The T-shirts in this huge quilt are mostly from my travels, although a few were donated by close friends. There were so many different shapes, sizes and colours in the t-shirts that I thought one colour sashing would be overwhelming.
For this reason I sashed each logo in different fabrics and different sizes to make all the pieces fit, which is why I call this "jigsaw style", The quilt hangs floor to ceiling and wall to wall in my rather long and narrow entrance hall, hiding shelves, a storeroom doorway and the ugly hall closet. It is hung on a large brass rod so that I can move it aside to reach inside the closet.
It is a great conversation piece and brings back wonderful memories for me every time I enter my home. I think that if ever I was ill I would want this quilt on my bed to cheer me and to remind me of all those happy trips.
I call this "jigsaw"

I've recently completed an extraordinary quilt using a client's collection of Harley-Davidson T-shirts. I am often called upon to produce such "archival" quilts of T-shirt collections that preserve and enhance fond memories for marathon runners and other athletes, vehicle owners and others.

A wonderful sports enthusiast quilt is made entirely of his basketball t-shirts.
Many of these shirts were mesh fabric and had to be triple-stabilized with cotton backing.

This quilt top was made for a runner with a huge stash of t-shirts, every one of which just had to have a place in this king-size quilt. All the logos were cut with only 1" background which resulted in a lot of different sized blocks.
They were pulled together in cohesive design by using all the same fabric to surround the blocks. As some of the t-shirts were well worn, a soft denim blue fabric was used so that the borders blended in with the shirts.

This couch throw is made from new t-shirts with very bright colours so I used two strong colours for the sashing, which match the home decor. The owner did not have a huge collection of t-shirts so I cut wider borders and sashings to get to the required size. I also added photo-transfers (which are not shown to protect the privacy of the owner) as fill-ins.
I call this "contemporary style".
I could have cut wider bands at the top and bottom and made all of the squares the same size but I thought this gave more variety with the limited number of logos available.

Many of the quilts I make are the private emotional memories for my clients, but here are a few from clients who have given me permission to share their precious memory quilts.

Kids crayon pictures showing their ideas about "Peace" are an example of block style using different fabrics.
In this instance, the children were invited to bring fabrics from their homeland, which were used for the sashing. It hangs in the hallway at Floradale Public School in Mississauga.

The owner of this quilt was a concert volunteer and really treasured his t-shirts, many of which were personally signed by the artist

A retirement gift even included s photo transfer of an artists sketch. A favourite Tie and woven pass holders.

Future babies may never know their grandfather but a quilt made of his T-shirts will be a nice keepsake

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