If you have made a t-shirt quilt...

sctiger

I have made several quilts before, just never a t-shirt quilt.  I am almost finished sewing the top, but am stumped when it comes to the actual quilting part.  I haven't branched out in quilting techniques and stick to the grid pattern (which I don't think will look good on this type of quilt) or stitch in the ditch (which is fine, except I have big blocks and will need to quilt in more than just the ditch).  If you have made a t-shirt quilt before, how did you approach the actual quilting part? TIA!

 

Lucky7707

MIL made me a tshirt quilt with 2 inch sashing btwn the shirt squares - she outlined the sashing and then quilted a X across each block with matching thread. I hope that kind of made sense.. I don't have any pics of it. I think it looks good. 

WishesSheCouldCook

My mom made my sister one then sent it off to be topstitched (or quilted...showing my ignorance here).

they did a meandering stitch on hers and it looks great 

maryandkirk0909

I only stitch in the ditch on my tshirt quilts.  I prefer the integrity of the shirt to be intact.  (and this is coming from the queen of free motion stippling who normally wants as much texture in her quilts as possible)

gatorchristie

I did stitch in the ditch on the one I made. It was so big and heavy I couldn't imagine doing any more than that.  The blocks were big, and I know I was breaking the rules about how far apart the quilting should be but I haven't had any problems with it.  I made the quilt about 5 years ago and it still looks fine.

nanann

I had my mom do a pantograph on a longarm machine, as you can see here:

 

Obviously that is fancier than what you'd do on a home machine, but I think just a good meander would be fine.  I will respectfully disagree with pp re: doing just a stitch-in-the-ditch -- I would be concerned about the quilting being too far apart.

Here's the big picture of mine -- the t-shirts are 15" squares and I don't think the pattern's too distracting -- just a nice texture:

 

Since you haven't done a meander before, practice with paper & pen.  You can then learn how to go from space to space and you will be able to transfer easily then to doing it with the machine.

Justinlove

I made one back in 1997 and just did stitch in the ditch.  It has literally been washed hundreds of times and is in great shape (other than a few "beverage" stains from some picnics).  We abuse the heck out of it and it has held up very well!

Not a great photo, but the only one I have on the computer.

sctiger

Thanks ladies!  I am still not 100% sure what I will do, but you have given me some good ideas!  I have it sandwiched together and plan to do the quilting part tomorrow.