I have seen many black, white and red quilts that have really caught my eye and then one day I got the brilliant idea to convert my old t-shirts, which were primarily all black, white and red, into one of these quilts. Then going through the Collaborative Quiltmaking books I figured the parts department was the best way to construct blocks around these shirts, and I got 2 of these made about..oh... 6 months ago and then nothing...in the mean time I started collecting black, white and red fabrics and throwing them in a bag with the t-shirts.
Then while thinking about getting ready for BIQR, I resurrected the idea and decided to bring them with me to the retreat to work on.
wow. I think I went a little crazy with that block and I didn't know what to do after that. So Christine and I went shopping. :) I found this really nice black and white floral Bethany Reynolds Stack-n-whack fabric. I added it to my Love Fights t-shirt block,
and my Ruby Gloom t-shirt block,
and my Trailer Park Boys t-shirt block.
Then while thinking about getting ready for BIQR, I resurrected the idea and decided to bring them with me to the retreat to work on.
At the retreat many of us talked about the influence of African-american quilts and the quilts of Gee's Bend on liberated quiltmaking. This reminded me that I neatly cut all my shirts into perfect squares and maybe I needed to shake this up with a reminder that these were once t-shirts. So I decided to leave the neckline in my Wonder Woman shirt. I also recreated a 'w' using the zig-zag border technique (that's one of my favourite borders!). I also introduced a new colour: yellow....
wow. I think I went a little crazy with that block and I didn't know what to do after that. So Christine and I went shopping. :) I found this really nice black and white floral Bethany Reynolds Stack-n-whack fabric. I added it to my Love Fights t-shirt block,
and my Ruby Gloom t-shirt block,
and my Trailer Park Boys t-shirt block.I added some sawtooth to my Supergirl t-shirt block,
and went a little 'broken dishes' with my Emily the Strange: Split Purrsonality t-shirt.
but still, 9 blocks makes a square lap quilt...maybe I should put a red inner border and more black on the outside? but it still will be square. I had to sleep on it. Each night at the retreat before I went to sleep I would flip through one of Gwen's books, absorbing the ideas.
And there it was on 158 page in the original Liberated Quiltmaking book, Red Square! Red squares all floating on a white background, but mine will be a black background and I will just have a row at the top and one at the bottom! 
For an added touch, I particularly liked my Emily t-shirts because they even had nice tags, I saved those and added them to the quilt top.
The one below says, "Join the Posse: Emilystrange.com"
and went a little 'broken dishes' with my Emily the Strange: Split Purrsonality t-shirt.
In total, I ended up with 9 blocks. I put the Wonder Woman in the middle. I needed to go shopping again! I need some black!
but still, 9 blocks makes a square lap quilt...maybe I should put a red inner border and more black on the outside? but it still will be square. I had to sleep on it. Each night at the retreat before I went to sleep I would flip through one of Gwen's books, absorbing the ideas.And there it was on 158 page in the original Liberated Quiltmaking book, Red Square! Red squares all floating on a white background, but mine will be a black background and I will just have a row at the top and one at the bottom! For an added touch, I particularly liked my Emily t-shirts because they even had nice tags, I saved those and added them to the quilt top.The one below says, "Join the Posse: Emilystrange.com"The sides of the shirts always had these cat eyes tags, which I really liked.
Ah. Now it is done. All I have to do is quilt as desired :P
10 comments:
As I told you in Elk Rapids, yours is the best t-shirt quilt I've ever seen!!! The shirts themselves are fun enough, and your layout makes them even greater! Can't wait to see the finished product!
Wow, Carol...I'm not usually a fan of Tshirt quilts, but this one is awesome!! Loved reading your story on how it evolved! The little red squares in the black border to tres cool!
awesome quilt! great t-shirts!
I enjoyed watching the development of your quilt top while on retreat. Thanks for blogging about it and how you moved from one decision to another.
Certainly a GOOD thing to get a quilt top finished during the time away.
I too love black, red and white!
I love your T-shirt quilt, especially how you incorporated the tags. I think it adds a little suprise when you look at it.
FANTASTIC!!!! I especially like the way you just kept working and adding as the quilt spoke to you. Can't wait to see this one quilted.
Absolutely LOVE that you used the tags (I have a jar I save labels in for just this sort of thing one day)
Like those eyes staring out!
Thank you so much for this post. I have a t-shirt quilt in mind for my husband and your post has my creative brain spinning. I will begin thinking about how to make this quilt "differently" because I really want him to like it and he is "different."
This is very creative, and wonderful how you put it together. I've seen Tshirt quilts, but they were very boring. This one is superb.
This is a wonderful quilt and I love reading how yo uplanned it.
Would you believe that Gwen's red and white quilt is one of my all time favourites.
Man, oh man, what a fabulous quilt. It is truly one of a kind, from your quirky T shirts to your liberated design.
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