorative design.
blan·ket
ˈblaNGkət/ cover completely with a thick layer of something.
 
That is interesting - 'A layer of something' - that is what you need to be on the lookout for. Read the details on any website and if they bother to tell you what they put on the back, you'll see things like "a brand new sheet" or "fleece".  

Fleece is usually a keyword meaning - no batting. To cut costs, some non-professionals with use fleece ($3 bucks a yard at Joann's) instead of a layer of batting and layer of cotton backing fabric. Keep in mind that the top of your quilt is mostly cotton, and fleece is usually a polyester.

The 'new sheet'  should really raise a red flag.  Remember those cheap sheets you had when you were first on your own that made those little nubbies?   At least ask them what the thread count is for the sheets.   You can have a quilt with a sheet for the backing, it is just not recommended.  

Keep in mind that professional quilters will have a wholesale account with one or more fabric distributors, and shouldn't be depending on a 40% off coupon from Joann's.   They should provide quilt shop quality fabrics, batting and other supplies needed to complete your custom t-shirt quilt. 

At T-Shirt Quilts of Texas, we have over 500 bolts of fabrics to select the best color combinations for your special quilt.  We only use the highest quality materials to when making your quilt, and refuse to compromise on quality to save a few dollars.