T-shirt quilt
 

My granddaughter wants her t-shirts made into a quilt. She found a company on line that does them with a 2-week turnaround, a lot quicker than grandma. For 30 shirts, the cost is $270 with a fleece backing. Just wondering if anyone is familiar with this company - any pros or cons. I don't want to see my granddaughter loose her hard-earned money. The company is Project Repat T-Shirt Quilts. Anyone heard of it? Thanks for your input.

Reading the FAQ on the site, it says they "sew the shirts and finish the sides". None of the pictures show ANY quilting after they've been pieced. A big piece of fleece on the back with no quilting to attach it to the front? JMHO, but nope, I wouldn't do it. That'll fall apart or bunch up quickly. Just look at the pics on the FAQ page, and you'll see what I mean.

or maybe have the company do the quilt and then you tie for the quilting?

I can't open the website right now, so no input there, but how old is she? Would she be willing to spend a day (or a weekend) with Gramma and help make the quilt? If you could get her cutting the shirts, adding the stabilizer, and maybe doing the piecing, it could speed the process. And, if she just wants it quilted to some fleece, no batting, that can be a pretty quick process.

Bonus, it would give allow some quality gramma/grand-daughter time and she'd start to get familiar with a new skill, which could be a big confidence boost if she decides to tackle more sewing/quilting crafts in the future.

After looking at that quilt website, and reading your responses, I approached my granddaughter about me making the quilt for her, since the company she was going to send it to wasn't going to quilt it, bind it, etc. She was more than happy to have Grandma do it. I've made a couple of quilts for her before, but never made a t-shirt quilt before, but think I can get through it. I'm wondering if batting should be added, or use fleece for backing, I'll let her decide. I made her a quilt for Christmas that she's taking to college for her bed. She'd like the t-shirt quilt as an extra wrap-up quilt. She goes off to college in August, so I have until then to get it made, and she can save her $$.

I've made a number of t-shirt quilts--choice of batting is strictly personal. If she is going to a "cold weather" college, then I'd probably put in bat. since they are usually pretty heavy when all put together, leaving out the bat and quilting to fleece is a good option, or you might want to use flannel between the fleece and t-shirts/stablizer. I will say that I would never (again--have done it and what a nightmare!) not use stablizer--use a very light weight, non-stretchy one and make sure that if you have t-shirts that have poly/cotton blend , that the stablizer will work--some won't because of the iron setting. Don't iron on the logos--some will melt.

I've made a t-shirt quilt with each of my 4 grand-daughters. Working along with them gave them an added appreciation of the finished product and I really enjoyed the one on one time with them.