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Today is an exciting day here at my blog – we are featuring our first Guest Blogger!! We are welcoming Gina from Sleep Sweet.

Gina is a blogger and creator – her website shares blogs and also provides you with an option to buy her creations. She will also work with you to create custom pieces. Today’s post is about T-Shirt Quilts and managing time with a little one. I know I can relate to that 🙂

Happy reading!

A Day in the Life…T-Shirt Quilts

When precious nap time arrives for my little two and a half old, I steal away to my corner of the house, set aside the daily grind, and work on my current project. Lately, it’s been all about the T-shirt quilt.

The first inquiry for a T-shirt quilt came at my very first Fair; a woman wanted two made as graduation presents for her son and his long time girlfriend. I’ll be honest – quilting was still pretty new to me at that point, and I didn’t know the slightest thing about T-shirt quilts. There’s no way I was going to turn down the opportunity to gain a new skill, though! Learning the technique was fun, and I chose a method that’s more modern and interesting than the standard T-shirt block quilt that is seen so often. If you find yourself up to the challenge, I recommend taking the class “The Ultimate T-Shirt Quilt” by Winnie Flemming on Craftsy. That sight is a maker’s best friend, y’all.

Managing my time on large projects with a deadline is the biggest challenge. My son had tons of fun with Play-Doh, Thomas the Train, and Toy Story on days when just working during nap time wasn’t feasible. I definitely failed to realize how much time is realistically needed to complete one quilt while balancing life as a stay at home mom. Luckily for me, I haven’t missed a deadline yet and most of my clients are fellow mamas and extremely understanding.

The quilts were finished in time and my client loved them. She told me they were so much more unique and interesting than a quilt made for another child several years earlier. This is the review she left on Etsy:

Gina created a custom quilt to commemorate our son’s high school years using various t-shirts and patches from his extra curricular activities we collected. Her layout and design were well thought out and the execution was magnificent. Our son was as thrilled and impressed as we were with her work when he received it on graduation day. We can not state more strongly how much we all love Gina’s quilt!

I fell in love with making T-shirt quilts in that moment. Taking a stack of old shirts and creating a tangible, long-lasting memory for a recipient to enjoy for years is extremely gratifying. I’ve since made another T-Shirt quilt for the annual SciPy Convention and am currently working on two quilts for twin boys. I can’t wait to show you how they turn out!

You can see pictures of all of my quilts in the Gallery.