Ed Whitlock's T-Shirt Quilt... the beginning
Running enthusiasts may recognize the name of the great Ed Whitlock, the masters' marathon World Record holder...
Well, this isn't THAT Ed Whitlock. But he might as well be! OUR Ed Whitlock holds many local race records for his age group, too.
I met Fast Eddie and his wife Martha through the First Quilters group. He was looking for someone to make him a quilt with the abundance of race shirts that he had accumulated over the years and reached out to our group organizer, who in turn asked in the group if anyone would be willing to do it for him. Of course, being a runner myself, I was immediately interested.
Ed isn't the most talkative guy. The first time I called him to chat about his project, he got about five minutes in and handed the phone to his wife. Martha is the opposite of Ed; she loves to talk. We discussed what he was looking for, (what they were doing that weekend, what they had for dinner...) and we agreed to meet up at their church after Sunday's service. I ended up bringing home two big shopping bags full of shirts and some pictures of how they all could go together.
Ed really wanted his "Fast Eddie" shirt in the center (it was a gift from a friend), surrounded by his four Twin Cities Marathon shirts. He also gave me enough Bellin 10K shirts to go around the entire perimeter. I decided to mix things up a little bit from how they originally suggested in order to distribute some of the colorful shirts more evenly, and I put the Bellin shirts around the outside in chronological order; from about 1980 to 2011. I also added colorful sashing to compliment the shirts and make it look more polished than just sewing a bunch of squares together like many of the online services do. I also made sure to incorporate blue, which is Ed's favorite color.
This 40th Anniversary Bellin 10K quilt on display at Bellin Hospital- which I'm pretty sure served as inspiration for this project since Martha keeps mentioning it- was a really good resource for helping me figure out the order, as a few of the older shirts aren't dated.
I had originally planned the quilt to use 12.5" squares from the shirts, which is a common size for t-shirt quilts, but some of the prints would have been trimmed off a little had I gone with that size. After conferring with Martha, I decided to do 14.5" squares instead, giving us a 114" square quilt with the sashing- larger than king size!
Fourteen-and-a-half inch square rulers are available online, but they cost upwards of $40. I decided to use the resources available to me and make my own! One of the many perks of working at a place with a print shop. :) This is just a piece of 3/8" polycarbonate printed with white ink. I designed the lines to be usable for many size squares, but after using it a bit, I wish I'd have done a grid on the whole thing to help with centering the prints before cutting.
I got to work cutting up the shirts and prepping them to be sewn into the quilt top. Since jersey knit fabric (what t-shirts are made of) is so stretchy, it's important to stabilize the blocks with interfacing before sewing them together. The jury is still out for me if it's better to iron the interfacing on before cutting, or to wait until they're cut and then press it on. So far, I'm on the side of ironing it on afterwards, just because I don't have that much extra interfacing to play with and I don't want to waste a lot of it.
So far I've accumulated 18 nice, flat squares of printed t-shirt. This one in particular stood out to be because of how well it matches the sashing fabric I ordered from fabric.com. Only 31 more to go!
I've also been collecting the little tiny "mini prints" from the opposite sides of the t-shirts. Hopefully I'll have enough to make a couple throw pillows or something to match Ed's new quilt.
I can't wait to see how it turns out!
Don't forget to subscribe to Whitniffic Whatnots for updates on new posts! I'm working on getting better about posting regularly- keep me accountable, friends! :)
Well, this isn't THAT Ed Whitlock. But he might as well be! OUR Ed Whitlock holds many local race records for his age group, too.
I met Fast Eddie and his wife Martha through the First Quilters group. He was looking for someone to make him a quilt with the abundance of race shirts that he had accumulated over the years and reached out to our group organizer, who in turn asked in the group if anyone would be willing to do it for him. Of course, being a runner myself, I was immediately interested.
Ed isn't the most talkative guy. The first time I called him to chat about his project, he got about five minutes in and handed the phone to his wife. Martha is the opposite of Ed; she loves to talk. We discussed what he was looking for, (what they were doing that weekend, what they had for dinner...) and we agreed to meet up at their church after Sunday's service. I ended up bringing home two big shopping bags full of shirts and some pictures of how they all could go together.
 |
| A good handful of these shirts are older than I am. (!) |
Ed really wanted his "Fast Eddie" shirt in the center (it was a gift from a friend), surrounded by his four Twin Cities Marathon shirts. He also gave me enough Bellin 10K shirts to go around the entire perimeter. I decided to mix things up a little bit from how they originally suggested in order to distribute some of the colorful shirts more evenly, and I put the Bellin shirts around the outside in chronological order; from about 1980 to 2011. I also added colorful sashing to compliment the shirts and make it look more polished than just sewing a bunch of squares together like many of the online services do. I also made sure to incorporate blue, which is Ed's favorite color.
 |
| A Photoshopped illustration of the quilt layout. |
This 40th Anniversary Bellin 10K quilt on display at Bellin Hospital- which I'm pretty sure served as inspiration for this project since Martha keeps mentioning it- was a really good resource for helping me figure out the order, as a few of the older shirts aren't dated.
I had originally planned the quilt to use 12.5" squares from the shirts, which is a common size for t-shirt quilts, but some of the prints would have been trimmed off a little had I gone with that size. After conferring with Martha, I decided to do 14.5" squares instead, giving us a 114" square quilt with the sashing- larger than king size!
Fourteen-and-a-half inch square rulers are available online, but they cost upwards of $40. I decided to use the resources available to me and make my own! One of the many perks of working at a place with a print shop. :) This is just a piece of 3/8" polycarbonate printed with white ink. I designed the lines to be usable for many size squares, but after using it a bit, I wish I'd have done a grid on the whole thing to help with centering the prints before cutting.
I got to work cutting up the shirts and prepping them to be sewn into the quilt top. Since jersey knit fabric (what t-shirts are made of) is so stretchy, it's important to stabilize the blocks with interfacing before sewing them together. The jury is still out for me if it's better to iron the interfacing on before cutting, or to wait until they're cut and then press it on. So far, I'm on the side of ironing it on afterwards, just because I don't have that much extra interfacing to play with and I don't want to waste a lot of it.
 |
| Use a pressing cloth to protect the screen print ink! |
So far I've accumulated 18 nice, flat squares of printed t-shirt. This one in particular stood out to be because of how well it matches the sashing fabric I ordered from fabric.com. Only 31 more to go!
I've also been collecting the little tiny "mini prints" from the opposite sides of the t-shirts. Hopefully I'll have enough to make a couple throw pillows or something to match Ed's new quilt.
I can't wait to see how it turns out!
Don't forget to subscribe to Whitniffic Whatnots for updates on new posts! I'm working on getting better about posting regularly- keep me accountable, friends! :)
What a great story. You were the right person for the Running Shirt Quilt Challenge! Your photos and project details are excellent. Looking forward to the next installment. Seeing and reading this, one of these days, I might be inspired to tackle a t-shirt quilt - on a little smaller scale . . .
ReplyDeleteThank you, Tina! I seriously debated taking this one on or not, but after meeting Ed and Martha I just couldn't say no! :) And for sure you should try it... I know I've got more on my own list now too.
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