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.