A Finished T-shirt Quilt

 
I finished the Federal Express T-shirt quilt about a month ago.  It was fun seeing all the old shirts and events from our tenure back in the day.  Do you military types see the Bravo Zulu next to the plane and below the Stuff It T?  Lee received a Bravo Zulu award when he was Senior Manager of Engineering for the Western Region.  I found some images on the computer and had it printed on special fabric.  There are a lot of things on the quilt that long time FedEx employees should recognize.

 

The last thing I needed to do was the binding.  I like to cut off the edges of the quilt first, although not everyone does it this way. 

 

It is a good idea to have someone help you.

 

You didn't buy that, did you?  He is a pain in the neck and not only does he climb on any project and grab it with claws when I try to move him, but he SHEDS like crazy.  See all that hair?  NONE of it is attached.  Touch him and it comes off on your clothes.  Help.  As if.

 

Cut 3 inch strips of the binding fabric.  Then attach the strips into one long strip.

 

Fold and iron the strip in half and then sew the cut edge to the front of the quilt. 

 

Fold it over and hand stitch it in a blind hem stitch on the back of the quilt. 

 

This takes quite a bit of time, so you should turn on TV. 

 

Finding a Tom Selleck movie is great.  Now he IS a help.  More important, he didn't shed on the quilt!   Plus, he was filming Magnum when we lived in Hawaii and Lee was the Honolulu station manager for Federal Express.  They delivered a lot of packages to the Magnum folks.

 

I spent quite a bit of time with a sticky roller to remove MOST of the hair and then wrapped up the quilt for a gift.  I gave it to Lee yesterday.  It was our 35th anniversary. 

 

He will probably put it somewhere in the office where he has a lot of Federal Express memorabilia. 

 

Any FedEx employees are welcome to come check it out.

 

 
I may even give you a discount on a stay in the B&B.  Except those people that don't deserve it...and you know who you are!

A Quilt

I have been spending too much time doing nothing.  It seems I injured my sacroiliac joint and was having muscle spasms.  Muscle relaxants work for that, but then I get so relaxed I go read a book and get nothing accomplished.  One thing I can do is work on my quilt.  And obsess over it.

I discovered why people get simple, extra wide fabric for the back of a quilt.  I had thought of doing that and then found some really cool fabric online that was covered in airplanes.  That sounded perfect for my FedEx quilt.  Naturally it wasn't wide enough to cover the quilt, so I had to buy 3 yards so that I could cut it and piece it.  THAT'S where the problems came in.

 

Fabric isn't always printed in perfect alignment with the warp and woof of the threads.  And when I pieced the back of the quilt, I would have a hard time making sure all the lines of airplanes matched up.

 

My Fons and Porter quilting book had a suggestion that sounded good to me. 

 

I could put in a contrasting inset strip to make the back more interesting.  But I still wanted the lines to work.

 

The problem is made especially difficult when trying to make a quilt sandwich.  This is where you place the back of the quilt face down, add the batting for the middle and then lay the pieced front on top.  Next you baste or pin it all together and then stitch all over the top to make it one cohesive piece.

This meant I couldn't see how the little rows of airplanes would line up on the back.  I flipped the fabric up and down and back and forth to see how I was doing and finally I gave up.  My friend Jackie had told me days ago that no one was going to see the back anyway.  Good point.  But I still wanted it to be right even if I didn't see how I was going to do that.  And THIS is why I like to take a class for each quilt.  You have somebody standing right there to ask, in a whiny voice, " NOW what do I do?"

This was also the first time I had pin basted a quilt all by myself and not at the library.  The library has a bunch of tables you can place side by side to lay out the quilt at  a height that doesn't hurt to pin.  This meant I did all the work on the floor where there was some carpet to hold the fabric in place.  Not as good as taping it to the tables in the library.  And then I had to crawl around on the floor to place the pins in the smoothed out "sandwich".  I can't crawl on my knees so I sat and twisted sideways.  Oops.  That hurts.  So I lay down on my stomach.

 

At one point Lee came to see what I was doing.  He suggested I take a break.  I thought about it and then realized the cats and dog would love to play with my quilt. I kept going and told him, " You do realize that this is the only gift you are getting for Valentine's Day, right?"

 

I trimmed the whole thing to get it ready for the quilting.  I KNOW the back isn't even.  But you can't tell while riding past it on a fast horse, right?  And this is going to be hung on a wall, so no one will see the back anyway.  I could have use an old sheet.

 

At least that is what I keep telling myself when I am OBSESSING over getting it wrong.

More on the T-shirt

I cant stand for very long, so I am working on the T-shirt quilt.  At least, that is my current excuse for not vacuuming.

 

I sewed orange and purple borders on the T-shirt squares and the squares I made up from pictures off the internet.

 

Then I added a strip with purple and orange in the design between each strip. 

 

I used the same striped fabric to make a border.

 

Next I have some things to applique. 

 

I ordered some fabric for the back and when it gets here I can finish this project, she says, hopefully.

