Finally—a quilting project your special guy will love! Coordinate a favorite t-shirt with coordinating hand-dyed fabric for an excellent gift item, even for those “hard-to-quilt-for" guys! A wide variety of colors and themes such as college, sports, music, animals, etc. make this a great addition to your favorite guy's (or gal's!) office, game room, or dorm room.
Finished size: 27" x 29" Quilt
Skill: 2 Time: 2 Cost: 2
You will need:
• Wolf motif t-shirt*
• 1 fat quarter set of Cherry Mocha hand dyed fabrics *
• Two 30" x 32" pieces of batting*
• One yd. brown flannel*, cut to 36" x 38"
• One 13 1/2" x 15 1/2" piece of woven, iron-on interfacing
• Neutral colored thread for piecing*
• Brown thread* (for bobbin)
• Multi-color thread* (for quilting)
• Rotary cutter*
• Cutting mats*: 18" x 24", 24" x 36"
• 6" x 24" ruler*
• 6" metal sewing gauge with movable slider
• Sewing machine
• Optional: transparent fluorescent tape* for highlighting lines on rulers, walking foot or even feed function
• Chalk marker*, iron & board, small pieces of scrap paper or sticky notes
*The following products were used for this project: Cherrywood Fabrics hand-dyed fat quarter set • Clover Pen-style Chaco Liner • Dritz sewing gauge by Prym Consumer USA • Fairfield Processing Corp. Nature-Fil Bamboo Batting & QuiltCare liquid wash • Olfa rotary cutter, mats, Omnigrid ruler, Glow-Line tape • RJR handspray flannel • Sulky Blendables multicolored thread in color #4117 Fall Holidays • The Mountain Sunlit Wolf T-shirt.
Note: For product information, see end of article. For additional savings at The Mountain website, mention HomeArts in the comment box when making your PayPal payment.
• For best results read through all instructions in this section before beginning.
• Prewash t-shirt and backing flannel.
• All seam allowances are 1/4" unless otherwise noted.
• If available, use a walking foot with a 1/4" marking or a 1/4" quilting foot with even feed mechanism engaged. Either saves time, prevents fabric slippage, and minimizes unwanted tucks. Note: Most hand-dyed fabrics have no visible “right" or “wrong" side.
• Experiment with machine quilting techniques if you want. Construction seams are also quilting stitches, and stabilize the quilt sandwich without the need for many pins.
STEP 1: Prepare center motif. Measure a 12" x 14" rectangle on t-shirt, centering wolf motif inside. Mark with chalk. Add a 1" border to create a 14" x 16" rectangle. Cut along these lines. Note: To make rotary cutting easier, slip an 18" x 24" mat or 17" square rotary mat inside shirt.
Cut a piece of iron-on woven interfacing to 13 1/2" x 15 1/2". Follow manufacturer's directions to adhere interfacing to wrong side of wolf motif rectangle. Use rotary cutter to trim to 12 1/2" x 14 1/2". This seals raw edge.
STEP 2: Cut fabric. Label eight hand-dyed gradation fabrics with numbers from 1 (darkest) through 8 (lightest). Cut the following at least 22" long:
Fabric #1 (maroon): 4 strips 1 1/8" wide (outer borders)
Fabric #2 (dark maroon): 2 strips 9" wide
Fabric #3 (darker reddish brown): 2 strips 1 1/4" wide
Fabric #4 (reddish brown): 2 strips 1-3/8" wide
Fabric #5 (dark brown): 2 strips 1 1/2" wide
Fabric #6 (medium brown): 2 strips 1 5/8" wide
Fabric #7 (golden ochre): 1 strip 1 7/8" wide (center of pieced strip)
Fabric #8 (tan): 4 strips 1 1/2" wide (inner borders)
STEP 3: Make stripped outer border units. Sew strips together in pairs, in order shown, pressing as you go. To press seams crisply and accurately, first press stripped unit in closed position to “set” seam. Let cool. Then press unit open with seam allowance toward darker colored fabric. Cross-cut four strips of strata 5" wide, lining up ruler so it is perpendicular to stitched seams of strata unit (Step 1).
