Soccer/Wrestling T-Shirt Quilt

I just finished stitching the binding on this t-shirt quilt and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out! My aunt's friend gave me a bunch of her son's t-shirts and said she trusted me with the layout and the design. I had 16 shirts/squares that I could work with, but I really didn't want to do a big 4 x 4 square layout because I just imagined the (college) kid laying on the couch with his feet sticking out of the bottom. I also didn't love the idea of a 3 x 5 layout because I didn't want it to feel too long and skinny. In the end I decided that I needed the length, so I added some plus blocks on the sides as a border to make it more proportional. I used scraps from the shirts for the plus blocks and I got really lucky when I found a gray cotton chambray in the clothing fabrics section of JoAnn's for the keystones and the background of the plus blocks. It matched everything perfectly and really pulled it all together. I pre-washed all of the fabrics so nothing would shrink out of proportion when they washed it. 

I love the quilting pattern that I found. I tried really hard to make sure the quilt stayed masculine in every way, so I think the squares really accent the shirts nicely.

The plus blocks on the borders are made from leftover shirt scraps.

Again, I was trying to keep things masculine, so I had a really hard time finding a backing fabric that wasn't too girly. (I don't think I've ever made a quilt for a guy before!) Luckily I found a really cool sweatshirt fleece that was super soft and not too thick. My longarm quilter actually quilted it without batting and it's just as thick and warm as any other quilt I've made.

There was one more shirt that got relegated to the back when I decided to use only 15 shirts on the front. It blends in perfectly! 

After initially agonizing over this quilt and how to make it "special", I'm really happy with how it turned out. T-shirt quilts are surprisingly quick and easy, considering the blocks are huge (I think mine were 14" finished). I wouldn't mind making a few more in the near future! I hope this quilt gets used and loved and brings back lots of great memories. :)