So I've been trying to make this t-shirt quilt out of my old high school and college shirts for some time now. My friend had initially helped me start it by cutting up my shirts and making squares... then life got in the way and my project got delegated to the bottom of my closet.
After a couple of tries with other places in the area, I got on the radar of Deborah Young. She does marketing and sales for Quilt Patch Fabrics. She had helped my mom make a couple of t-shirt quilts out of my dad's old shirts after he passed away so I wanted to see if she could help me out. Only doing a couple of quilts at a time, she had a long wait list, but after a couple of months, she got back to me.
I met with her at the Quilt Patch Fabrics and she was super professional and helpful. I always forget how many options you have when quilting so it can be a bit overwhelming, but I explained my original plan and vision and she helped me make some decisions.
I had arrived a little early for our meeting, so I got to look around the shop... you can buy fabric, accessories, books, measuring implements, and also take classes here. Everyone was super friendly and I even got to watch this gentlemen use the quilting machine (its super big) and it's the finishing swirls and patterns you see on the finished product. I think the machine is manually operated so I was really impressed by this guys steady hands.
After about an hour of meeting with Deborah.... (She's really thorough and I felt like I was in good hands... while we hammered out all the details). I was all set. Deborah also brought examples of her work. Pretty exciting to see how this quilt comes out. At least the squares and memories aren't sitting in a garbage bag in the back of my closet anymore.