STEP 4: Align quilt pieces. Place flannel backing right side down on flat surface. Smooth any wrinkles. Place batting pieces on top, centered approximately on backing. Note: Additional batting adds extra body to wall hanging. Mark center of batting/backing unit by measuring flannel backing diagonally from corner to corner. Center of unit is where lines of “X" intersect on batting unit. Note: For this application, measurement only needs to be accurate to within about 1".
Find center of wolf motif unit in same way, and mark with chalk or pin. Line up center of motif unit with marked center of batting/backing unit. To center as accurately as possible, measure from edges to top, bottom and sides. Pin motif unit securely through batting/backing unit. Pin outer corners of batting/batting unit so they don’t shift.
STEP 5: Add border strips. Stitch two light tan inner border strips to sides of motif unit using bobbin thread to match backing flannel and stitching through both batting and backing. Backstitch at beginning and end of each seam. Trim excess length from strips after stitching. Add light tan border strips to top and bottom, log cabin style, and trim. To avoid unwanted tucks on back of quilt, stretch slightly while stitching. Repeat to add four dark maroon border strips, adding side strips first (Step 2).
Measure and mark centers of each side of wolf motif unit in chalk. Line up centers of two of stripped outer border units with marked centers on both sides of wolf motif unit. Stitch log cabin style, in same way as tan border strips.
STEP 6: Quilt. Pin through batting/backing unit with straight pins or quilter’s safety pins to stabilize all raw edges. Mark a chalk guideline about 1/4" in from seams on the four tan rectangles or use the presser foot as a guide to shadow quilt the rectangles. At corners, mark a chalk line 1" from darkest plum seam line.
Use variegated or contrasting top thread and bobbin thread to match backing. Adjust stitch length to a slightly longer stitch. Stitch along chalk lines. Shadow stitch an additional line about 5/8" away from corner lines, either by using presser foot as a guide or by marking an additional chalk line. Add more quilting as desired.
STEP 7: Prepare self-binding. Flannel backing wraps around to front of quilt to become self-binding. Use rotary cutter to trim backing and batting 3 1/2" from raw edges of borders on top and bottom of quilt. Repeat on two sides. Don't worry if portions of batting are not a full 3 1/2" wide. Option: To insure accuracy, mark 3 1/2" line on ruler with Glow-Line tape or sticky notes. If you like, use a fine-point marker to draw arrows directly on tape pointing to appropriate ruler line.
Fold down flap of flannel backing with right sides together along top of quilt. Note: Be sure flannel backing is pinned back to keep out of way during trimming. Trim batting a scant
1 1/4" wide, measuring from raw edges of borders (Step 3). Flip backing flap back up.
Repeat trimming process with bottom and sides. After trimming, batting will be shorter than flannel backing.
STEP 8: Sew self-binding. Fold over raw edges of long sides of backing a generous 1/2" to 5/8" with wrong sides together. Press.
Fold flannel over batting, covering a generous 1/4" to 3/8" of raw edges on both long sides. Pin in place (Step 4). Note: To make sure self-binding width is consistent, use sewing gauge to measure.
Edgestitch self-binding with top thread to match. Note: Edgestitching is topstitching that is stitched within 1/16" of edge of fabric. Backstitch at beginning and end of stitching line. After stitching, check stitched areas closely to make sure all raw edges of borders underneath were caught in stitches. If you missed a spot, remove stitching on only 2" to 3" on either side of area. Then re-pin, being sure to overlap raw edges sufficiently, and re-sew.
Repeat Step 8 on top and bottom of quilt. This forms a self rod-pocket for hanging quilt.
Sources:
Cherrywood Fabrics
www.cherrywoodfabrics.com
Clover Needlecraft, Inc.
www.clover-usa.com
Fairfield Processing Corp.
www.poly-fil.com
Olfa
www.olfa.com
Prym Consumer USA
www.prym-consumer-usa.com
Sulky of America
www.sulky.com
The Mountain
www.fantastic-tshirts.com
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