senior – Quest Quilts

Three Quilts for Three Brothers

Recently I received a picture of a senior with his quilt that I’d made. This one was particularly special because it was the third one I’d made, and it was the final one as this was the youngest of three brothers to graduate.

I made the middle brother’s quilt first. This is a nice change of pace for all you middle siblings out there, I’m sure! After that I went back and made the oldest one’s quilt, followed most recently by the youngest.

I enjoyed making these and loved that they all used the same fabrics along with the same “G” on the back. This is the only client I’ve done a G on the back for, and all three quilts have it.

I also had no idea it was possible to be in as many leadership and community service clubs as these brothers were in! I’m not sure how the school will fair next year since their presence will have moved on to greater sites.

*Somehow I managed to not get any pictures, or save them, of the oldest brother’s quilt. Oh well, I can assure you it looks quiet identical to the youngest brother’s.

I used gold crepe back satin to make the G and at the intersections on the front.

It won’t stop raining here, so I had to get creative with my picture-taking.

This signature shirt required a bit of “Frankenstein”ing to make everything fit, but I managed.

Finished 2 — The first quilt I made for the middle brother. I had some fun in the school library with an impromptu photo shoot.

Productive day!

Well today was quiet and more productive than I’ve been in a while. I finished two tops and added a border to one that I wasn’t quite happy with. I also prepped backing for all three of these quilts as well. My goal is to pin all three tonight and begin quilting them tomorrow.

Senior Band Quilt

This quilt was gifted, so I can share!

This quilt is a great example of why I tell folks not to worry about not having enough t-shirts for a certain size quilt. I can always add in more blocks. For example, this person had 8 shirts but wanted a twin-sized quilt for her daughter. So I simply went in and added quartered blocks alternating with the shirts. I like the overall look.

I was still waiting for the embroidered patches to get back to me. Hence the hole in the middle.

Also, I had a couple of clients want to know about embroidery. That is one service I do not offer as of yet. Sometimes I think about getting a fancy embroidery machine, but then I remember that I am limited on space and funds and time. I don’t know if I would even have the time to fully learn it. I still have a serger that I am too scared to touch.

One thing about this quilt that I especially love is the backing. It is made from a fabric called “shirting flannel”. So it’s extra soft. Basically, it’s pajama pants material. Can you imagine?! A quilt with pajama pants material on the back?! I keep looking for more ways to incorporate this kind of material into my quilts as it’s just so darned comfy!

Senior Softball Quilt

This is another senior quilt I made. It was from her softball jerseys and shirts; she had been playing softball most of her life. I met with her mother, and one of the first things she told me was that her daughter was a “girly girl.” We used this info to look for the backing. We wandered over to the pink fabric section and saw some lined rainbow fabric. It looked alright, but there was something about it that didn’t quite fit. It was right about then I pulled at another bolt and noticed that it was rainbow as well – a mottled one that moved in a gradient. As soon as I pulled it out, the mother and I knew we had struck gold.

It remains to this day one of my favorite backings! And I don’t think I’ve seen that fabric since. Pity. I would buy the dang bolt if I could.

As I was working on it, I had an idea and asked the mother to send me the earliest picture they had of the daughter playing softball. She sent me a precious picture, and I laughed when I saw it because the daughter still made that face.

Softball kid picture — This was a picture of her early years in softball.

The last step was to make her name. I made each letter match one of the jerseys on that same row. I specifically went out and bought zebra print fabric for the “I”. I haven’t used the rest of it and still have it floating around my sewing room.

Senior Quilt

This quilt is a great example of what a quintessential senior quilt looks like. In this case there are student council shirts, football jerseys, baseball uniforms, and goofy teacher shirts. The sashing has gold crepe back satin because I really wanted the luster that came with actual gold colors.

I sent her the update pictures as I went.

This mom also asked for a large gold G to be on the back as a nod at the high school logo.

I liked this one so much I had a small photo session in our school library.

Cheerleader T-Shirt Quilt

This won’t be the last t-shirt quilt you all see. They are sort of my bread and butter. I do more t-shirt quilt commissions than I do anything else, and they help out with a lot around here. Graduation season is picking up, and I’m starting to see inquiries and am getting orders. I’ve completed two already and am meeting someone for a 3rd.

In honor of graduation season coming upon us (a time that is often busier than Christmas for me), I’m doing a post on one of the senior quilts I made last year. This one was interesting because the school colors were black and silver. You would think this makes for a boring or “ugly” combination. But I realized as we looked through the fabric that it was also a combination that was hard to get wrong. In fact, it made for a nice contrast to the shirts!

So I’ll show you guys a bit of my process. For starters, I make a draft. This was for a basic layout – no sashing or borders. The name was about the only frill. I’ve gotten rather good at drafting layouts far more complicated on Microsoft Word.

I use fusible interfacing to make sure that jersey knit stays put. It’s stretchy and likes to bunch up without a stabilizer. The shirts themselves were quick since I wasn’t doing a border. There was one spot open, and I made a quick 9-patch to match the backing. This is a great example of why I tell folks not to stress about how many shirts I’ll need. I usually tell them to send me what they want included, and I’ll try to figure out a way to make them all fit.

This one was made of the senior’s cheerleading shirts. There were plenty to be had and a generous amount of glitter! I liked the traces of pink in the shirts; they “popped” once they were placed beside the black and silver school colors.

For the backing, my client chose an “oil slick” design that was a nice and playful balance for the black and silver school colors. I used the same fabric in the front 9-patch as well as the letters of the name.

This particular quilt was pretty fun to make!

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