MVP Bonus: Using T-shirts
While it takes a few more steps, MVP is a great quilt to feature some old T-shirts (especially from youth sports).
A stabilizer is needed to keep the fabric from moving around while Foundation Piecing. Pellon 950F is recommended.
This works best with embroidered shirts. Always check the shirt care instructions for whether or not it can be ironed. Some graphics will melt off when ironed which makes them unsuitable for quilting projects.
To use in the Pennant block, the T-shirt piece is 5.5” x 7”. Do consider that the Pennant block does taper to a very small point so centering a graphic is recommended.
To use in the Trophy block, the T-shirt piece is 8.5” x 12.5”. This works best with skinny and tall graphics.
For the shirt in the picture, the graphic is too large for the Trophy.
Cut the front of the T-shirt off and follow the stabilizer instructions to stabilize the back of the shirt. Make sure the 950F is fused well to the shirt.
Since the shirt is hard to see through for fabric placement, we’ll take a couple extra steps to make sure the graphic isn’t cut off.
Place the Foundation Pennant piece on the back of the shirt and apply two pins (one near the right seam and another near the left seam. Fold the paper down on the top seam line and place two clips. Then fold (as best you can) the bottom part of the shirt up. This doesn’t need to be perfect. We are simply looking to make sure that the graphic is contained within the entire FPP shape.
The top fold can be a bit difficult to see in the photo so it’s been marked with a dashed line.
Once the piece is centered well, remove the clips (but leave the pins in!) and FPP like normal.
And a finished Pennant block! Everything but the center is quilting cotton. The block can be easily mixed with others featuring T-shirt centers or ones that are fully quilting cotton.
The Trophy block is simpler to add T-shirt fabric. The Main Cup rectangle is cut and pieced traditionally into the block, therefore after stabilizing the shirt all you need to do is cut it to size!