Back To The T-Shirt Quilt

I had to quit work on my Federal Express T-shirt quilt over the holidays.  No time, and really , no interest when I had a house fuLL of family.  Family gone, Christmas decorations put away, time to finish the quilt.

I did something to my back so I can't stand for any amount of time, but sitting seems to work, so I went back to the quilt.  I already cut up the T-shirts I had and affixed them to some fusible inner facing for stability.  T-shirts are stretchy things. 

 

There weren't enough T-shirts, so I downloaded some pictures of Federal Express planes off the internet.  Lee worked in both the San Diego office and the Los Angeles office and I found images of Federal Express planes flying in or out of those airports and downloaded the images on to fabric that you can run through a printer.

 

After 15 minutes, or in my case, a couple of weeks, you can peel off the plastic backing and soak the pictures in room temperature water. 

 

I set them on a towel to dry, ironed them on the wrong side and they are ready to add to the quilt.

 

Then Lee found ANOTHER T-shirt and an old ball cap with an embroidered Federal Express truck.  I put the T-shirt on the stabilizer and cut out the truck.

 

 One of the used T-shirts has a stain on it and I will put the embroidered truck over that.  After I cut out the back of the T-shirt I noticed that the front had a pocket with a FedEx logo over it.

 

I cut out the pocket with the logo and stabilized that.  I used an applique pressing sheet.  This keeps the glue from the fusible inner facing from getting on the iron.  It also keeps the paint from melting on the iron.  You have to wait for it to completely cool before you remove it from the project.  I tried to do it too soon and some of the paint wanted to peel up on the pressing sheet.  I placed it back down and pressed it a bit more, let it cool and them carefully peeled the sheet off the T-shirt. No paint.  Other than the stupid stuff I do, I must be a genius!

 

 

Lee rummaged around in the closet and found an old Fed Ex uniform shirt.  During peak season, i.e. Christmas, FedEx managers would frequently be found driving or helping in some way in the field.  He liked getting out in the trenches!  I took the sleeve with the logo and the pocket and I will find spots for them.

I laid the whole thing out on the dining table and moved things around to suit.  When I had it the way I wanted it I took each row up in a pile.

 

Next I will put purple and orange fabric ( FedEx colors) around the T-shirt squares and start to assemble this thing. 

T-Shirt Quilt

When I said I was only going to do one more project this year, I lied.  Well, I misspoke.  I meant it at the time, but facts have proven me wrong.

 

I cleaned up my closet and discovered a bunch of old Federal Express T-shirts that I had saved.  Some were from when we lived in Hawaii and the rest were from when we were in California.  Rather than tossing them, I thought I might try my hand at a T-shirt quilt.  This is when you cut out the printed part of a T-shirt and use it to make squares for a quilt.

 

I would never start a project without my able, slothful, assistant.  And who would want to work with fabric that wasn't covered in cat hair?  Well, I would, but I don't always have that option.  And Lee would never help me, so he is company, of a sort.

I even have one from when I worked in Burbank, before I met Lee.  I may leave that one out.  It was in the early days of Federal Express and the guys all got together and had some shirts made.  The planes flew in to the Memphis hub and then the packages were sorted and flown to their destination overnight.  Back then the service commitment was that the packages would be delivered by noon the next day and Federal Express was the only company that could  consistently do that.  We were proud of that and so the T-shirts were born and they said:  Federal Express - keeps it up all night and gets if off by noon.

Ah, youth.  They all thought it was funny.  Ok, I admit it, I thought it was funny, too.  I still have the shirt.  I probably won't put it in the quilt.  Most likely.

Most of the quilts have been worn and have various stains. I didn't have enough to discard those and I just decided that that will be part of the charm of this quilt.  Or I may applique something over he worst of the stains.  I'll decide that later.

 

I haven't made a quilt on my own, without a class to tell me what to do.  I went to the Fincastle library to find a book on T-shirt quilts.  They have an extensive collection of quilting books and I found one. 

 

Then I hit the Old Trinity Schoolhouse Quilt shop for advice and some supplies.  I bought some fusible interfacing to iron to the back of the T-shirt material to stabilize it.  Federal Express had Purple and Orange as their colors, so I got some of that.  Now that they are FedEx, there are variations on purple and orange for the different services.  The T-shirts I have are from the olden days, though.  Antique.  Last century.  Gosh, I'm old.

 

I cut out the fronts and ironed them to the stabilizer.  This took forever.  I had to force myself to make the first cut and after I was successful with a few of them, it became easier.  Then I cut them to sizes that will work in rows.  Some will be larger than others because I didn't want vast area of white T-shirts on my quilt. 



 

I don't  have an even number, so I think I will fill in with pictures I will attempt to download onto fabric I can run through the printer.  Also purchased at the quilt shop.

 

I am not going to stress about this project, because there is no deadline, so I will work on it when I feel like it.  And when I can decide what goes where.  I need a class!