Space T-Shirt Quilt

 Happy New Year!

I hope that you had a peaceful evening and I wish you a joyous new year full of more of what lights you up and brings you ease.

I thought that I would start the year off by sharing my last finish of 2023.  This is a space themed T-Shirt quilt, for my youngest son, as a Christmas gift.  Last year I finished the one for my oldest for Christmas so this year was his turn. (I just realized that I never did share this quilt from last year so I'll do that in another post!!).

We gathered these for a few years as only a couple of these shirts were his and in good enough condition to add into a quilt!  In gathering these shirts I realized that kids tend to hold onto their space shirts!  After I was done sorting the ones that he wanted to add into the quilt, he didn't want any of the skateboarding space t-shirts in the quilt, snuck in but it isn't very overtly skateboarder, I put the remaining shirts on a local Buy Nothing group, and they were snapped up in seconds - which made me happy.

I got this quilt together pretty quickly.  I find T-Shirt quilts fun now that I have my preferred technique down.  In a nutshell - vertical rows, instead of horizontal, separated into widths that work in that vertical row.  I always leave length on the bottom of the shirts so that I can square up the bottom later.  I choose to do this as stress-free and easy as I can and it works for me mentally and physically.

I choose to not do abundant math before I start to cut.  Yes, you absolutely can do abundant math and figure out a detailed puzzle quilt and they are beautiful, and I've done them, this is just what I prefer now ;-)

I quilted this in 40wt Glide Navy thread in an all-over waves, super-nova stars and big pebbles and I love how, to me, it evokes a sort of Milky Way feel.  I use a Spoon Foot on my long arm to glide over those bulky seams and I always press my t-shirt quilt seams open if I can.

Check out that texture on the back!  I do love an all-over pattern for t-shirt quilts rather than custom - again just my preference.  I actually used this wide-back fabric on the borders and for the binding.  I always prewash my fabric; so, this fabric was pre-shrunk, and I always tear my wide-backs so they come out nice and square and easy to load onto the frame.

In the borders I did use a specialty ruler to do half moons in the first border and then a simple piano key in the outer border.  This is an old Gadget Girls ruler that I got on clearance and I really loved using it.  It won't be the last time.

Next I'll share my oldest's T-Shirt quilt that I did last Christmas.  

So, my friend, what do you think??