I was trusted to make a quilt out of a friends t-shirts and it was my most nerve wracking project i’ve probably ever worked on. It took me likely close to 6 months (if i’m being honest with myself it was probably over 6 months) to finish it because I was so nervous that I’d screw it up.
Working with t-shirt is totally different than regular quilting cotton. It’s stretchy, it’s thin, it’s less structured. It doesn’t glide under my 10+ year old Brother presser foot the way the fabric i’m used to working with does. After staring at the half done quilt for months I had to whip my ass into gear and get it done.
Saying I had to grind was an understatement. But once I got going and I saw it come to life, I couldn’t stop. Then i fucked up. I didn’t think about the way the fabric was stretching and I quilted it from both ends into the middle, like I had with a previous project. I was left with a row of bunched up fabric that didn’t get stretched. I frantically paced around my apartment trying to come up with some way I could fix it. I had a mental breakdown. Then it just hit me. Sam, you’re a human being who is learning how to do something and you made a mistake. This is your first time doing a quilt like this, perfection can not be expected. So I turned up the music in my headphones, pushed the bunched up fabric down, and quilted over it.
Do I wish it was perfect? Honestly yeah, I do. It still hurts me that it’s not. But at the end of the day, I turned someones previously loved t-shirts that were just sitting in a box getting no use, into something that can be used and turned into a family heirloom. And that’s enough for me.
